Love, Startup & Co-founder

Love, Startup, and Co-Founder is a adventure visual novel game that blends with startup management simulation.

"Let's start a company!"

After graduating from university, you fail to find a job and have nowhere to go. At your roommate’s suggestion, you are pulled into an unprepared startup plan: no experience, no resources, no salary, and only the rough idea for an unfinished AI-girlfriend app.

You must make choices with limited time, money, and energy: start a company, develop an AI product, and build a team; or give up on unrealistic fantasies, continue job hunting, enter a major corporation, and become a stable but gradually numb office worker.

The five heroines are not only romanceable characters, but also your partners, coworkers, and unavoidable relationships in your life. Career choices will change intimate relationships, while emotional bonds will also influence the path of your startup.

What will you choose? Set out on an adventure and build together!

Ishi Yoru

Fresh university graduate (Job hunting now)

The protagonist of this story. A computer science graduate of Ibaraki University, he was an excellent student known to everyone as the "Cum Laude". After graduation, however, as a result of economy downturn, the brutal job market competition left him stucked in his rented room, sending out résumés online every day in search of a way forward. Earnest and steady, he stays calm under pressure. A rational, dependable person who is always carrying a strong sense of responsibility toward everyone and everything around him.

Hai Jin

Fresh university graduate (Hikikomori)

The protagonist's roommate and childhood buddy. As a fresh graduate of Ibaraki University with business management degree, however, he has no business sense at all. Always has a messy mop of silver-gray hair and perpetually half-asleep eyes. He was once a textbook-perfect rich kid, but his family later fell on hard times. Laid-back by nature, he acts purely on whim. Slacker though he seems, he's surprisingly well-versed in all sorts of shortcuts and schemes sometimes. He is a silver-tongued story-teller, and a downright genius at selling pipe dreams.

Haruka Tani

UI/UX Designer (Intern)

A second-year student majored in visual design at Ibaraki University. Somehow shy by nature and prone to blushing for no reason. She rarely says much, preferring to express her delicate inner feelings through arts. Gifted with an exceptional eye for aesthetics and a talent for drawing, she is sharply observant, masterful with color, devoted to beauty, and attentive to every detail. She is good at capturing the little joys of everyday life into her work, and her talent and potential in design never fail to impress people.

Nana Hara

Marketing Manager

A lively, sharp-tongued influencer and livestreamer. She started creating content at the age of 16 and was later scouted by a famous MCN agency. With a keen nose for what goes viral, she's personally churned out plenty of smash-hit short videos. Quick-witted and razor-sharp with words, she understands human nature inside out and excels at personal branding. She currently runs the "Queen Nana" account on a wildly popular social platform, cultivating an independent-woman persona and has millions of followers. She has a fierce hunger for money, forever dropping the line "that's an extra cost".

Shizuka Hayashi

Junior Front-End Engineer

An quiet girl with a slightly wavy side ponytail, always wearing thin-rimmed glasses. As an introvert, she doesn't talk much and seems to have mild social anxiety. Graduated from a second-tier university, she lacks confidence and feels awkward in most social settings. She is extremely conscientious about her work and used to quietly burying herself in code. Not very good at communication, she often finds it far more comfortable to deal with machines than people.

Natsumi Blanc

Product Manager

A multiracial beauty who is one-quarter French. Graceful in manner and gentle in speech, her soft voice puts everyone at ease. Natsumi carries a rare air, with her own distinctive understanding and ideals that come across as a touch idealistic in today's business climate. Deeply committed to user experience, she refuses to compromise just to make the numbers look good, and willingly spends ample time on market research, hoping to build products that users genuinely need and love.

Rin Mori

Angel Investor

Founder of the Woman Combination (WC) investment fund. Revered in venture-capital circles as the "Angel of Investment", nearly every project she backs delivers outsized returns, with a hit rate as high as 90%. Always clad in a purple velvet suit and a pencil skirt, her presence fills the room at the moment her heels touch the floor. She has a keen, original read on market trends and an uncannily precise eye for investment—famous for demolishing founders with sharp questions.

Ryou Takagi

Unicorn Startup Founder & CEO

Founder and CEO of the AI startup SYNTH♥, a Foxbes 30 Under 30 honoree with dual degrees in Computer Science and an MBA from Spamfold, plus a PhD in artificial intelligence. He boasts astonishing execution and business insight. Coding since childhood, he was active as an indie developer across major open-source geek communities back in his school days, building considerable influence. He has launched three successful startups in a row and once worked at the renowned tech company CloseAI, taking part in large-scale multimodal training projects.