In 2025, 1.981 people across 87 sessions got to experience Strategy Sims in action. From Impact investing in the Pacific, corporate transformation in Europe, VC fund management in North America, strategic leadership in South East Asia or high-growth scale up leadership across MENA; Strategy Sims keep expanding.
This year’s top 10 ranking takes us to places like Switzerland, Nigeria, Fiji, Canada (twice), the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, the United Kingdom, Mauritius and Saudi Arabia; here are our top 2025 Masterclasses – all built around the Strategy sims.
1. Fund Manager!, IMD (Switzerland)
WHO: IMD (Business School)
WHERE: Lausanne, Switzerland
DURATION: 2 days (Twice, one in May, one in September)
WHY THE SIM?
Now in its third year, the collaboration with IMD is perfectly mission-aligned with our goal of taking venture asset education in Europe to the next level. We are honored and privileged to be working with faculty lead Jim Pulcrano, pouring all his energy and connections into building this program into a force for good in the European VC landscape.
The reason IMD’s Fund Manager! Tops this ranking for the second year in a row is simple. The quality of the participants and the quality of work we witness in the program easily exceed any other group, anywhere (sorry, everyone else). This outlier performance is likely due to a couple of reasons. Number one, the top-notch quality of participants can really be felt from the moment we step into the classroom. These are high-processing power participants, ready to work. For this year, we had multiple high-caliber investment professionals, including Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Oman and Saudi Arabia. The pure quality of participants make this program stand out in every aspect.
Second, people lean in, work hard, prepare well. It is clear that people take the time, focus, concentrate and show up truly prepared and ready to work.
Third, participants truly engage with the content, exercises, challenges and presentations. They put in the work, overnight, from day one to day two. People are competitive and that truly helps team shift gears going into day two.
OUTCOME:
Clearly positioned as an educational experience, the four day Venture Asset Management Program has two core elements. Days 1 & 2; classroom learning through guest speakers, lectures and case studies. Days 3 & 4, hands-on experiential learning, where participants form teams to lead their own investments firms over a 15-year journey, for most teams culminating in running not one, but two investment funds.
What teams truly take away; navigating the full 15-year fund journey, from start to net DPI.
“The best learning experience—budding unicorns all over! An actual magic learning process.” — Anna Ziajka
“Just wow… So much of what I’ve been picking up mostly piecemeal over the years really began to crystallize. My VC excitement is validated.” — Ashton Songer Ferguson
“In just 48 hours, we went from barely knowing what pre-money meant to negotiating term sheets and syndicating deals. It’s one thing to read about VC in books, but you only ‘get it’ under pressure.” — John Nicholas
WHY IT MADE THE #1 SPOT ON THE TOP 10 LIST:
Our shared passion with IMD runs deep. We are in this together, to educate venture capital leaders across the ecosystem. From emerging limited partners, family offices, future fund managers, pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, newly formed CVC teams; we have met them all at IMD’s Venture Asset Management Programme. With 55+ Fund Manager! Programs completed globally, the IMD experience stands in a category of its own – for the second year in a row. Want to learn more? Join an upcoming Venture Asset Management Program in May or September. Read more about VAM here.
FULL CASE STUDY: Taking Venture Asset Education in Europe to the Next Level
DELIVERY TEAM: Chris Rangen, Scott B. Newton
2. Pacific Island Fund Manager (Fiji)
WHO: Matanataki (General partner)
WHERE: Fiji
DURATION: 3 days (9 months, really)
WHY THE SIM?
“Chris, we want to make an impact version of Fund Manager!, for Fiji” “Of course”, I said, the first time Jodi, GP and founder of Matanataki brought this up in Singapore in November 2023. “No problem”
Little, of course, I knew that this easy-going conversion would turn into the hardest, most complex project of all of 2025 – and ultimately culminate in a powerful ecosystem engagement workshop on Fiji in August the same year.
Working with Jodi Smith, Andrew Irvin and the design team to bring the Pacific Islands Fund Manager! from early idea to live delivery was a genuine highlight of the year – and stands as one of our most complex projects – possibly ever.
