What if running your business were as fun as playing a video game?

Alice, the CEO of a fast-growing startup, leans back in her chair, eyes fixed on the spreadsheet on her monitor. She’s trying to understand how money flows in and out of her business. Rows upon rows of numbers blur together.

"There's got to be a better way to see how all of this fits together," she says to herself, feeling more like a bystander than the leader of her own company.

A few feet away, in another part of the office, Bob, a junior engineer, stares at the product roadmap. He has a strong feeling they should work on Feature X instead of Feature Y. He thinks that this will that impact their revenue projections positively. But without visibility into the bigger picture, he doesn’t know for sure.

Bob decides not to say anything to anyone. He sighs, walks over to his desk, and starts working on Feature Y. He feels disconnected from the company's mission, but tells himself it’s not important to believe in it anyway. His job is to code.

Running a business in a game world

Think about games where you run a business—like Civilization or RollerCoaster Tycoon.

They're fun. Easy to understand. Visual. Interactive. You make decisions, and see their impact right away. When you build a new roller coaster, the guests flood in. If you neglect maintenance, the rides start to break down. The feedback loop is immediate and, most importantly, intuitive.

You know exactly what you’re doing. And that makes you feel in control.

But running a business doesn't feel like that in real life at all.

What if it could?

The game analogy

In these games, there's an underlying engine—a set of rules and mechanics that determine how the game world responds to your actions. If you adjust the price of admission, visitor numbers go up or down accordingly. All that complexity is abstracted, so that it's easy for everyone to understand. You don't need a manual to figure out what to do next.

A spreadsheet model is supposed to work the same way—it simulates your business, so you can understand the impact of your decisions.

But companies with the most accurate models still operate in silos. Finance team has their models. Product team has their roadmaps. The marketing department tracks their own metrics. Each team works hard, but not necessarily together. The tools they use don't communicate with each other, decisions are made without seeing the full picture, and, as a result, running the business doesn't feel like playing a game.

The real question is—why do teams still work in silos?

Because traditional tools are inaccessible to most people outside of finance.

Why even the best tools feel inaccessible

When companies start out, they rely on spreadsheets to model their business. It's a natural choice—spreadsheets are powerful, flexible, and familiar.

In the early stages, when you're just trying to find product-market fit, a simple model on a spreadsheet is more than enough. But as your company grows, this approach becomes unsustainable for several reasons:

• More data: As you scale, you accumulate data from various sources: accounting systems like QuickBooks, HRIS, analytics tools, CRM platforms, and more. Keeping your spreadsheet updated becomes a nightmare. Your finance team spends countless hours each month importing data, correcting errors, and trying to make sense of it all.
• ‍More complexity: You might start with a single product. Over time, you add more. You might enter new markets, expand your team, and raise more funds. Now your business is a highly dimensional problem that's difficult to model. Handling multiple products, departments, and regions adds layers of complexity that spreadsheets aren't designed to manage effectively.
• ‍More communication challenges: You add new departments. Each department might have its own version of the truth, working off separate spreadsheets that don't sync with one another. Sharing insights becomes a challenge, and aligning on strategy is a never-ending struggle. The lack of a unified, accessible model makes collaborating difficult. Making decisions starts to feel like shooting in the dark.

The disconnect between teams increases, making it harder to see how individual actions impact the overall business.

The very tools that once supported your growth now begin to hinder it.

Take Alice’s company for example. They've grown rapidly, but their reliance on spreadsheets is starting to cause problems:

• The finance team spends days updating models that few others understand.
• Decisions are made without insight into financial implications.
• Bob isn’t alone in feeling disconnected and unmotivated. Many others feel the same way, because don’t understand the impact of their work.

Last quarter, the company invested heavily in a new marketing campaign. The marketing team was thrilled about the creative approach, but they didn't have visibility into how the increased spend would strain the company's cash flow. The finance team saw the dwindling reserves but wasn't aware of the expected sales boost the campaign was supposed to bring. The result was a cash crunch.

If everyone had seen the bigger picture, they might have made different choices.

This lack of visibility wasn't just inconvenient. It was dangerous.

Turning business into a multiplayer game

What if everyone in your company could see, in real-time, how their choices impact the whole business?

Bob could simulate working on Feature X vs Feature Y, and instantly see the impact on projected sales and cash flow. He could also see how the code he’s writing contributes to retention rates, and how that adds to the company's bottom line. He’d understand that fixing that urgent bug wasn't just about cleaner code—it's about improving user experience and driving growth.

The sales team could see potential dips in revenue, and adjust their strategies. Finance could assess budget impacts and help everyone make more sustainable choices.

Planning would feel less like guesswork, and more like strategy.

Some might argue that businesses are too complex for this kind of simulation. But video games manage to simulate entire economies, societies, and ecosystems that respond dynamically to player actions. The complexity is abstracted so players can grasp and manipulate it.

It's possible to make every aspect of a business easy to understand.

This transformation has already happened in design.

The tools we use affect our behavior

Before tools like Figma, designs were locked away in files only a few could open. Designers worked in isolation, and collaboration was extremely limited. Peeking over a designer's shoulder or requesting to see a draft was considered very rude.

Figma changed that. Now, everyone—from PMs to engineers to CEOs—can jump in, give feedback, and contribute. As a result, teams design better together.

We can bring that same level of understanding and collaboration to business planning.

How Runway makes running a business feel like play

Runway turns your business model into an interactive simulation that’s accessible to everyone—not just the finance team. It feels like turning your company's financials into a collaborative game, where each team member can see the overall impact of every little decision they make.

Here's how Runway addresses the limitations of traditional tools:

• More automation: Runway connects to all your data sources—accounting systems, HRIS, analytics tools, CRM platforms, and even Jira. It automates data updates, freeing your team from manual data entry, and reducing errors. This means your model is always up-to-date, you have a single source of truth, and your team can focus on being more strategic.‍
• More intuitiveness: Runway is designed to manage the multi-dimensional aspects of a growing business. Whether you have multiple products, operate in various geographies, or have several departments, Runway models your business in a way that's understandable and accessible for everyone—much like how a video game abstracts complex rules for players.‍
• More collaboration: With Runway, everyone works from the same playbook. Teams can understand the entire business model, understand how things fit together, and collaborate on important decisions.

Remember Bob? He was considering working on Feature X instead of Feature Y. With Runway, he can drag and drop this change into the model, and instantly see how it affects everything— revenue, cash flow, and all other metrics across the whole business.

With that kind of visibility, teams can check forecasts and adjust their strategies. Finance can see the big picture and advise on whether a specific delay is feasible.

What's more, Runway makes this process fun. The number one piece of feedback we get from our customers is that using Runway is fun—a word rarely associated with finance software.

A smarter way to run your company

Running a business can feel as intuitive as playing a well-designed game, where every decision is well-informed, and every player knows how they contribute to the team's success.

When that happens, everyone starts to see how their work fits into the bigger picture. Bob feels empowered to make decisions, understanding the trade-offs and collaborating with other departments. Alice, the CEO, finally feels like she's in control, steering the company with clarity and confidence.

In the best games, every player understands the rules, sees the entire playing field, and works towards a common goal. Your business should be no different.

It's time we bring everyone into the game.

Because when everyone plays together, everyone wins.

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