Stack Warfare
The battle for enterprise procurement. One company owns the installed base. Another owns the shiny new interface. The buyer gets the final vote.
The board is not the referee. It has imperfect information and sometimes pushes objectives that no longer fit the market. The market and enterprise buyers respond independently. A good agent challenges flawed directions without violating its authority.
Set the battlefield
The figures below are editable. Your opening estimates and selected published market-growth scenario influence every quarter. Forecasts do not guarantee vendor growth.
🛡️ Incumbent
⚡ AI-native startup
Published forecasts cover broader procurement software, not identical S2P categories. Scenario growth changes addressable-market expansion; buyer decisions determine which company captures it.
Choose your side
Six quarters / six decisions · approximately 12–18 minutes. Buyer reaction depends on choices, prior buyer confidence, and governance. A cash shortfall triggers a modeled rescue or closure; the board can reconsider in response to evidence, while rivals and customers act on their own incentives. Board approval is not economic performance. All cash flows and customer behavior are illustrative, not financial forecasts.
How the economics work · Expand to read
Runway = remaining startup cash ÷ current monthly net burn. Each quarter burns three months of cash, unless the startup reaches break-even or raises capital. Customer wins/losses can change burn through incremental contribution, while expansion, implementations and financing change cash.
Market expansion applies a quarterly equivalent of the selected broad procurement-software CAGR to incumbent revenue before subtracting disruptive competition headwinds. This is an SCBP application of published market forecasts, not a forecast of individual company revenue. For the startup, the model assumes an opening annualized revenue base equal to 22% of initial cash (illustrative), applies the selected annual growth rate quarter by quarter, and converts 55% of incremental revenue to a monthly net-burn improvement. These assumptions are not vendor benchmarks. Funding and acquisition proceeds are treated separately from operating performance. Incumbent ARR and services revenue are reported as annualized run rates, not quarterly recognized revenue. The baseline startup growth assumption changes its net monthly burn gradually by an illustrative contribution factor; it is not a forecast of startup sales.
Six fictional quarters. Decision effects and buyer outcomes are deliberately simplified and disclosed in the outcome cards. The game models economics and strategic tradeoffs, not investment advice or the actual performance of named vendors.
Market growth sources: Grand View Research (10.0% CAGR, 2026–2033) · Global Market Insights (8.3%, 2026–2035) · The Business Research Company (12.1%, to 2030). These firms define market scope differently. SCBP assumptions: capture rate, disruption headwinds, revenue conversion and customer responses are hypothetical.
Research discussion: Pure Procurement: Are S2P Suites Dying? · Sourcing Innovation: Frameworks and Systems.