Today we’d like to introduce you to Jonathan Murrell.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
A family friend, Mark, asked me to meet for lunch to discuss a business idea in late 2013. Over burgers and fries, we became business partners and The Escape Game was born. At the time, my older brother, James, and I owned another business. I somehow convinced him to take a leap of faith and leave that business behind to pursue The Escape Game together.
Mark, James, and I agreed that taking care of people, both our guests and our team members, would be our top priority. We started dreaming up game concepts and built our original adventure in Mark’s basement. The first run-through with friends took over 2 hours to complete and received less than rave reviews. But we were determined. We embarked on a seemingly endless cycle of testing, revising, refining, and repeating until our game was ready for the public.
The three of us were involved in every aspect of the grand opening of our first location in Nashville, Tennessee, from building the games ourselves, to answering phones, and everything in between. We received incredible feedback from our first guests- smiling faces, cheers, laughs and 5-star reviews flooded in. We started with 3 co-founders and 1 team member and quickly experienced amazing growth. Five years later, we’ve grown to 400+ team members with 13 locations and counting.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It’s been an amazing journey! Of course, with growth, there are always challenges. We’ve definitely had to learn from trial and error and have made plenty of mistakes along the way. Because we are growing so fast, things rapidly change. Early on, we found maintaining a great culture within our team to be a challenge because of the intense pace and our constant flexibility needed at TEG. We’ve found that rallying together around our shared mission, vision and values have helped to build an incredible team culture.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into The Escape Game story. Tell us more about it.
Our mission at The Escape Game is to design and deliver epic interactive experiences for every single guest. Each one of our team members, from game guides to carpenters, to executives, knows our mission statement and how it ties to the work they are doing each day. We genuinely LOVE our guests! We are all united around creating a truly special experience for every guest that enters our doors. We love giving families, friends, and co-workers a memory to talk about for years to come. We constantly use guest feedback to refine our adventures- we are relentless in our pursuit to become the best entertainment concept in the world.
We also have amazing craftsmen and women on our team. All of our games are designed and built in-house by an incredible group of engineers, artists, and carpenters at our warehouse in Nashville, TN.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
I have definitely seen God’s providence in my life and business. We were incredibly blessed to open when we did before the industry really exploded. That almost certainly was a contributing factor to our company’s visibility within the industry and gave us a bit of competitive advantage.
Pricing:
- Gold Rush, $34.99/player plus tax
- The Heist, $34.99/player plus tax
- Playground, $34.99/player plus tax
- Special Ops: Mysterious Market, $34.99/player plus tax
- Prison Break, $34.99/player plus tax
Contact Info:
- Address: 900 Battery Ave SE Suite 1020, Atlanta, GA 30339
- Website: https://theescapegame.com/atlanta/
- Phone: 678-831-6347
- Email: ATLANTA@THEESCAPEGAME.COM
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theescapegame/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheEscapeGame
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheEscapeGame
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-escape-game-atlanta-atlanta-2
- Other: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g60898-d16969414-Reviews-The_Escape_Game_Atlanta-Atlanta_Georgia.html
Image Credit:
The Escape Game
Getting in touch: VoyageATL is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
