UNICORN™
THE STARTUP CARD GAME

Build a $1B startup.
Betray your friends.

Hire a CTO. Launch a product. Try to survive the people at your table.

3–5 players~45 minutesFirst to $1B wins
Follow on Kickstarter See how it plays
Players holding UNICORN cards around a purple table during a real prototype playtest
Handmade cards. Very real competition.
Rockstar CTO card, worth $100MPoach card: take one card from a rival’s startupFriendship is a liability.
ONE TABLE.3–5 STARTUPS.ONE BILLION-DOLLAR WINNER.
A PERFECTLY GOOD COMPANY. A TERRIBLE FRIEND.

Your startup
is worth $900M.
Your friend just
stole your CTO.

You’re one move away from becoming a unicorn.
Unfortunately, everyone else knows it too.

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YOUR STARTUP$900MONE MOVE AWAY
vs.
YOUR FRIEND$650MNICE CTO.
Rockstar CTO, $100M valuationPoach takes the CTO from your startup

They play Poach. Do you have a defense?

One example turn. Two very different outcomes.
THE TABLE WILL TEACH YOU THE REST.

Build your company.
Interrupt everyone else.

A social strategy card game about startup ambition and badly timed betrayals.

DRAW 1 CARDPLAY UP TO 2 CARDSYOUR CHOICE BUILD OR ATTACKTHE GOAL FIRST TO $1B
BUILD.

Give them something to envy.

Hire talent. Launch products. Put your cards on the table and grow your valuation.

+$100M
STEAL.

Their CTO looks expensive.

Take an employee. Peek at a hand and steal the best card. Make someone miss a turn.

YOUR CARD. MY STARTUP.
FIGHT BACK.

Keep a defense up your sleeve.

Cancel a Poach. Call your lawyers. Hold the right card until someone makes their move.

NICE TRY.
A few things before you deal. Quick rules

Your company, your hand

Start at $50M with five hidden cards. Draw one each turn and keep at most seven in hand.

Two plays. Your choice.

Play a card for its effect or place it face-up for its printed valuation. Defenses react from your hand without using a play.

First to $1B

Add the values in your startup and subtract active penalties. Reach $1B at the end of your turn to win.

Current print rules Print the 64-card playtest deck
SMALL CARDS. BIG CONSEQUENCES.

There goes
your perfectly good plan.

A stolen employee. A leaked hand. A lawsuit at exactly the wrong time.
Pick a card. See what it does.

OUT OF OUR HEADS. ONTO THE TABLE.

Tested on
real friendships.

Hand-cut cards, crowded tables, and people finding out how competitive their friends really are. These are the prototype sessions shaping UNICORN.

Watch the trailer: the prototype, the players, and the people making it.
Friends gathered around the table playing the handmade UNICORN prototype
The first prototypes, out in the wild.
Players leaning into the table with handmade UNICORN cards during a prototype session
Everyone has a plan. Until someone plays a card.
EVERYONE CAN SEE WHO’S WINNING.

And who needs
to be stopped.

The closer you get to a billion, the more interested your friends become in your company.

$50MYOUR STARTUP$250M$500M$750M$900MWATCH YOUR BACK$1BUNICORN
Play online trial Earlier 98-card prototype, including alliances. The current print playtest has 64 cards.
Try more table moments
Yash smiling while cutting the first UNICORN cards by hand
Yash, on card-cutting duty.
Manav in the video of the founders making their first cards
Manav, before the first test.
MADE BY YASH & MANAV.

First, we needed
a pair of scissors.

Before UNICORN was a deck, it was paper, glue, and two founders making the cards themselves.

We took that handmade prototype to real tables. Players stole cards, argued over their next move, and showed us what needed to change.

We’re still testing. Now we’re working toward a polished first edition, with the same ambition: a game you want to play again with the people who just ruined your company.

See it at the table
THE FIRST EDITION IS NEXT.

Bring your friends.
Watch your back.

We’re turning the handmade prototype into a polished first edition. Follow UNICORN on Kickstarter to be there when it launches.

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