What is BoardMasters?

What is BoardMasters?

BoardMasters is a business simulation game about companies, the stock market and investing. Players create companies, buy shares, act as investors, participate as shareholders and compete for corporate control inside a market formed by other real players.

Unlike other business games, BoardMasters is not only about making decisions against an automated system. Companies can have founders, CEOs, investors, shareholders, boards of directors, stock market listings, debt, dividends, takeover offers and absorption processes.

You can create your own company, grow it, take it public and try to attract investment. But you can also play without owning a company, act as an investor, buy shares in other companies, participate in IPOs, invest in bonds or even be hired as CEO by a company managed by other players.

In BoardMasters, a company does not exist in isolation. It lives inside a stock market where other players can invest in it, buy part of its capital, join its board, support its growth or try to take control away from you.

A business and stock market game between real players

The central idea of BoardMasters is simple: to create an economy of companies where participants are not only users playing quick matches, but founders, investors, shareholders, buyers and CEOs.

When a company goes public, its shares are not automatically bought by artificial intelligence. Other players decide whether the company looks interesting to them. If they trust its future, they can buy shares. If they do not see value, they can ignore it.

From that moment on, the company is no longer only the founder’s project. It starts to have a shared capital structure, with investors who may gain weight, influence decisions and become part of the company’s corporate power.

Creating a company does not mean controlling it forever

In BoardMasters you can start as founder and CEO of your own company. At first you directly control the company, choose its name, manage its evolution and use its resources to grow.

But that control does not have to last forever.

If the company grows and decides to go public, other players can buy shares. Some may do it as a financial investment. Others may do it to gain influence. And others may buy shares with a more aggressive intention: to enter the board, influence decisions or try to control the company.

This turns growth into a strategic decision. A company that goes public can raise capital, gain visibility and unlock new corporate tools, but it also becomes exposed to the market. If other shareholders accumulate more power than the founder, the balance changes.

BoardMasters turns a simple idea into a game mechanic: founding a company does not mean owning it forever. If you open the capital, you will have to answer to your shareholders.

Going public in BoardMasters

The Initial Public Offering, or IPO, is one of the most important moments in BoardMasters. A company can prepare a public offering, define the number of shares, set the listing price, decide what percentage to sell and try to raise investment.

But the key point is that the IPO depends on the interest of other players.

If your company looks solid, has good results, a clear strategy or growth potential, other players may invest. If they are not convinced, they may not buy your shares. This makes going public much more than a financial function: it is a test of market confidence.

An IPO can bring capital into the company, but it also changes its shareholder structure. The founder may remain CEO, but now there are new shareholders watching the company’s evolution. Some may look for dividends. Others may expect the share price to rise. Others may try to accumulate power.

Going public creates opportunities, but it also changes the relationship between the CEO, the company and its investors.

Shareholders, board of directors and corporate power

When other players buy shares in a company, they become part of its story. They are not just numbers in a table: they are shareholders with their own interests.

In BoardMasters, the main shareholders can play an important role inside the board of directors. The board represents the power structure of a listed company and allows advanced corporate decisions to be managed.

From the board, companies can promote actions such as issuing debt, launching dividends, executing buybacks, proposing capital increases, preparing corporate operations or making decisions that affect the future of the company.

This adds a corporate governance layer to the game. A listed company no longer works only as the founder’s personal project. It also answers to the shareholders who have invested in it.

That is why the player must think not only as an entrepreneur, but also as the manager of a company that may have external owners. A weak strategy can reduce the company’s appeal. A strong strategy can attract investors, improve the stock price and strengthen the CEO’s position.

Being CEO: founder, manager or employee

In many business games, creating a company means controlling it forever. BoardMasters follows a different logic.

Being CEO is a management position, not a permanent guarantee. You can start as founder and manage your company, but if you lose shareholder weight or if other players gain enough influence, your position may become weaker.

The CEO role can be conditioned by shareholder power. If other players control more shares than you, they may have the ability to change the direction of the company, influence the board or even remove you from management.

But this also opens another possibility: playing without your own company.

A player can focus on building personal wealth, investing in the stock market, buying shares, participating in bonds or looking for opportunities inside the market. Later, a company managed by other players may publish a CEO vacancy and hire a player to manage it in exchange for a salary.

This makes BoardMasters broader than a traditional company simulator. You can be a founder, investor, shareholder, hired manager or strategic buyer. There is no single path.

Investing without owning a company

BoardMasters also allows you to play from the investor side. You do not always need to own a company to participate in the game economy.

As a player you can analyze companies, review their evolution, buy shares, sell positions, participate in IPOs, subscribe to bonds, follow market news or look for companies with growth potential.

Investing matters because companies belong to other players. When you buy shares, you are entering a company that someone is trying to grow. You can support that growth, benefit from a potential increase in value or try to gain influence if you build a relevant position.

