You can click here to see the full published article by UNREAL Rockstars.
Give a short introduction to yourself and your backstory (where did you grow up, what led you to where you are now?)
I grew up in Bedford. Piqued your interest with that sentence, didn’t I? Maybe let’s not begin there. Let’s fast forward ahead a bit from that. Let’s start with how me and business partner met. We met at school in 1997 and were pretty much best friends from there on out. We went travelling together on a stereotypical gap year in 2008. From that we got a love for travel. In 2011 after university, we had the stupid idea to start a hostel, with Nick suggesting we use shipping containers. Now, back in 2011 using shipping containers in construction wasn’t really a thing, let alone making a sick hostel for back packers to hang out. We won an award from Shell-LiveWire and got a Government start-up business loan. I even got Dragon’s Den’s James Khan to review our business plan by loitering outside his office and treating his receptionist to some chocolates.
In 2014 we launched the world's first pop-up hostel made from shipping containers in Edinburgh for the Summer. In 2017 we launched a hotel/hostel in Myanmar on the beach after Nick went on holiday there. We used to spend our summers in Edinburgh and take it in turns to live out in Burma, running the hostel during the dry season.
Throughout the hospitality years we also used to design, play, and make treasure hunt games/scavenger hunts for our guests to enjoy, as well as other customers UK wide. Up to 2020 these were ticking along nicely.
Then Covid hit.
Needless to say, there weren’t any Government support grants or furlough out in Myanmar so as you can imagine having our hospitality businesses end overnight wasn’t pretty. I remember seeing cancelation after cancelation coming in for both the hostel and the treasure hunting business - it was sickening feeling.
I remember sitting around in my boxers, drinking cider on furlough playing video games. My partner, who’s a solicitor, pleading with me to shut up and stop screaming at the computer. We had a small flat and she had important calls... well Call of Duty is important too!
After a few weeks of that (maybe months – it was all a blur) we had an idea to pivot to making puzzle boardgames. After going onto flexi furlough so we could do a bit of work, we not only released Puzmat to huge success and acclaim, but we also taught ourselves, with the help of some mentors, to run an e-commerce business.
Question 2: Can you briefly describe what your company does and the problem it solves?
We make treasure hunts, team building exercises and puzzle board games.
Got a bank holiday or weekend free? Fancy exploring a new destination? Why not play one of our outdoor treasure hunts. It’s great way to exercise, see the sites of the city, learn a bit of history and use your brain. Plus, you get to finish at the pub afterwards for a well-deserved refreshing drink.
Need a present or something quirky and fun to play with the family for games night or over Christmas? Puzmat is the answer. It’s like an escape room on a mat. Sick of arguing with each other over Monopoly or other competitive board games? Why not argue and bicker but all be on the same team, working out brain teasers, puzzles and codes to beat Puzmat together.
Got a beautiful location that you want to show off? A castle, botanical gardens or zoo? Why not enhance your visitors experience with an interactive educational treasure hunt. It can act as a self-guided walking tour activity, driving footfall to lesser known exhibits. It can entertain the kids. It can generate great memories and pictures for visitors to share on social media and beyond.
Boss just said “we need a team building next month” but you don’t know what to plan, and would rather just go to the pub? Well, why not do an interactive treasure hunt which ends up at the pub (hopefully the boss can pay the bar tab).
Question 3: What inspired you to start this business?
I used to run pub crawls when I left university, then ran hostels and made silly games for our guests. Nick was a product designer at university and made fun games and then Puzmat. So it was a logical step. Being the MD of a hostel you kind of know how to ice break and enhance people’s stay, customer service was always my forte. After Covid it all just started to click into place and expanding out from Treasure Hunt games for guests into the general market and then running team building activities for companies all felt right.
Question 4: What makes your company stand out from competitors?
Fun, energy, attention to detail. We’re customer focused - sometimes in meetings I tell potential clients that our game might not be right for them, because making sure they have the best fun possible is my priority.
Planning a team building exercise for your colleagues is hard, sometimes even annoying, and it has often been put on your plate on top of everything else you have to do at work! Plus, there's pressure and expectations from colleagues for it to be well organised and enjoyable. I don’t want having a team building with us to feel like a presentation in front of the board (even if you need to actually do one to get sign off). That’s where I step in, making the process effortless, holding your hand the entire way, giving you all the materials you need to show the powers that be and making a killer team building event for any office culture. Want the pub involved and some silly photo challenges? Boom! Want to write some bespoke questions about the CEO’s favourite karaoke song? Done! Want a more serious affair using your brain and working out puzzles? We’ve got you covered.
We know exactly what it’s like doing these events. My MO is to help our customers make great memoires, have a laugh, and do a quirky activity that your work mates say was worth it (and you end up getting props for).
Question 5: What has been the biggest challenge you’ve faced so far, and how did you overcome it?
Like I said earlier, the start of Covid sucked.
