Today we’d like to introduce you to Thomas Dunagan
Hi Thomas, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Much of my time early in my career revolved around a combination of customer service and entertainment. Often those two ideas didn’t directly cross paths. Having found my life at a bit of a crossroads in my career where I was finding myself dissatisfied with the corporate norms and lack of autonomy in my work environments. In knowing the skills I acquired in my personal life and work life I felt was capable to handle stepping out onto my own stage into the entrepreneurial world of starting a business.
I discovered escape rooms nearly ten years ago completely blown away by the concept of it. Having experience in game design and being a huge board game nerd I absolutely loved everything about what escape rooms were and could be. The idea of creating elaborate puzzle games with beautiful set design seemed to be such an intriguing medium to fall into. The beginning of the year in 2018 I started putting together the plans and ideas in pursuing the dream of starting up my own escape adventure company. That fall I signed a lease to a 4000 square foot location in the south side of Helen, GA and began my foray into building what would become a life-changing endeavor.
The open floor space allowed total control of creativity in building out all the walls to future adventures, adding a kitchen for our future staff, and installing a second bathroom for our guests. For the most part between my father and myself we did all of the ground work. I didn’t have the financial means to hire out contractors to the buildout of everything and honestly I’m glad I did it the way we did. From putting up hundreds of feet of framed walls, hanging hundreds of sheets of drywall, and laying well over 1800 square feet of tile. I’m proud of the work that we put into every square foot of the space.
After that came the escape game buildouts. Now the one thing I pride my company off of is we build completely original games from the ground up. I ton of thought, planning, designing, redesigning, and development goes into every aspect of our games. With each and every game I try and reinvent the wheel. I try to maintain a unique style for each of our adventures. Over the course of these five years we currently have three unique adventures with a fourth coming along quite soon. Eventually the space will have six unique offering for guests to experience.
Since day one my number one priority was to give guests the best possible experience when they visit us. I myself have played well over 200 different escape games and continue to do so. I maintain to this day to treat our guests the way I hope to be treated when I visit another escape company. I believe we have continued to be successful in that regard. Having become the highest rated independent escape room company in Georgia, we have over 500 five star reviews on Google and continue to get high praise from new and experienced guests visiting from all over the country. It has absolutely been the most humbling and fulfilling opportunity.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Being my first foray into the entrepreneurial world I knew there would be difficulties along the way. I consider myself very much a realist and I try not to ever panic or be reactionary in all situations. I think maintaining that composure with the business has been monumental in my ability to weather the storms and stay level headed in the positives. I think when anyone starts a business. Everything has moved much slower than I expected. Staffing has had it’s ups and downs. Seasonal business in a tourist town makes juggling revenue a bit uncertain. Dividing time between financials, operations, and construction can sometimes be disorienting in feeling like I’m exceling in all areas. Having total autonomy can often lead to a struggle of finding that constant drive and self-motivation to push things forward. I’m grateful for the struggles as I think they have continued to push my resilience to handling them better and better as the years have continued.
We’ve been impressed with The Lost Room Escape Adventures, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Our business allows guests to get lost in unforgettable adventures. We provide a unique puzzle game with fun and immersive environments allowing guests to forget about the world for an hour or so. I get to build and design those games, hire individuals who care about what we do and impress that goal to our guests, and maintain the ins and outs that keep the doors open.
I like to think we put our guests experience first above all else. I think every business has different philosophies of thought in what their goal is. Most look at a bottom line number. Many owners open a business hire some people to run it and you never see the owner again. I do this because I love it. If I ever lose my passion for this industry I’ll just go do something else. Almost any time our doors are open, I am there. I love to engage with guests about their experience with us. Escape rooms are a dime a dozen these days. I love getting the chance to provide guests with an experience with us. I want to set the bar high in the quality of this industry. Nothing makes me more humbled and appreciative then when I hear guests say we were the best part of their vacation or we were the best escape experience they’ve ever had.
Any big plans?
I hope we can continue to expand currently where we are at. I plan on having three more escape adventures open at the current location with their own unique twist. From there, I haven’t quite decided but many guests would like to see us expand to more locations. I’m not sure I’m quite ready to jump off that measure. Then again who knows where the next five years can take you.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://lostroomescapeadventures.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lostroomescapeadventures/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thelostroomofhelen/
Image Credits
Jordan Maldonado
Eleven Thirteen
Video and Photography
https://www.eleventhirteen.me/