OUTCOME:
The research took 5-6 months. Deep diving into the shifting world of impact investing. Not just the label of impact investing. The real world where most of the traditional instruments are not available. Where follow-on financing rounds do not exist. Where the traditional metrics for VC and PE are not just skewed but completely altered. Where the traditional PE playbook does not apply. Where impact frameworks have moved from complicated to outright impossible for most of us to follow (Shoutout to Aunnie Patton Power for being a grounded voice of solid research in this space, and Jen Braswell for lending a life-time of experience to our emergent research). As winter turned to spring, our work turned into content development and writing.
We stopped counting at 2.400 new, unique content cards. We piloted. We iterated. Slowly, the content was starting to click. The fund financial model got built out; our most complex yet. (imagine you are running a full investment portfolio with both equity investments, cash flow and earnings and impact investment data. If you know, you know). Spring turned to summer, and the Fiji ecosystem engagement program was drawing closer. Internal tests and retests. Internal Train-the-trainers for the project team.
We landed in Nandi, Fiji around 6 am. Ready to support Jodi and the full GP Team at Matanataki on their ecosystem engagement. LPs were flying in. Key people and partners, politicians, portfolio CEOs, former EIB and IFC fund-of-fund executives flew in. The actual Pacific Islands Fund Manager! Workshop took place in Suva, overlooking the bay.
Five teams, five to eight people per team. Each team setting up their own $50M ocean impact fund, aiming to deploy capital and scale 10-25 impact investments across the Pacific. Perfectly modelled out to reflect the real-life challenges of leading a multi-decade investment platform in Fiji. Futaspak Pacific investment fund (Future Spark), Mana Pasifika, Wan Solwara, Pacific Ocean Resilience Fund and Loloma; all competed and collaborating, making a total of 50 investments, deploying $233.565.000, while returning back $475.239.939 to LPs. Mana Pasifika outperformed its peers with a 163,5 Impact Score, easily beating the average of 131,8 impact score. Financial top performance went to Pacific Ocean Resilience Fund, who turned a $16M equity investment in BlueSeaScape into a $230M cash-on-cash exit, ultimately returning 7.1X net DPI back to its LPs
More importantly, the ecosystem engagement brought together 30+ key ecosystem participants across the Pacific. From General Partners at Matanataki, Limited partners with a clear ocean impact focus, Fiji-based pipeline and portfolio CEOs, political connections, ecosystem supporters, village chiefs, island elders and investment professionals supporting Matanataki. The experience left a deep, lasting impression of both the complexities of running a Pacific island ocean impact fund and the importance of working with the ecosystem to make it happen.
WHY IT MADE THE TOP 10 LIST:
We probably spent north of 900 hours to develop Pacific Islands Fund Manager! Bringing it to Fiji to run with a truly eclectic group of participants from across the Pacific islands investment landscape was a unique experience. At the same time, even the most experienced team co-facilitators came back, “this is too hard to run”, reflecting the genuine challenges of running a multi-strategy, impact-first investment fund in the Pacific.
That’s how we designed it. To be hard. Because it is. Pacific Islands Fund Manager! Aims to truly showcase the details, the complexities, the technical requirements to run a 20-company investment portfolio with a mix of equity investment (but without any traditional follow-on rounds for equity valuation mark-ups), debt investment (but also requiring the investors to be deeply familiar with cash flows and ability to service debt), and recognizing that no traditional exit paths exists, to revenue-based earn-out models, community-based buyouts and self-liquidating exit routes need to become the default across the portfolio; while also balancing this with the PhD-technical-skill level of truly tracking impact metrics in line with(overly complicated) LP reporting requirements. We’ve looked globally. Nothing quite like this exists anywhere. This is why Fiji’s Pacific Islands Fund Manager! Made the top 10 list of 2025. But, it’s hard.
DELIVERY TEAM: Chris Rangen, Jen Braswell
3. Scale Up MENA X DFDF (UAE)
WHO: Dubai Future District Fund (Fund-of-funds)
WHERE: Dubai,UAE
DURATION: 2 days
WHY THE SIM?
Our partnership with DFDF runs back several years. When we started the development of Scale Up MENA!, DFDF was an obvious partner to work with to launch Scale Up MENA! In Dubai.
