927
8 min 19 sec

The Great Escape! Video Game Maker Creates Real-Life Puzzle Rooms

An employee for a video game company turns a childhood love for adventure into a real-life escape room business.
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What It's About

The first American escape room company... and it started as a side hustle!

Business Model
Service
Skills Required
Creativity & Event Planning
Complexity
Medium
Profit Potential
High

Words of Wisdom

The escape room market is a little crowded now, but it's crowded in a similar way that podcasting is crowded … a lot of people still don’t listen to podcasts, and likewise, a lot of people don’t know about escape rooms!

If this is a side hustle concept that interests you, figure out what is already out there and see what kind of added value you can bring to the table.

Fun Fact

Nate Martin has gained some notoriety having been dubbed the “Father of Escape Rooms” in a television appearance several years ago. It seems his budding business operation kicked off an entertainment revolution—it was the first ever American escape room company!

Notes from Chris

Episode 927

Nate Martin loves video games. Growing up, they were his favorite form of entertainment and played a massive role in his life. He loved games so much, he decided to learn all about them in school, earning a Bachelor of Science in Real-Time Interactive Simulation and Computer Science.

This eventually led to a career at Microsoft, followed by a stint running the online services division at Electronic Arts (EA), one of the largest video game companies in the world.

While there, he worked on several well-known games—Battlefield 4, Plants vs. Zombies, and Dragon Age among others. But he wanted to have even more of an impact… and after doing some math, realizing he’d have to work until he was at least 200 years old before becoming the CEO, Nate started thinking about other ways he could make his mark.

It was while working as a senior project manager at EA that he learned about escape rooms. The concept was already quite popular in Japan, where it originated, and Europe, but nobody was really doing it in the U.S. In a typical escape room, a group of 6-10 people are locked in a themed room for an hour. To “break out,” you have to work together to solve a series of puzzles. There’s often a guide or attendant in the room who can help if you get stuck, and it can be a lot of fun to do it with people you know.

The way Nate saw it, real-life escape rooms were the direct, physical manifestation of adventure games that he’d known and loved for decades. It was the next level of gaming!

The more he and his co-founder, Lindsay Morse, got to talking about the escape room concept, the more they wanted to do it. “Someone should bring this to Seattle,” they thought. So, they decided to do just that.

Nate took a “shoot first, ask questions later” approach to getting Puzzle Break off the ground. He held a sincere belief that they should just figure it out as they went. If they succeeded, they could expand. And if they failed, they could do something else.

He and Lindsay also avoided traditional first-steps taken by startups, like market research, saying they had neither the experience nor the patience for it.

Instead, Nate drew inspiration from some of those video games he adored growing up as well as the ones he encountered in adulthood: games like Myst, The Room, and The Legend of Kyrandia. He focused on creating something centered around finding clues, solving puzzles, and joining forces with real people in real life.

And business has grown. Since launching in August 2013, Puzzle Break has gone on to boast seven-figure revenue, five locations, multiple portable experiences for corporate clients, and over a dozen experiences across the Royal Caribbean Cruise Line.

When attracting customers’ attention these days, Nate said they’ve adopted a more traditional approach in the form of Google Ads. Facebook is too far removed from a purchasing decision in his sector and so he doesn’t use it.

Nate left his day job with Electronic Arts to man the helm at Puzzle Break just three months after opening its doors.

He plans to keep cranking out the maximum amount of enjoyment for the maximum amount of people. He’s got several new Puzzle Break locations and experiences in development.



MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

  • Puzzle Break: Break on through to the other side—learn more about this adventurous side hustle over on Nate's website!

SEE ALSO:

Inspiration is good; inspiration combined with action is better. Now get back to work!

Yours in the revolution,

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Quote of the Day
"Scaling is nothing more complicated than 'one step at a time.' We know where we want to go. We just have to figure out the path to get there and walk it!"
—Nate Martin #SideHustleSchool

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To infinity and beyond,

Chris Guillebeau