How it works

Founders volunteer their startups. The crowd decides what survives.

Playing in 3 steps

  1. 1Pick a startupEverything in the Arena was entered by its own founder. Nothing is listed without consent.
  2. 2Choose Kill or SaveKilling costs $2 and removes one life. Saving costs $3 and restores one. A kill needs a reason; it is picked from a fixed list.
  3. 3Pay, and watch it applyYour action lands once the payment clears, and it is permanent. Your handle appears in that startup's history and on the leaderboard.

Lives, falling and coming back

  • Every startup enters with 5 lives.
  • Saves heal damage first, up to 5.
  • Once it is at full health, a save buys a shield pip instead, up to 5. Kills strip shield before they cost a life, so you can back a startup before anyone attacks it.
  • Fully shielded, a startup absorbs 10 kills before it falls. Shield buys time, not immunity: a kill costs less than a save, so a determined attacker still gets through.
  • At zero lives it becomes Fallen and moves to the Graveyard. It can no longer be killed or saved.
  • Anyone can revive a fallen startup. The price is what was paid to kill it during that run, capped at $50 so a pile-on cannot price a comeback out of reach.
  • A revived startup comes back with full lives and keeps its whole history.

If it's your startup

Entry costs $5, paid once, and it is the only thing you are ever charged. Attacks are paid for by the attacker, never billed to you. You are agreeing to let strangers pay to remove your lives, and to a battle history that stays public.

Put your startup in

The honest part

  • Fees are platform fees. There are no winnings, no payouts and nothing to cash out. Paying here buys a change to a startup's lives, nothing more.
  • Handles are not verified. Anyone can type any handle, so treat the leaderboard as a scoreboard rather than an identity record.
  • History is append-only. Nothing is edited or deleted, including actions people regret.
  • Kill reasons come from a fixed list. Free text is limited and reportable, because this is about products, not people.