Our thesis: Scale Up MENA! Will perfectly support founders as they raise their Series A and need to grow into venture- and growth stage territory. Working with Tiffany Bain, Nader AlBastaki and Mahmoud Ward and 20+ late-stage DFDF portfolio founders, we got the thesis proven. In November 2025 we hosted the first ever Scale Up MENA! Masterclass, aimed exclusively at a small, hand-picked group of portfolio founders and a few investment professionals from across the MENA ecosystem.
OUTCOME:
“Just wrapped up an incredible two-day workshop on Scaling and Exiting for Founders, hosted by Dubai Future District Fund who I’m deeply thankful for the invitation. If only I had attended something like this 20 years ago during my first venture… In just 16 hours, we covered what felt like a year’s worth of founder lessons thanks to Christian Rangen of Strategy Tools and the team”, said, Fahmi Al-Shawwa, Founder & CEO of Immensa upon completing the program.
“In just two days we take people through a full 8-10 year journey to exit, the founder’s journey”, said Scott B. Newton, aptly summarizing the program.
So, what are people equipped with upon completing Sclae Up MENA! ? – Think long-term growth strategy – Study term sheets, work hard to get five+ term sheets for each round – Understand investor outcomes, understand the VC business model and how you fit in – Work strategically on exits, start earlier than you think – Keep your cap table clean and updated. A messy cap table makes secondaries and exits impossible – And maybe most importantly, scaling up starts with a mindset shifts and expands form there
FULL CASE STUDY: Scaling to exit
WHY IT MADE THE TOP 10 LIST:
“We are picking our very best founders”, said the team at DFDF. And they did. The founder participants we met were deeply experienced. Successfully built and exited in the region already. Negotiating the $160M term sheet with Blackrock. Raising Series A’s across markets. Deep experience in capital markets, having work for many of the leading investment banks in the region. They were, if you will, ‘supercharged founders’.
Taking this advanced group of founders and investors through Scale Up MENA!, going from idea to exit in just two days was a sprint – but they truly aced it. It proves that Scale Up MENA! Is well suited, to not only support early-stage founders (seed) but also push and support venture- and growth stage founders as they scale.
“Possibly the most unique training I have taken part in. The highs and lows of being a start up founder squeezed into two days.” – Michael Hunter, CEO & Co-founder, Holo
“The best program so far I have attended and at what speed. Precisely designed, immaculately delivered” – Avneesh Prakash, CEO, CAMB.AI
DELIVERY TEAM: Chris Rangen, Scott B. Newton, Sanjana Raheja, Alain Traboulsy
4. Transform! Hult Ashridge (UK)
WHO: Hult Ashridge Business School, in partnership with a leading European industrials company
WHERE: Ashridge campus, London
DURATION: 2 days
WHY THE SIM?
Transform! Has been a backbone of many executive education programs for the past six years. One of the most active business schools, with a long track record of experiential learning, has been Hult Ashridge and notably their global corporate and executive education teams.
When one of Europe’s leading industrial companies partnered with Ashridge to design a high-impact, future leader program, Transform! Was a strong addition to bring into the teaching format.
OUTCOME:
Transform! Is centered around four key domains; Team performance, Strategy & transformation, Capital markets & governance and performance. Within each of these, numerous topics are explored in depth. “How well did we gather, share, process information, allowing us to solve complex problems?”, “How well did we use different capital and finance options to gain an advantage on our peers?”, “How well did we interact, communicate, and respond to capital markets and various shareholder and stakeholder groups?” and “How well did we develop a winning culture, game plan, and mindset, to both overperform, outperform,and outcompete the other teams”
For the future leaders at the Industrial company, working at the incredible Ashridge campus, Transform! Served as a strong reminder that leadership is far more than just managing your team and hitting your P&L’s. To truly lead a transformational company, a very different playbook is needed.
WHY IT MADE THE TOP 10 LIST:
“Over a year we might run 25-30 Transform! Sessions globally, but this group was spectacular. Hungry, ambitious and clearly pushing themselves to transform faster – both individually and as teams”.
DELIVERY TEAM: Chris Rangen
5. Scale Up MENA! Falak Startups (Egypt)
WHO: Falak Startups, in partnership with EBRD
WHERE: Cairo, Egypt
DURATION: 3 days
WHY THE SIM?
