💡 Startup Tycoon

Start a tech company in your garage

Startup Tycoon is a free idle tycoon game where you begin with one laptop on a wooden desk in a garage, next to a rolling metal door and a workbench. Your first project is a simple homepage. Press Code and Design to fill its two progress bars, hit Launch, and the first dollars start trickling in. From there it's up to you to grow a tiny garage startup into a tech giant with a whole floor of a skyscraper.

The game is shown in 3D: you can see yourself at the big wooden desk at the front, and every person you hire sits at their own desk in rows behind you, typing away while their screens flicker with code and colourful designs. Little icons float up over their desks as they work.

Code, design and launch

Every app needs two things: code, which makes it work, and design, which makes it look good. In the beginning you do both yourself, clicking away at the Code and Design buttons. Once both bars are full, the Launch button lights up. Launch and confetti flies, your app appears in the Your apps list, and money starts flowing in every second.

There are ten apps to build, each bigger than the last: a to-do app, a puzzle game, a chat app, a photo app, a music streaming service, a 3D adventure game, an AI homework helper, a rocket tracker and finally a virtual theme park. Launched apps can also be updated to version two, three, four and five, and every update more than doubles what that app earns.

Build your dream team

Clicking only gets you so far. Developers write code on their own, one line a second each, and designers draw one design a second. Marketers spread the word so every app earns 10 percent more, and managers keep the whole team 15 percent faster. Every hire costs a little more than the last, so you'll be making choices: another developer, or save up for a marketer?

Perks help too. A coffee machine and a ping-pong table make everyone faster, fast laptops speed up coding, drawing tablets speed up design, a super keyboard makes every one of your clicks count five times, and a humming server room boosts app income. Later on there are bean bags and even a robot barista.

From garage to skyscraper

The garage only has room for four desks. When it's full, it's time to move: first to a brick loft with big windows and room for eight, then to a bright glass office with space for sixteen, and finally to a whole floor of a skyscraper with a view over the city and room for twenty-eight. Each move is a big milestone, and the office changes around you.

It keeps earning while you're away

Startup Tycoon is an idle game, so your company is saved automatically in your browser. Close the game, come back later, and your apps will have kept earning at half speed for up to eight hours. Nine milestones, like launching five apps, moving into a real office and earning a million dollars in total, each give a star, and stars unlock new company brands such as Lime Labs and Grape Games.

Speed Run mode is a separate challenge that never touches your saved company: start from nothing and reach $15,000 as fast as you can, with stars for finishing in under eighteen, twelve and nine minutes.

What kids learn

Behind the fun, Startup Tycoon shows how investing works: spend money now on a developer or a perk, and it pays you back many times over later. Players learn to compare costs and rewards, think about growth, and plan for the next big purchase. There are no ads inside the game, no chat and no sign-up.

Startup Tycoon is free, needs no download or account, and keeps its save only in your own browser. See the Parents & Safety page for details. For more business games, try Mall Tycoon, Supermarket Simulator, Tinker Town Tycoon or the rest of our Simulation Games.

Frequently asked questions