If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently? The fact that we are able to cater for life changing events like this is priceless.

A perfect example of this is the multiple proposals that have taken place in our rooms. We currently offer a “confidential mission.” Essentially, we allow the customer to slightly alter the storyline/objectives of the room that they choose and include personalized gifts/items to be hidden in the room. One other thing that sets us apart from the competition is our special packages. I believe that’s one of the most unique things in our industry – it’s that we design and build everything ourselves! Our staff has been fantastic at designing more and more unique rooms and experiences. What thrilled me about designing an escape room was the notion that all of these teams of people were excited to follow the weird way that my brain works and that everyone who had a good time in Agent Mo’s Safehouse, was actually having a good time with me! These 6 walls have become a unique canvas for the art of escape room design, and I believe we’re just beginning to understand what makes an escape room truly transcendent and memorable! Although the puzzles are challenging, we have designed our rooms to be enjoyable to groups of all ages. Our rooms challenge and encourage teams to work together harmoniously and it’s what makes each session memorable. What I most enjoy about Houston Escape Room is the idea of bringing groups of friends, family, coworkers, and even strangers to work together towards a common goal. Your team’s mission in an escape room is to solve clues and puzzles as a team and to escape within the one-hour time limit. Please tell us about Houston Escape Room. We took care of our staff the best we could, and we just tried to help our Houston bounce back by being a distraction for them even if it was for just an hour. Our city was hurting and the last thing anyone was looking to do was to pay for entertainment. While we were fortunate to not take on too much flood damage, we are still feeling the ripple effects to this day. We had a team of 4 running the business and they were the reason we were able to keep the business alive even though we weren’t there.Īnother tough obstacle we’ve had to face was Hurricane Harvey in August 2017. By leaving, we had to find people we really trusted. And if it didn’t go well, we could just fold it up and move on. We figured that if the business went well, we’d have a good problem on our hands. We always knew we were going to move, but we also had to give this business a try. My wife and I moved to New York about 5 months after we started the business. It hasn’t been a smooth road, but that’s also what makes our journey amazing. Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way? Through the support of our amazing friends, word of Houston Escape Room started spreading, and we eventually grew out of our old location and started creating new escape room experiences by Minute Maid. My favorite feedback was from my friend, Cimela – she told me that she “loved it because for one hour, I could just forget about work and stress and just focus on trying to escape.” With the encouragement of our friends, my wife and I decided to rent a small room for 4 months in the attic of this 3-story house in the Rice village to validate the market. We made it in my home office and got some pretty good feedback.

I was disappointed when I couldn’t find one so I solicited help from my friend, Melissa, to make one at home for friends and family to try. I was excited to do one myself so I searched for one in Houston. I first heard about escape rooms when my friend from college emailed me a New York Times article about how escape rooms were spreading like wildfire in China.

So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story. Today we’d like to introduce you to Ed Chao.

Escape room houston