It all started in Cairo. A bit more than a year ago. We saw the effects of having more localized content. Of having more local market realities. Of having content and cases people could relate to. This insight, in November 2024, led us to develop Scale Up MENA! Now, a year later, we were back in Cairo, back with our friends at Falak Startups. In collaboration with EBRD Star Venture, Falak hosted nearly 30 scale up founders, investors and ecosystem builders.
Scale Up MENA!, if you were, was coming home. Over three days we had five teams compete – and collaborate – to build breakout winner companies coming out of MENA ecosystem.
OUTCOME:
The scale Up MENA! Masterclass equips founders and investors with five key things.
1. A chance to experience the Founder’s Journey, from idea to exit
2. Navigate 500+ term sheets and financing instruments
3. Crack the code of revenue velocity and market expansion
4. Learn a series of visual strategy canvases
5. Handle a cap table from first founders’ shares through an exit transaction
WHY IT MADE THE TOP 10 LIST:
What made this session unique was two-fold. One, being back in Cairo with the team that helped kick-start Scale Up MENA! to begin with. Two, seeing founders really engage – and compete – with the ultra-localized content, deal terms, investor term sheets, investment bankers and Superinvestors from across the region. But, most importantly, this was yet another fast-paced, high-energy, Scale Up! Masterclass, proving to us as facilitators just how much content, learning and advanced level materials we can pack into just three days.
Full case study: Scaling up in the rising Egyptian ecosystem
DELIVERY TEAM: Chris Rangen, Rumbi Makanga, Mohammed al Rasbi
6. Fund Manager! BKR Capital (Canada)
WHO: BKR Capital
WHERE: Toronto, Canada
DURATION: 3 days
WHY THE SIM?
BKR Capital’s mission is to bridge the funding gap for Black-led companies in the technology sector, fostering an inclusive ecosystem by making capital accessible to visionary founders, driving wealth creation for the Black community, and training the next generation of Black investment professionals. They provide early, transformational investments in disruptive tech startups, aiming to create systemic change and normalize diversity in venture capital. BKR Capital has partnered with Strategy tools to work directly with their talented investment professionals including the Fund Manager simulation which was held in person in Toronto Canada in 2025 (and again in 2026)
OUTCOME:
The GPs and ecosystem partners that participated in the simulation were highly positive in their feedback, and noted both how realistic the simulation was, and how practical the tools are to diagnose and start improving performance from today forward.
The talented GPs demonstrated how they can improve their Strategy, their pitch, their approach, and importantly teamwork to deliver at even higher levels of impact in the future.
WHY IT MADE THE TOP 10 LIST:
While we delivered Fund Manager to global groups in 2025, this particular SIM session stood out for the advanced levels of discussion, the intense preparation by the participants, and their application immediately in to their funds and teams.
DELIVERY TEAM: Scott B. Newton
7. Scale Up! Madica Ventures (Nigeria)
WHO: Madica Ventures
WHERE: Lagos, Nigeria
DURATION: 2 days (with 2 preparatory webinars the week before)
WHY THE SIM?
Madica wanted to move beyond investor theory and slide decks to give pre-seed founders a realistic, hands-on understanding of fundraising, investor dynamics, and long-term capital strategy. While most founders had already raised using SAFEs or CLAs, many lacked clarity on how these instruments convert, how dilution compounds over time, and how to plan multiple rounds ahead while balancing growth, cash flow, and investor expectations.
The goal was to build real decision-making muscle by letting founders experience the consequences of their choices in a simulated but high-pressure environment.
“Madica wanted practical, hands-on training where the founders could immediately apply the learnings in their own startups.” – Vishal Shah
OUTCOME:
Fifteen founders experienced the full founder journey—from idea through multiple funding rounds to exit—inside the Scale Up! simulation. Working in teams as CEO, CFO, and CRO, participants structured and closed funding rounds, selected and traded investors, responded to board demands, explored acquisitions, and executed high-stakes exits—learning firsthand how early decisions compound over time.
By the end of the program, founders could confidently map long-term capital strategies, rebalance cap tables, understand SAFE and CLA conversions, and align growth plans with investor expectations.
