80 hour weeks are common in Silicon Valley startup-land, but no one’s actually locked in their office. Not so in the Escape Room Geek challenge, where startup employees are physically trapped in a room, with one hour to find the hidden investment check, or bye-bye unicorn status. PanIQ Entertainment opened their San Francisco-based Geek room in 2015, and say it’s popular with Google and Oracle employees. “People don’t necessarily want to step from one office to another,” manager Zoltan Olmosi says, but adds that the communication aspect is appealing for desk-bound techies.
Last year, Olmosi updated his geek room to add more drama — now players have to avoid explosives laid by their coked up boss. The escape room concept is simple; a team of people get locked up for an hour with a number of challenges. If they solve them, they can exit the room. There are now around 6134 escape rooms worldwide according to the Escape Room Directory, especially impressive since the trend started in 2005.
“Escape from startup hell is a new concept,” says Andrew McJannett-Smith, founder of Dallas-based Escape Expert. He says connecting with local culture is a way to capture tourists interest. But scare sociologist Margee Kerr says that real life companies are incentivized to keep their workers on edge. “Media, politicians and those who manufacture pretty much anything have a real incentive to use fear because it's such an efficient motivator. You want someone to vote for you, buy your product, you convince them they are in danger,” she says.
And with awkward exits and startups shuttering, an office can feel like a dangerous place these days. “Felt like we were really in a person's office,” writes Yelp reviewer Eunice, a self-described ‘escape room connoisseur.’
Other Bay Area rooms have more traditional themes — Escape From Alcatraz is offered by EscapeSF.net and Room Escape San Jose, there’s a Houdini room at the Palace of Fine Arts and escape company Ryptic has Escape the Mad Hatter. And then there are the escape rooms that go full Silicon Valley, such as Reason Future Technology Escape Room, a futuristic room that provides players with drones, virtual reality, 3D printing and more (it's on my bucket list now).
But for some players, escapism is too easy — the real challenge is dealing with what life throws at them.
“It was obvious that we need to have some sort of tech-based or geek related room in San Francisco as the technology industry runs the whole area,” says Olmosi. He says that San Francisco geeks may struggle in the game, as they need to use social skills and communication to escape the room. “The main handicap for the geek is too ‘much computer time] and gadgets,” he explains. "In escape games the team building and personal communication is the key, people need to talk and interact physically — not just act in a virtual world.”
Not everyone is a fan of the idea. “I don't think I'd be keen on it, since I spend all my time working on and running my startup, Covo, and advising startups and founders on the side,” says Rebecca Brian Pan, CEO and founder of San Francisco’s COVO co-working space. “Escape the room is such fun escape from all that!”
But for some, if they win at work, this seems an obvious extension of their qualities. "I love what I do—now I can quantify it!” says Alex Lee, a Bay Area engineer.
Nate Martin, co-founder, and CEO of Puzzle Break, sees this type of room as a no-brainer — as long as it’s done well. “It's important to recognize that different people like different things. I love interactive experiences, but not everyone likes the same things I do,” he says. “I hate being forced to participate in activities I don't like, and I am not alone. At Puzzle Break [we try to] provide a way to participate for extreme extroverts, extreme introverts, and everyone in between.”
Stereotypically, techies tend towards introversion, and a geek game offers something familiar - an environment they know how to master. And for those who still can't get their head around people choosing to spend more time at an office — for fun — I think Quora writer Brandon Smietana says it best.
“The boundaries between work and recreation are blurry in a startup. A startup is a lifestyle.” Well, there you have it.
