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11 October 2014
“Santino, Come Here!”: How a BioTechMed Track Startupper Revealed Himself to be a Don Corleone
Day One training program is at an end. Tired, but happy participants were having dinner and discussing the information they had absorbed during the day. And then, requests started coming from all directions, first cautious, and then more and more insistent: “Let’s go play Startup Mafia!” Participants anxious to get in on the action eagerly gathered at two tables pretty far apart. But none of them suspected that a real dark horse of the underworld was lurking at one of the tables
Initially, both game leaders — and we tried to be present at both tables at the same time to make sure we didn’t miss any interesting developments — started to explain the game play. Let us say this up front: Startup Mafia is 90% identical with the conventional Mafia party game. And yet, there are certain aspects to it that make it extremely useful to starting entrepreneurs who have to present their projects to investors over the course of minutes, in just four days. For example, instead of regular introductions, Startup Mafia players have to tell about their project and their role in it in just one minute.
At some point, we became completely engrossed by the game taking place in the dining area. One could feel that the other group were playing Mafia just for giggles, and here we had players performing a serious situation analysis and suspecting one another.
Andrey Lomonosov, of the BioTechMed Track Quantum Cure project, attracted attention early on. However, he impressed not by his perspicacity or excellent knowledge of the rules of the game, but rather by his obvious inability to understand or remember the rules. Other players tried to help him at first, but after earning reprimands, were just laughing to themselves. However, Andrey was undaunted, and yet again, over and over, asked to stop the game so that someone could explain to him how exactly the players were supposed to look for the mafia.
This is the way the players saw the game at that table. Outside observers could see a completely different picture. From the very beginning, as soon as Andrey became a Mafia Don, he ruthlessly and consistently got rid of the partners who did not suit him during the “night,” when the mafia rules supreme. As soon as “morning broke over the city,” he stopped the action and asked about the rules for the umpteenth time.
When only three players remained at the table, not surprisingly, the harmless-looking Andrey was among them. The other two player were, in fact, innocents. Spectators kept their eyes fixed on the Don, amazed at his ability to stick to his role and at how effective his strategy had been. Many couldn’t believe, even after the game was over, that Andrey’s “failure to understand the rules” was only a mask he chose to wear. It was not in vain that communication coaches had tried to impress on the participants all day long that the most important thing was to present oneself in the right light. The BioTechMed startup entrepreneur quickly learned their lesson and perfected it in practice.
And yes: the “mafia” prevailed over “innocents” over that table yesterday. Then again, who would’ve expected otherwise?
At some point, we became completely engrossed by the game taking place in the dining area. One could feel that the other group were playing Mafia just for giggles, and here we had players performing a serious situation analysis and suspecting one another.
Andrey Lomonosov, of the BioTechMed Track Quantum Cure project, attracted attention early on. However, he impressed not by his perspicacity or excellent knowledge of the rules of the game, but rather by his obvious inability to understand or remember the rules. Other players tried to help him at first, but after earning reprimands, were just laughing to themselves. However, Andrey was undaunted, and yet again, over and over, asked to stop the game so that someone could explain to him how exactly the players were supposed to look for the mafia.
This is the way the players saw the game at that table. Outside observers could see a completely different picture. From the very beginning, as soon as Andrey became a Mafia Don, he ruthlessly and consistently got rid of the partners who did not suit him during the “night,” when the mafia rules supreme. As soon as “morning broke over the city,” he stopped the action and asked about the rules for the umpteenth time.
When only three players remained at the table, not surprisingly, the harmless-looking Andrey was among them. The other two player were, in fact, innocents. Spectators kept their eyes fixed on the Don, amazed at his ability to stick to his role and at how effective his strategy had been. Many couldn’t believe, even after the game was over, that Andrey’s “failure to understand the rules” was only a mask he chose to wear. It was not in vain that communication coaches had tried to impress on the participants all day long that the most important thing was to present oneself in the right light. The BioTechMed startup entrepreneur quickly learned their lesson and perfected it in practice.
And yes: the “mafia” prevailed over “innocents” over that table yesterday. Then again, who would’ve expected otherwise?
