Opportunity Scout — Helveti Labs and the Runway Clock
A four-round, intermediate entrepreneurship simulation set inside Helveti Labs GmbH, a pre-seed venture founded in Winterthur, Switzerland in…
About this simulation
A 90-minute, 4-round basic Express simulation for Spanish vocational training (Formacion Profesional), module 0318 Elaboracion de vinos of the Tecnico en Aceites de Oliva y Vinos (Real Decreto 1798/2008) and module 0078 Vinificaciones of the Tecnico Superior en Vitivinicultura (Real Decreto 1688/2007).
The learner is Nerea Calatayud, a newly qualified cellar operator of a fictional wine growers' cooperative in La Mancha, through her first vintage (2027): one winery of 22 cooled stainless-steel tanks whose members are paid on their grapes and on what their wine sells for.
Four situations set the vintage's course: the first white grapes, hail-damaged and warm, and how each load is sulphited (on its health and pH) and how the white musts are settled (cold, racked clear); the bulk of the reds, and how the fermentations are started (a rehydrated selected yeast, nutrients in stages) and how the tanks are cooled (in range before the peak, never only after 30 C); a heatwave, and what is done with a stuck tank (the density curve read twice a day, acted on early, never sugar added) and how a drained tank is emptied (only under a written entry permit, never with the shovel at once); and the end of the vintage, and how the tanks are classified (full analysis and the oenologist's tasting, never a tank over the volatile-acidity limit hidden in a blend) and how the vintage is recorded.
Three critical errors cap the round: sugar added to a stuck tank, a tank entered without a permit, a fraudulent blend. KPIs: share of the wine without a defect, controllable operating cost, wine lost per tonne of grapes and non-conforming lots. Lesson: controlling the temperature in time prevents most defects. Spanish primary, English parity.
Fictional winery, cooperative, village and people; real curriculum and EU rules cited.
What participants learn
After the session, participants will be able to:
- Explain why sulphur dioxide is dosed on the health and pH of each load and why white musts are settled cold and racked clear, and what each shortcut costs
- Start and cool a fermentation in time: rehydrate a selected yeast, add nutrients in stages and open the cooling before the peak, quantifying what cooling late, not cooling and cooling too much cost
- Analyze twice-daily density and temperature curves to act early on a slowing tank, restart a stuck one from acclimated yeast, and explain why adding sugar is neither allowed nor useful
- Explain why a drained tank is a confined space and what an entry permit, the ventilation, the atmosphere measurement and a person outside protect against
- Judge a wine's classification on its analysis rather than alcohol or tasting alone, refuse to hide a tank over a legal limit in a blend, and record the vintage
Who it is for
An introductory simulation that assumes no prior knowledge of the subject, designed for undergraduate courses. It also works in vocational and high-school programmes and in onboarding sessions.
How a session runs
- The instructor creates a session from the Eureka dashboard and invites the participants.
- Participants play 4 rounds. In each one they submit their decisions and the simulation calculates the results. The first round opens with: lunes 30 de agosto, 7:00: el sulfitado y el desfangado.
- The simulation can be run in English, Español.
- The instructor follows each participant's progress and results from the dashboard, and uses the class results for the debrief.