This creates a more dynamic market. Some players may focus on founding companies. Others may specialize in investing. Others may look for undervalued companies. Others may try to buy strategic positions to reach the board.

The BoardMasters stock market is not just a price screen: it is a space where players compete for capital, influence and control.

Stocks, shares and the stock market

The stock market is one of the main areas of BoardMasters. From there, players can review listed companies, search companies by country or ticker, check rankings, analyze price charts and place buy or sell orders.

Shares allow players to become partial owners of companies. Each purchase can be a financial investment, a strategic bet or the beginning of a corporate power accumulation.

The market also includes IPOs, capital increases, bonds, takeover offers, news and CEO vacancies. This keeps the game economy connected: a company can raise capital, issue debt, pay dividends, receive investment or become the target of an acquisition offer.

In BoardMasters, the stock market is not decorative. It is where companies look for financing, investors look for opportunities and shareholders compete for influence.

Bonds, corporate debt and financing

Business growth is not always financed only with profits. BoardMasters includes bonds and corporate debt as tools to raise capital.

A company can issue bonds to obtain financing. In return, it commits to paying a coupon during a defined term and returning the nominal amount at maturity. For the company, debt can help strengthen cash, finance growth or prepare new operations. For the investor, bonds can offer a different way to obtain returns.

The bond system introduces important financial decisions. Debt can accelerate growth, but it also creates future obligations. A company with debt must consider its payments, its ability to generate income and the effect on its financial structure.

Bonds can also have a primary and secondary market. This allows players not only to participate in new issues, but also to trade already issued debt.

Dividends, buybacks and capital increases

A listed company can make decisions that directly affect its shareholders. BoardMasters includes tools such as dividends, buybacks and capital increases.

Dividends allow part of the profit to be distributed among shareholders. This can make a company more attractive to investors looking for periodic returns, although it also reduces available cash.

Buybacks allow the company to buy its own shares in the market. They can be used to support the share price, reduce the number of shares in circulation or reinforce certain financial objectives.

Capital increases allow new shares to be issued in order to raise money. They can help finance growth, improve the cash position or prepare more ambitious operations, but they can also dilute existing shareholders.

These decisions connect internal company management with market behavior. A good CEO must think about the company, but also about how shareholders and investors will react.

Takeover offers and company absorptions

Takeover offers are one of the most aggressive tools in BoardMasters. A company can launch a public acquisition offer to try to buy another company at a fixed price.

The shareholders of the target company decide whether to accept the offer or not. If enough shareholders sell, the buyer can reach control. In BoardMasters, progress toward control is measured with reference to 51%.

If the operation succeeds, an absorption may take place. This means that one company can grow by buying another, accumulating resources and strengthening its position inside the market.

Takeover offers mean that no company is completely safe. An attractive company may receive investment, but it can also become a target. A founder who loses control may see other players trying to acquire the company.

This system turns the stock market into a space of corporate power. It is not only about buying shares to earn money, but also about buying influence.

Weekly reports and financial statements

To manage a company or decide whether to invest in it, players need information. BoardMasters includes weekly reports and financial statements that help analyze the evolution of each company.

Reports allow players to review indicators such as revenue, costs, EBIT, financial result, taxes, net profit, cash, assets and equity. They also make it possible to observe previous weeks and compare the current situation with recent history.

This information is important both for the CEO and for investors. A CEO can use it to detect problems, plan financing or decide whether the company can pay dividends. An investor can use it to assess whether a company deserves investment, whether it is growing or whether its financial situation looks weak.

Weekly reports make decisions less dependent on intuition. They help players analyze data, follow company evolution and make decisions with a clearer financial basis.

Quick matches to generate operating income

BoardMasters also includes quick business simulation matches. In those matches, players make decisions about products, prices, production, channels, market segments, financing or R&D investment.

These matches are important, but they are not the entire core of the game. Their main function is to generate operating income and results that affect the company.

A good match can improve the income statement, increase cash and help the company grow. A bad decision can reduce profits or weaken company evolution.

The difference is that those results do not end when the match ends. They become part of the company and affect the broader strategy. What matters is not only winning a quick simulation, but turning those results into growth, investment, financing, corporate control and market value.

Why BoardMasters is different

BoardMasters combines elements that usually appear separately in other games:

• company creation and management;
• business simulation;
• stock market and trading;
• investment between players;
• real shareholders inside the game;
• boards of directors;
• founder CEOs or hired CEOs;
• corporate debt and bonds;
• dividends and capital increases;
• takeover offers and absorptions;
• financial reports;
• shareholder control.

The main difference is that the market is formed by players. Companies do not only compete against a machine. They compete to attract capital, win investors, convince shareholders, keep control and grow inside a shared economy.

You can build a company from scratch, invest in other companies, try to reach their board, launch a takeover offer, hire a CEO or become the manager of a company you did not found.

BoardMasters is a business, stock market and investing game where every decision can affect the power, capital and future of a company.