When we launched Gamification in Hero House Yerevan during Armenia Startup Academy (ASA) in March 2018, we started using Hero Coins (1HC=1,000AMD) as motivating mechanism. Hero Coins are the initial part of Hero Economy™ we have created for our startups. Core of Hero Economy™ is inspired by by Tim Draper’s vision of enabling an environment where entrepreneurs help each other through favors. As a result, following principles were applied:

• Startups are motivated to support each other,

• Startups provide perks and discounts to each other,

• Hero House stays as a connecting point for ASA alumni.

After graduating from ASA, the startups can use their HeroCoins for various services Hero House offers. Here is the list of services every alumni can use HeroCoins on:

In addition, to make it easier for the teams to do favors for one another, teams create a pricetable specific to the services they can offer as a favor and get a few Hero Coins for doing it. It’s a small favor to their peers, but big one to our startup community. As well as it’s great chance to get early adopters/testers for their new products/features.

Moreover, the offering also gives the advantage of receiving valuable feedback from experts in the community owning Hero Coins. For consulting, helping and introducing, we leave the pricing flexible and founders can decide it on their own. As of now, the transactions are managed manually. We collect information on weekly basis whether Hero Coins were spent and/or received.