March 20, 2017

Meet April Simmons of The Escapery in Marietta

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to April Simmons.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
My husband, Marc and I opened Cobb County’s only hand crafted escape room game in February of 2016. Within the growing market of escape room games, The Escapery is different in several key ways: 1) Marc, a Georgia Tech graduate, actually hand builds every one of the puzzles in our escape room, 2) We are specifically family friendly with an emphasis on hospitality- full service events and parties; 3) The Escapery offers team building packages that are custom tailored to each professional organization’s needs: 4) The culture of The Escapery and the customer service delivered by our crew engages our customers and creates a unique and fun filled adventure for families, school groups, civic organizations, ladies night’s out or just a fun social outing. A testimony to the unique nature of The Escapery and the way that we connect with our guests is the fact that in just a year we have generated over 200 five star reviews and become Trip Advisor’s #1 recommended activity in Marietta’s line up of fun and games.

Marc and I live in Marietta with our three year old daughter. We are committed to creating a culture of growth and trust within our team, delivering the absolute best in experiential entertainment and corporate team building and giving back to our guests and community. Marc left a lucrative job in consulting and I joined The Escapery crew after a career in medical sales followed by two years as a stay at home mom. We sold our house and cashed out our retirement in pursuit of our dreams. We find that we engage with our customers because we are one of them- their neighbor, the mom they see at school pick up or the Dad schlepping his toddler around on his hardware store trips.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
We certainly faced some struggles during start up and over the last year as a new business. We leased and began renovating a space when we discovered that the county would not allow us to operate within the zone we had chosen, after months of hard work, thousands of dollars, obtaining a lawyer, and collaborating with our landlord, we were able to receive a special permit.

Once established, we realized that converting warehouse space to something usable was beyond our budget. Again, we spent months trying multiple solutions until another unit in our complex opened up that exactly suited our needs. We moved in February of this year and are truly on the path to the success that we have dreamed of and worked so hard for.

The Escapery – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
The Escapery is an escape room game and event venue. We facilitate groups as they navigate our escape rooms- live games in which players solve riddles and puzzles while using clues, team work and ingenuity to accomplish a goal within an hour. The Escapery specializes in forming connections between people as they play our games. Players connect with each other while spending an hour of device free time laughing and working together. Guests connect with our amazing team members as they guide them through an adventure.

The Escapery is most known for the intricacy and detail of our hand crafted escape games. First time players and guests that have attended dozens of escape games all recognize the quality and originality of our games. Our highly engaged and passionate staff of gamers, artists and engineers create a truly immersive experience for each of guest, who leave excited and spend hours talking over their adventure.

We are most proud of the culture that we have created both within our team at The Escapery and in our community of Adventurers. The response from the public has been overwhelming and gratifying and the commitment and passion that our crew bring to the table have truly left us in awe of what happens when you prioritize relationships and connection.

What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
Recently, while completing a business related application, I was asked to use three words to describe the culture of The Escapery. I messaged our team and asked their thoughts. The answers were humbling and brought tears to my eyes: tight knit, passionate, fun, committed, diligent, creative, engaged, authentic, personalized… As in any business, we hope to achieve financial success and are putting in the work needed to do so. But to know that in such a short time, with the help of many amazing people, we have been able to create a culture that our team describes using these words- words that came from their hearts, not just their heads or professional personas- feels like success. Marc and I are proud and honored to be engaged with our crew and guests at such an intimate and emotional level.

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