“…I learned a great deal about the fundraising process and the connection between financial metrics and company valuation.” — Ahmed Chaari
“This simulation was an amazing opportunity to learn from realistic scenarios… and live through it up until the exit scenario”.- Yousef Elsamaa, Co-Founder & CEO, Daleela
WHY IT MADE THE TOP 10 LIST:
- Tackled one of the hardest challenges for African startups: scaling beyond pre-seed with capital discipline
- Transformed complex VC mechanics into hands-on, high-pressure decision-making
- Compressed years of fundraising, investor alignment, and exit planning into two intense days
- Delivered immediately transferable skills in capital planning, dilution management, and investor strategy
“I was strategizing how to build revenue and growth against how we fund that growth. It was really fun, but it was also very thought-provoking.” — Chidalu Onyeso, Founder & CEO, Earthbond
FULL CASE STUDY: Helping Madica’s pre-seed startups bridge the scaling chasm
DELIVERY TEAM: Vishal Shah, Rumbi Makanga
8. Transform! IE Business School (Saudi Arabia)
WHO: IE Business School, partnering with one of the largest food companies in MENA
WHERE: Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
DURATION: 3 days
WHY THE SIM?
Transform! Has served us well in global business schools including US, Spain, UK, Norway; but would it also hold up as well immersed in the cultural leadership nuances of Saudi Arabia? Would one of Saudi Arabia’s largest companies find Transform! And leading transformation at scale to be both relevant, applicable and suitable? The short answer: yes, absolutely.
The session had clear cultural and content differences, based on conversations and executive leadership challenges that came up. It was not the same as running a five-day Executive Program in the United States, but nor did we expect it.
Anchored in the realities and cultural distinctions of leading transformation in the Kingdom, Transform! Overshot its expectations and formed the backbone of “the best session of our entire leadership program”, according to one of our senior executive participants.
OUTCOME:
The number one outcome was a substantially increased clarity on ‘strategic leadership’. Recognizing that leadership goes far, far beyond ‘managing people’, and in this day and age, covers core skills like strategy, finance, M&A, innovation, hostile take-over, senior level negotiation, financial engineering, a balanced portfolio of core, growth and explore business models providing stable cash flow today and strong business opportunities for tomorrow.
“This was the most insightful leadership development I’ve ever been a part of”, said one senior executive, echoing the group’s take-away; this was strategic leadership development, with profound impact on both team and individual learning.
WHY IT MADE THE TOP 10 LIST:
This was Transform!’s first appearance in Saudi Arabia – and went exceptionally well. This year we have run a record number of corporate education programs, all using Transform!, all seeing customization of content to capture the nuances of each individual client. From food and dairy in MENA, financial technology in Europe, manufacturing in the Americas and Europe to global tech; Transform! Proves an excellent fit for developing strategic leaders at all levels – and that’s why we see Transform! KSA on the list for 2025.
DELIVERY TEAM: Chris Rangen
9. Supercluster! ISED – Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (Canada)
WHO: ISED
WHERE: Ottawa, Canada
DURATION: 0,5 day
WHY THE SIM?
Supercluster! was first developed to provide a fun, engaging and competitive way to learn about innovation superclusters around the world. Today, it is regularly used by global cluster experts, ecosystem builders, national cluster programs and cluster managers to build better clusters around the world. Working with the ISED Global Innovation Cluster team in 2025, this was a unique and exciting opportunity to bring together key ISED staff, global cluster expertise and run a fast-paced, expert-level Supercluster! Session.
OUTCOME:
Highly competitive teams quickly formed up global supercluster management teams, stepping into the roles of cluster strategists, cluster boards and cluster leaders. Choosing from a series of ‘case’ clusters, we had Canadian, Norwegian, Chinese and Swiss clusters competing to build out their cluster strategy, secure members, lock in funding and deliver cluster innovation projects. In just a few hours, participants got a chance to not just strategize about cluster development and economic competitiveness, but truly experience the nuances and challenges of building a global innovation Supercluster.
WHY IT MADE THE TOP 10 LIST:
The Global Innovation Cluster team at ISED is one of the world’s most experienced ministry-level teams supporting a national cluster program anywhere. To sit down and race through the Supercluster! Simulation with them in a collaborative, yet ultra-competitive format was somewhere between hyper-competitive and ultra-delightful.