Towards the end of Covid, Puzmat was exploding. We did £60k revenue in the month before Christmas in 2021 on our Shopify website alone. We thought we were going to be set. We even celebrated by going out for dinner at the top the Shard. Looking back on it I cringe. We hadn’t even launched in Europe or the US. I honestly thought in my head we couldn’t fail. Our blow up was because we were running some brilliant Meta ads. We paid back our Covid loans early. We registered for VAT.
But, everything slowed down all as we were launching in the US and Germany. The money started to go out faster and faster and less and less was coming in. The IOS 14 update tanked our Meta ads. It was the perfect storm. Cashflow is everything. I look back on that time a wish to God we didn’t pay our Covid loans back early. Just 6 months after paying back nearly £30k in Covid loans we had nothing in the bank. We had to get an overdraft, borrow from Shopify and take a business loan out with our bank. The interest on these plus paying 20% VAT on all our sales just ate into our margins and plus the warehouse costs on US and EU stock meant we had sweet FA for ourselves.
Over the next two years we limped by. Dying a death of 1000 cuts. We deregistered for VAT. We both got part time jobs. Nick is in the Territorial Army and started to go away on army exercises. I got a job managing a pub in Wimbledon and then went traveling for 6 months with my now fiancée. The passion was gone – for the business, not the fiancée!
In the Summer of 2023 we did three big team building exercises. At the time of writing this we have done over 35 big team buildings for Summer 2024 with lots of Christmas events in the diary. Things are starting to look much better for 2025.
Lessons learned from this period are:
- There are always surprise costs, have an emergency fund.
- Don’t be too reliant on one form of marketing or lead generation. Or one client that generates most of your revenue. All it takes is for something to change or for them to pull out and you suddenly have very little.
- Product is king. The only marketing you can truly rely on is word of mouth. Make the experience you give people the number one goal. They will tell their friends and family. They will come back.
Question 6: What’s been your proudest achievement since launching your company?
I mean, I love my job, I love customer service, I love hosting treasure hunts, team building activities and giving people games that they love to play. Be it at home with the family for a games night over Christmas or a huge 200-person team building in Hyde Park. Nothing beats the feeling of a great review where they say “that was so much fun, I’m going to tell all my friends about you and can’t wait to do another”.
Question 7: What are your key goals for the next 12 months?
I have a good feeling about 2025. The plan is to continue to build on the teambuilding games. Really focus on creating brilliant corporate team building treasure hunts, pub crawl games and social events that are fun, help teams gel and create a lasting imprint on the team.
Our primary goal is to develop treasure hunts and interactive games for attractions across the UK. We aim to create mobile phone-based treasure hunts for locations like castles, zoos, and stately homes, offering visitors an engaging, self-guided experience. These games will serve as educational, interactive, and enjoyable walking tours, designed to enhance the overall experience at each site. Partnering with just a few key charities and attractions in the UK would represent a significant milestone in achieving this vision.
Question 8: What has your experience been like building a business in your country, and what key benefits or challenges should new entrepreneurs from your area be aware of?
It always takes longer than you think it will, costs more than you even conservatively budgeted for and is harder than you ever prepared for it to be.
I like to share a little life paradox with people: when you're young, you have plenty of time and good health, but little money. As you reach middle age, you gain some financial stability and still have your health, but free time becomes scarce, with family and work. Then, in retirement, you finally have both time and money—but often not your health.
I guess what I’m trying to say is find something in your life that can help you break that paradox. Money isn’t everything, all it does is give you choices. Try to prioritise your time and health, as well as business success.
Question 9: What advice would you give to others starting a similar business, and what key challenges should they focus on overcoming?
This is going to turn into a bit of a life coaching paragraph. I am writing some new gamified workshops for teambuilding events that have life lessons and are fun and easy to remember. Better than sitting through a boring three-hour seminar or video workshop on resilience training.
Running an event company is about demonstrating competency. You need to demonstrate that you’re going to deliver on what you say you will. Social proof, reviews and testimonies are where it all begins. Ensure your website is clean and professional, with well-written PDFs and engaging videos that clearly explain your product. Don’t hesitate to create personalised videos or Loom recordings to share with the organiser, so they can easily present your offering to colleagues and decision-makers. Remember, it’s not always the person you’re dealing with that is the decision maker, so you’ve got to give them everything they need to pitch it to their colleagues.
Write everything down, it helps you to remember details. The number of times I’ve ordered at a restaurant and the waiter doesn’t write it down and forgets something is astronomical.
Get proficient at a little bit of everything. Google everything, speak to ChatGPT, there’s nothing a few hours on YouTube, or talking to ChatGPT can’t help you with. Starting out you won’t have the money or resources to pay someone to do a lot of things. You must rely on yourself and maybe someone from Fiver for the complicated tasks (but do read their reviews). The output and responses you get from people are only as good as the communication you give as input. So be clear, concise and set easily digestible targets.
If you like this gritty and honest interview you can check out the published article by UNREAL Rockstars here!