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Every round runs the same way

Eight years, eight rounds, one procedure. The material changes every year, the order never does. Read this once and you will always know where you are and what is expected of you.

8 rounds · 2026–2033 · about 90 minutes per round

How a Vienna Stays session is planned

Your teacher runs each round in five steps. The eight beats below are the same round as you meet it in the app, so each step lists the beats it covers.

  1. 1. Input

    20 min · Learn

    A short deck on the topic of the year, with its facts and their sources.

  2. 2. Briefing

    10 min · Scenario

    Your company's numbers, the market shares of all five companies, your Lean Canvas and what the others did last round.

  3. 3. Research or discuss

    20 min · Investigate, Debate

    A precise research question for an AI tool, or a trade-off question for the team. Your teacher can run either in plenary.

  4. 4. Decide

    25 min · Decide

    Two or three decisions with a budget and a trade-off each. Offer a deal to another company or answer one.

  5. 5. Surprise

    15 min · Curveball, Resolve, Takeaway

    An event appears only after you have handed in your decisions. You react to it, see what happened and update your canvas.

The eight beats of a round

  1. 1Scenario
    What happens
    You read what the year did to the market and to your venture.
    You submit
    Nothing.
    Done when
    You can say in one sentence what changed this year.
  2. 2Learn
    What happens
    You work through this year's slides and the exercise that goes with them.
    You submit
    Nothing.
    Done when
    You can name the mechanism, not just the headline.
  3. 3Investigate
    What happens
    You put the year's question to an AI tool and check what it tells you.
    You submit
    Nothing.
    Done when
    You can name one thing where the research changed your mind.
  4. 4Debate
    What happens
    You argue from your role, name the riskiest assumption on your canvas and the option nobody offered.
    You submit
    One saved position per present role, for each required decision.
    Done when
    Every role that is here today has saved a position.
  5. 5Decide
    What happens
    You choose your options, frame the question and place a bet.
    You submit
    Chosen options, a framing sentence and a falsifiable prediction.
    Done when
    Every required decision has an option, and you are within budget.
  6. 5bCurveball
    What happens
    Something happens that you did not plan for. Two options, and both cost you something.
    You submit
    A curveball choice, with role positions like any other decision.
    Done when
    You have chosen, and your plan still fits the budget.
  7. 6Resolve
    What happens
    You see what your choices did, including what earlier years set up, and update your canvas.
    You submit
    Nothing.
    Done when
    You can explain one number that moved, and why.
  8. ★Takeaway
    What happens
    The year is reduced to the one thing you can take into a real venture.
    You submit
    Nothing.
    Done when
    You have read it. This beat asks nothing more.

The questions that always come up in the first unit

What is a curveball?
Every round holds one event that only appears after you have handed in your main decisions. You cannot change those decisions any more, and you answer the event with a short reaction before you submit the round. That is deliberate: in a real company, most of the work is replanning.
Someone from our team is missing. Can we still play?
Yes. Your teacher records who is absent, and the round then only asks for positions from the roles that are present. If the person who usually submits is missing, anyone present can submit. An empty chair never blocks a team.
What is the canvas for?
Your team owns one Lean Canvas that gets a new version every round. A start-up begins with every field marked as an assumption. An established company begins with a canvas of its core business: what describes today is already backed by company records, and what it assumes about the future is not. When a decision earns you evidence, you can mark a field as evidence, but only by citing the evidence card that supports it. A field marked as evidence without a card counts as wishful thinking and shows up in the debrief.
What does the quorum mean?
Every required decision needs saved positions from at least half of the present roles, rounded up. Your teacher can switch to full coverage, in which case every present role has to weigh in on every required decision.
What happens when time runs out?
If your teacher has set a deadline for a year, submissions after it are rejected, on the server and not only in the interface. Whatever you chose but did not submit stays in your browser; a newly opened window loses nothing.
Can we change our minds after the curveball?
Not for your main decisions: once you hand them in, they are locked, and so is accepting a contract. That is why the curveball hurts. Decide what you can afford before you hand in.
Are the ventures and events real?
No. Belvedia Hotels, Bookora, StayDirekt (a direct-booking software start-up), Wienna and Hausnummer are fictional companies, and everything that happens to them is invented. The market around them is built on published figures such as room counts, prices, taxes and platform rules.
Who plays the companies nobody has joined?
The computer. It reads the same market and acts under the same rules as a team: it makes and answers offers, undercuts and copies features. Your teacher decides which companies get a team.
Why does another company's decision matter to us?
The market shares of each arena add up to 100 percent. When one company gains a share, the others lose it, and everyone sees the shares of all five companies. Some decisions reach another company directly, for example a commission, a price cut or a copied feature.
Where does an established company get its budget?
From the board. The innovation unit's budget follows the core business: if the group loses share or margin, the board cuts the budget or demands faster results.

You do not need to memorize this. The steps bar at the top of every round shows where you are, and this page stays one click away.