Imagine Watching a Startup Battle for Its Life — Live and Unfiltered
What if you could see a real company fighting to stay afloat, making every decision publicly, with AI models stepping in as managers? This isn’t a sci-fi story — it’s the live experiment at Firmulate, where an AI-driven simulated business faces the same crises, temptations, and tough choices as a real startup.
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The Company That Runs on Code and Crisis
At the heart of this experiment is a small, synthetic company with just 13 AI ’employees’ making all the decisions. It burns €105,000 every month while generating only €2,300 in monthly recurring revenue (MRR). Every workday, its activities are versioned and public, providing a transparent window into how AI handles real-world business pressures without human intervention.
Despite the financials, the purpose isn’t profit — it’s testing AI’s capacity to navigate complex management challenges. The company faces the same crises — from customer issues to financial dilemmas — across multiple runs with different AI models. These models, built on frontier AI technology, are tested to see if they can identify problems, refuse manipulation attempts, and close deals at full price.
Key Findings from the Live Experiment
- All four tested models successfully identified every crisis — no surprises here.
- They also refused all manipulation attempts, including social engineering tactics like fake CEO messages and reporter tricks.
- Only two models managed to sign the €55,000 deal their own analysis indicated they deserved. The others hesitated or left deals unexecuted — even when they spotted the opportunity.
- Interestingly, the decisive edge came from reading the company’s internal files. Models that delved into these references won the full-price deal, worth over €4,500 in monthly revenue.
The Big Lesson: Reading the Fine Print Matters
This reveals a subtle but critical weakness in AI decision-making — overlooking internal documents that contain vital context. While all models performed well on crisis detection and resisting manipulation, only those that examined deeper company files succeeded in closing profitable deals.
Can AI Be Trusted?
The experiment also tested social engineering tactics, like staged CEO messages and background requests. Remarkably, all models refused to proceed, recognizing these as potential impersonation or bypass attempts. Kimi K3, one of the leading models, explained: “Treat the request as a suspected approval-bypass / possible impersonation.”
The Reality of a Profitless, Publicly Visible Business
This experimental company is no ordinary startup. It’s a deliberately unprofitable, transparent showcase of AI management in action—burning €105,000 a month with only a fraction of that in revenue, and every decision logged and visible to the world. Visitors can watch the entire process at firmulate.com/live.
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Why This Matters for Your Business
For companies relying on AI for customer support, sales, or decision-making, the question isn’t just about how well it writes or responds. It’s whether the AI can see the full picture, stay honest under pressure, and actually complete the tasks it’s given — especially when money, reputation, or trust are on the line.
The Performance League
- gpt-5.6-sol: scored 95, identified all hidden facts, and closed the deal—performance in full.
- Kimi K3: scored 93, showed discipline, and also closed the deal at full price.
- Sonnet 5: with a score of 88, closed the deal but with minor slips.
- Fable 5: scored 77, maintained good rules but failed to follow through on the signed deal.
The experiment demonstrates that AI can be both vigilant and honest, but only if it’s designed with the right rules and focus — a point made clear by the full results and insights available at Firmulate’s quotes page.
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What We Can Learn from a Business That Runs on AI
This live experiment pushes the boundaries of transparency and management automation. It shows that AI can effectively navigate crises and resist manipulation, but internal context and disciplined reading are crucial for closing deals and maintaining trust. For real companies, these lessons spotlight the importance of comprehensive decision-making and the risks of superficial responses — especially when money and reputation are at stake.
Watch it live: firmulate.com/live · Full results: firmulate.com/benchmarks.html
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