What Deadlock (the game) teaches us about startups

(6 Minute Read) Three Transferrable Lessons from MOBAs to Startups

👋🏼 I’m Alek, a repeat founder with a successful exit. I share my experience navigating career and company-building challenges in 5-minute reads every week. My posts typically focus on building resilience and applying a practical, data-driven mindset to your ambitions.

Screenshot from Deadlock by Valve

What Deadlock (the game) teaches us about startups

In a previous article, I shared the principles we can learn from Hades II and apply to building a company. For the last few weeks, I’ve been playing a new game, Deadlock, and it’s taught me a few valuable lessons that I wanted to share. Deadlock is a multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game where two teams compete to capture each other’s base. It’s fast-paced, tactical, and conveniently packed with insights that map directly to building a company.

You can’t skip the grind

In a MOBA like Deadlock, players begin with a clean slate. Your character starts at level one, and your goal is to level up as quickly as possible to gain an advantage over the opposing team. In the early game, the best way to do this is by defeating NPCs (non-player characters). It’s not glamorous, but it's essential. You build momentum slowly, working through tasks that feel repetitive and tedious. Ultimately, you have to be precise about when you transition from NPC farming to fighting other players.

This principle carries through to building a company: there’s no skipping the grind. Building a successful company demands the same early-game focus on repetitive, unsexy work—whether it’s cold calling, customer interviews, iterating on designs, or solving foundational problems that don’t make headlines. There’s always the temptation to skip ahead to the more exciting parts but, often, your focus is pulled away from the grind too early. You can’t rush the process. Mastering the basics is what prepares you for the bigger fights down the line.

Play to *your* strengths

In Deadlock, every player selects a character to play as and each character has a distinct role and play-style. Some characters are aggressive and thrive in close combat. Other characters stay at a distance, poking enemies with ranged attacks. Still others are built to support their teammates, healing and shielding them in battle.

I’ve always gravitated to the support roles, “Who can I play as who will help my teammates the most.” When I play characters that don’t line-up with this identity, I don’t play as well. If I play as:

• An aggressive character who requires taking huge risks → I typically shy away from taking the gambles that I need to make big plays happen.

• A character that excels at poking the enemy team from afar → I lose focus when a teammates need support. I rush in to help but I end up in the fray without a character that’s built for close quarter combat.

I’ve found this to be one of the game's most important lessons. When building a company, just like in Deadlock, success comes from understanding and embracing your own strengths.

When I play as a support character in games, my whole focus for the game is, “How can I help my teammates be there best selves?” If I’m playing with a teammate who excels at diving in and taking huge gambles, I try my best to create opportunities for them and keep them alive when they do take these risks. If I’m playing with a teammate who excels at doing damage from afar, I strive to keep the opposing team’s players distracted and far away from my teammate.

I want the company I’m building to reflect the same attitude, everywhere from pricing to the user experience. Every decision I make should be toward whatever helps my customers the most. Even seemingly arbitrary decisions like pricing—I’m reframing how I think away from “What do other people charge for similar services?” toward “What’s a sustainable price that will allow me to keep investing in making this a better product for my customers?”

In moments where I’ve tried on the “aggressive salesperson” hat or the “build something and see what happens” shoes, I’ve enjoyed the work far less than when I’m building something that actually benefits real people. Knowing who you are and where your strengths lie is critical, not just to success in a startup, but also to enjoying the journey.

Everybody has their own opinion on what’s “best” for you

In Deadlock, as you level up your character, you’re presented with different skills and upgrades to choose from. You can follow “build paths” that others recommend—guides that tell you which upgrades to acquire and in what order. Some players religiously follow these guides, assuming they provide the best path to success.

But here’s the thing: what works for someone else might not work for you. Your choice depends on how you want to play your character, who your teammates are, who you’re up against, and what the situation demands. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution. The same build that works wonders in one game can fall flat in another because the dynamics are different. In the end, you have to adapt your strategy based on your playstyle and the unique circumstances of each match.

The startup world is no different. Everyone has an opinion on what’s “best” for you and your company. From pricing models to growth strategies, you’ll be bombarded with advice from mentors, investors, and even well-meaning friends. Some of it will be invaluable, but some of it won’t apply to you at all. Just like in Deadlock, where the best strategy depends on the player, the best business advice depends on you, your strengths, and your specific business context.

For example, some founders thrive on rapid, aggressive scaling. They chase growth, take risks, and dive headfirst into new markets. Others, like me, prefer a more methodical, customer-focused approach. It’s tempting to look at successful companies and think, “That’s the path I should follow,” but the truth is, what works for one company doesn’t always translate to another. Success is about finding your own way, making decisions that align with your vision and strengths, and knowing when to disregard the noise.

Real victory comes when you stop trying to fit into someone else’s mold and start shaping your path based on what’s right for you.

Lessons Learned and Moving Forward

Ultimately, these lessons from Deadlock apply directly to the entrepreneurial journey: embrace the grind, play to your strengths, and trust your instinct. Building a company, like playing a competitive MOBA, is all about balance—balancing long-term goals with short-term tasks, balancing your unique strengths with the feedback you receive, and balancing when to listen to others or trust your gut.

Just as no two games of Deadlock are the same, no two startups follow the exact same path. The key is to learn from the experience, adjust your strategy, and keep pushing forward, all while remembering that success comes from perseverance, adaptability, and a willingness to forge your own path.

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By sharing my experiences, I hope to provide insight and advice to entrepreneurs facing similar challenges. Please leave a comment or email me with any questions.