In the global innovation cluster landscape, Canada has truly carved out a leading position, a global position over the past few years. Now, spending several days in Ottawa with the cluster team and their ecosystem development peer teams was highly insightful. Finding time to work through the Supercluster! Simulation allowed everyone to yet again, be reminded of the powerful effects of successfully building and expanding innovation superclusters. Just like with our IMD case study (above), having truly experienced people completing one of the sims in record pace, shows how high-value, high-impact, even a 4 hour session can be. That’s why we include ISED’s Supercluster! Sim in the 2025 ranking.
DELIVERY TEAM: Chris Rangen
10. Fund Manager! Masterclass (Mauritius)
WHO: Equitable Ventures, in partnership with Simera
WHERE: Mauritius
DURATION: 3 days
WHY THE SIM?
Most parts of the world are still in their early steps of developing a rich, robust venture capital ecosystem. From VC education, emerging GP acceleration, depth of knowledge of the VC asset class and building out national fund-of-fund strategies; most parts are still learning.
Zoom in on Africa the this picture just expands. With a massive youth population, rising middle class and a steep economic development path, the African venture capital ecosystem is expected to undergo a massive transformation in the coming decades.
But to get there, we need to work at an ecosystem level to upskill and support all the key building blocks.
This was the path that led us to partner with Equitable Ventures and Simera, to bring the Fund Manager! Masterclass to Mauritius for the very first time in 2025.
OUTCOME:
Over three intense days, four teams set up four GP companies, raising eight funds This could have been in New York, Frankfurt, or Abu Dhabi, but it was in Mauritius. The program was not for Silicon Valley VCs. It was for developing a new generation of LPs, GPs, and ecosystem backers—for Africa, in Africa.
“It’s really impressive how the Fund Manager! simulation closely mimics the real life experiences of fund managers in Africa so this session makes up for a great learning experience. The facilitator’s experience, particularly their global insights, are a very rich addition to the whole experience. I would highly recommend this training to anyone working in Africa’s venture capital ecosystem.”
– Cikü Mugambi, Investment Director, DOB
WHY IT MADE THE TOP 10 LIST:
We absolutely love running Fund Manager!, covering the full fund journey, nearly 15 years, in just three days. It’s intense, it’s complex, it’s packed with learning that can save both GPs and LPs years of pain. Getting a chance to partner with EV and Simera to run this Masterclass in Mauritius was a superb start. Looking ahead, we already have multiple conversations going on how we can best support the maturing VC ecosystem on Mauritius, in turn supporting the ongoing growth of the entire African VC ecosystem. Fund Manager! Mauritius was one of the absolutely best Fund Manager! Sessions in 2025 and we could not be more grateful to the GPs, family offices and LPs that invested three days together with us on Fund Manager! Mauritius.
FULL CASE STUDY: From early strategy to billions in DPI
DELIVERY TEAM: Chris Rangen, Scott B. Newton
Delivered by a global community
Congratulations to our key partners and expert facilitators for making these 87 Strategy Sims sessions happen. Representing a true, global expert community, this would not have been possible without a massive effort from Scott (Italy), Ljubisa (Serbia), Sanjana (UAE), Vishal (UK), Rumbi (UK/South Africa), Jen (UK), Alain (UAE), Mohammed (Oman) and Stuart (Canada), Michael (Canada), Rick (US), Wan Fadzil (Malaysia), Suhail (Bahrain), Javier (Mexico), and many more.
Kickstart 2026 by learning more about Strategy Sims in action
Since inception, Strategy Sims have grown into a global phenomena, with 10.000 people, 400+ sessions, 70+ facilitators and ten unique Strategy Sims. Now you can read how global practitioners use Strategy Simulations to drive learning, mastery and change. In August 2025, the global community came together to co-author the first ever report, Strategy Sims in Action. Read it today.
What you get in the report
● An overview of the ten Strategy Sims
● Case studies from leading business schools and companies
● Expert insights from leading strategy experts
● How Global Partners Use Strategy Sims in Action
● The Strategy Sims Methodology
● How to get started
● …and much more
Get the Strategy Sims in Action report today.