Imperial Re-theme

The recent Shut Up & Sit Down Review of Imperial 2030 got me thinking again about this personal favorite of mine(Imperial anyway, but they're basically the same game).

I love the mechanics and flow of the game as you build up your countries just enough and plan the perfect time to suck them dry of money.

However, the theme has always been a mismatch in my opinion. Buying equity in an entity, building its value, and then cashing out seems like an odd mechanic set to stick a risk style theme on.

So, in that spirit, what theme do you think would be a better fit?

My thoughts: I've recently gotten into HBO's Silocon Valley, so naturally my mind went to the theme of tech Venture Capitalists.

Tech Companies would replace the countries.

Instead of factories, you buy Staff. You'll still have two types, but instead of navies and armies, it will be sales staff and engineers. The sales staff create ads that will be used to "transport" your engineers' tech to customers(just like the navies transport armies). Same kind of combat mechanic would work since it would fit with the game theory of marketing(marketing is just one big prisoners dilemma where both sides would be better off if they mutually didn't run ads but you're much better off if you run ads when your competitor doesn't).

As for the board, that's a bit trickier. Instead of gobbling up small countries, you're earning customers. I'm not sure how to design this in an intuitive and visually pleasing way. But that's what game designers get paid for right?

What do you guys thinK?