Today we’d like to introduce you to Steven Winder.
Hi Steven, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstories.
Originally from Everett, WA, I have lived in Maryland for the past 25 years. After graduating from UMBC I ended up working in the Casino industry. In 2016, I went to play in an escape room with some friends for my birthday and the idea that would eventually become Clue IQ was born. I fell in love with the concept of an interactive game built around puzzles that felt like bringing a video game into real life or jumping into a movie. No more sitting and watching, with an escape room people could be the hero in their own adventures. I got to work on a business plan and immediately knew Frederick was the perfect place to open. It was in desperate need of a new form of entertainment, especially one that adults could enjoy. By January of 2017, we had found a charming historical warehouse from the 1800s where we were going to be able to create these amazing adventures. We spent months in construction and with a lot of help from my family and Cora, the coolest dog ever, Clue IQ officially opened its doors in May of 2017. I left my career behind and quit my job a week before opening day.
It has been an exciting 5+ years since opening, including the biggest change in my life when in 2018 I met my future wife, Lisa, and I will forever be a better person because of it. Not only has she been the most amazing partner in life but she joined Clue IQ full-time in 2019 and has been indispensable ever since. Together we have grown Clue IQ to an industry leader and just signed on for our 3rd expansion which will make Clue IQ the largest escape room facility in the state. A few of our games have even won international awards in the escape room industry. One of our games “Crane Manor” was recognized as one of the top 20 games in the world in 2021. Overall we have created 10 different escape games and hosted more than 50,000 players from all over the world. We don’t do it alone though, continued help from family and an amazing staff of some truly incredible people have played a huge role in helping us get to where we are today. Most importantly thank you to all of the people who decided to go out and try something new and give us a chance.
It is really amazing that my job is to help people have fun and it has been very rewarding seeing how much people love the adventures our games send them on. Lisa and I are both avid escape room enthusiasts having played over 500 games combined all over the country. It has always been important to us to help the industry grow and improve.
In 2020 I accepted an offer to join the board of ERGO, an international organization of escape room owners dedicated to developing and maintaining best practices in the immersive entertainment industry. Today Lisa, Cora, and I are focused on building 3 brand new experiences over the next year and continuing to improve all of our existing products. Thank you to everyone who helped me get here, and to everyone who decides to come to check us out, it’s a ton of fun you will love it!
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?
One of the biggest challenges was in educating the public about what an “escape room” even was. Many locations wouldn’t give us a lease, banks wouldn’t deal with us, and various contractors weren’t interested because they didn’t understand what the business was. It made everything take longer in the early stages but thankfully we were able to push through and I believe we found the perfect location. Then there was the public, our customers, how do we get them to understand what this is all about? What we learned very quickly is the general assumption was it was some sort of horror-based experience. Our potential customers were literally afraid to try something new. It was a constant battle over the first few years to try and educate people that escape rooms are about fun above all else. Just like movies, the vast majority are not meant to scare you, but instead, take you on a fun adventure. And NO you are not ever locked in or “trapped” anywhere and our games happen to be quite large so you will never feel claustrophobic.
Escape Rooms are about getting together with friends, family, coworkers, and anyone you want, and stepping out of your lives and into an adventure where you get to work together to complete a mission before the time runs out. Think National Treasure but you get to steal the Declaration of Independence instead of watching someone else do it. Today this is much less of a problem as escape rooms have become more and more popular even being featured in TV, movies, video games, and all over social media platforms.
Then came the thing no one could expect, the Corona Virus. In March of 2020, we were ordered to shut our doors with no idea when we would ever be allowed to open again. Being in the entertainment industry we were in the first group ordered to close and one of the last allowed to reopen. Something that a lot of people don’t realize is that even though Clue IQ caters to small private groups we were bound to the same restrictions all large-scale public entertainment businesses were. Rules for theaters that seat 1,000+ or a stadium that seats 30,000+ were applied to our business as well. We ended up being closed for around 100 days and it was the scariest time of my life. We decided to focus on the future and make the best of an awful situation by using that time to improve our business so we could come out of this stronger than ever. With nowhere to go and no people to visit we spent countless hours at Clue IQ remodeling all of our games and even building a brand new one. We wanted to be ready to bring fun back as soon as it was safe to do so again. After reopening, it took almost 2 years to get back to normal operations. We were learning how to best operate on the fly all over again just like when we opened in 2017. Thankfully people were excited to get back out and have some fun again! We are having our best year ever in 2022 and we are so excited for the new adventures we have coming.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
At Clue IQ we create immersive, puzzle-based, gaming challenges known as “Escape Rooms”. You gather a team, enter a themed room (just like stepping into a movie) and work together to search for clues, solve puzzles, and ultimately complete your mission before the time runs out. To simplify, our job is to create fun. This is what Clue IQ is all about at its core. We want everyone who comes, whether it’s for date night, a birthday, a bachelorette party, family day, team building, or just hanging with friends, to forget their life for about an hour and come have a blast in one of our games. We are known for our high-quality sets, our elaborate technical and special effects – which we simply refer to as “magic”, and most of all our friendly and helpful staff.
All of our experiences are entirely private, meaning you only play with the group you bring. Some similar businesses will group players together with strangers but we have always believed the experience is better if it is kept private. You are not alone though! We have a dedicated Game Host assigned to every single group that comes to play. They will greet you and go over all the need-to-know information. Then after they take you to your game room they will monitor your game remotely from our control room. Taking on the role of a helpful character from the story of your game, they are always available to offer assistance during your mission in the form of hints. Unlike some places that focus on defeating the players and limit or penalize the use of hints, our hosts are on the player’s side and genuinely want them to be successful. This is why we never limit how much help you can get. Everyone group has fun in a different way and we do our best to tailor the experience to each group so they can enjoy the game in their own way.
Clue IQ has also won multiple awards in the escape room and immersive entertainment industry and is the top choice of all Maryland escape rooms in the Escape Room Enthusiast community.
Networking and finding a mentor can have such a positive impact on one’s life and career. Any advice?
Be willing to listen! The amount you don’t know will always be greater than what you do. Ask lots of questions and take all of the advice and feedback you can get it. Then get out in your community. Talk with other business owners and find ways to promote and support each other.
There are also groups like SCORE or a local SBDC if you are looking for help in the early stages. I have consulted on a few escape room start-ups and it is really exciting getting to read about someone’s vision and hopefully be able to offer a little bit of advice.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.ClueIQ.com
- Instagram: @clue_iq
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ClueIQ
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/clueiq?lang=en
- Other: https://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g60903-d12416196-Reviews-Clue_IQ_An_Escape_Room_Experience-Frederick_Maryland.html
Image Credits
Pearly Kate Photography
