My Post Mortem

After 28 months of building TheMissionZone, we are officially closed.

As I look back over the life of the company, I am sad that it didn’t work out, proud that I was able to build something that our customers enjoyed, but frustrated that we never got to really build the full thing. This is going to be a long post, but I’d like to take a look back over the life of the company and what lies ahead in the future.

As I have written before, this is a 25+ year dream of mine to build an experience in which I could play a video game or be the action star in a secret agent movie. But it wasn’t until the 2010s when I started to build metadata driven code, that I began to see how to a create a product that could scale. While I knew the vision, I could never figure out how all the pieces fit together.

In 2013 I read Lean Startup stuff and loved the concept. Steve Blank talked endlessly about getting out of the office and gathering feedback from customers. But what was an MVP that I could actually build and give people a sense of the vision, to collect their thoughts? At the same time, I was convinced that experiential learning for STEM was absolutely the best way for this vision to impact the lives of people. It was the best beachhead market to win customers when they are young, and build on their experiences as they mature. I watched a whiteboard style video of a Sir Ken Robinson presentation about the future of education. I was amazed, the animations helped tell a visual story and I didn’t have to build anything physical. Steve Blank had suggested a video could be MVP, so I was off. I found a company that does the animation and spent $5000 in late 2013 for a 3 minute custom video. When I showed it to friends and family and teachers, everyone loved the idea of teaching this way. Would you pay for it? Yes.

Over the next 4 years I started building the website content and working through how to build the software as a company. Joe and I met several times and I turned my kitchen into an ‘office’ with whiteboards on each wall as we sketched out the architecture. Eventually Joe moved on to a much better career with Microsoft. My first test, could I convince someone to focus on my dream…well as I like to say, we are not ‘living on Ramen’ type people, now in our 40’s.

But as luck would have it, my life changed in several ways all at once. Sara came into my life and she was 100% supportive of my dream, a partner that would help me pursue my vision. And Taylor was accepted to the Air Force Academy, which means free tuition! At the ripe age of 45, I had an opportunity for a smooth exit from my job and give this thing a go starting with the new year 2018.

Nothing moves as quickly as I think it will. I never got as much done as I thought I could. While teachers and parents loved STEM education for my first market, as soon as I met with a school principal, I learned about the challenges of curriculum and NCLB. Before I left Fidelity, there was a pilot to teach NAVs and MILs using a mocked-up escape room in one of the training rooms. When talking with the L&D folks, they loved the idea of TMZ as a platform for doing more of this. So I decided that I could buy a trailer and set up temporary modular walls to build the unit. I could get in and out in a week. But how could I sell it without ever demonstrating anywhere? How would it actually set up? Would it fit in a trailer? Would I actually gather enough data from customers? Was that cost worth it?

I felt I needed a real space, where people could walk in and give it a try. I needed data. I could advertise something with real images and they could see that it was real. And I could even still run corporate training as an ‘offsite’ style event. I figured I would spend several thousand on the trailer anyway, so what If I could negotiate a short-term lease and run a test? Enter Apple Tree Mall in Londonderry in Nov 2018. They were in the middle of a lot of construction and didn’t mind letting me hang my shingle for four months. If it started to work, I could sign something longer.  Long story short, permitting with the city was a nightmare (learned a LOT) and it took 6 weeks to get everything built, assembled and up to code. Alas, I had a functional Proof of Concept that I could test with real customers.

Crickets. It seems my network has a viral coefficient of zero. But with some help from Groupon, I started to get business in. I changed the engagement model. Tweaked our intro videos, Missions, props, etc. Customer feedback is your friend. People paid for the experience. Most really liked it!

And just like that, Apple Tree said no thanks. So I moved. And had MORE permitting issues with the town of Derry. But business started to improve and I continued to refine the business model, how we interact with customers and even did a few small development rounds to upgrade the app. Most importantly, the proof of concept, taught me a lot about the way my full-size model should work. How to make it scale. How to maximize throughput. How to blend different genres to create new markets.  Over the summer I worked with advisors on my pitch, I felt there was a real venture scale business here, just waiting for the next step. If I could prove that one site worked and could become profitable, we could blitzscale our way across the country and then the world. It was time to raise funds and plan for the next phase. I proved the product worked, I just needed to prove the business model would work and can scale.

I had read about how hard fundraising for venture capital can be, but wow. I never expected to be completely ignored. I read so many VC blog posts talking about how a well crafted and personalized cold email can get you in the door. I don’t have the time or proximity to spend all day networking and my network in financial services is completely separate from investment capital. I would spend about 10 minutes researching a firm to see if they were even in my space. Maybe 40% looked like they might be a potential. From there I would spend roughly 2 hours reading theses, reviewing bios to find the best associate/partner, researching Linkedin and blogs, reading posts, all to find an ‘in’ that I could use as a paragraph to introduce myself to an investor. I needed to show TMZ would fit within their portfolio or thesis. Some of the text in the email was copy and paste, but most was unique to the scenario. I never once sent a boilerplate or merged note. But I had to find a hook, intro the business, get them to review the deck/video and deliver a call to action all in 3 paragraphs (less is more).

I have a log of every communication. Over the 2 years (most in the past year) I sent 146 individual communications (tweets with links, form submissions, mostly cold emails) to 106 different firms (sometimes targeting multiple investors, some follow-ups).  I received 46 responses (32%). Of these I categorized the responses below.

• Offered “help” but ignored business                        7   (15%)

• Replied to my ‘hook’ but ignored business            15 (32%)

• Some form of ‘pass’ from email slides/video        22 (47%)

• Success! (details below)                                                3   (6%)  

1. Sarah Downey (Accomplice VC) – In person meeting! My only one. Instead of ‘pitching’ I talked about business, trying to build a relationship for when we were ready to raise. Which was what all the VC blogs say to do. She said we were too small anyway. Pass

2. Tae Hea Nahm (Storm Ventures) – Phone pitch. Great conversation. Interesting, but not for them. Pass.

3. Alex Iskold (2048 Ventures) – Video conversation. Didn’t want to see anything. Wanted to change our business to SaaS, which makes no sense. There is no market. Pass.   

Business slowed down in the fall of 2019 and I used that as an opportunity to leverage the PoC for new markets. I needed further proof points that we could do corp training, STEM and theme nights. When you have fixed costs like real estate, part of the business model is proving that you can scale usage for more hours of the day to improve unit economics. I refer to this as new genres. Most escape rooms do entertainment and thus only use nights and weekends. There is ‘team building’ but not direct training. I knew our no-code platform could scale content for more uses.

I was all set to test a few solutions in Feb-Apr for the last quarter of my lease. I figured I would get some great data, just before moving out into our new space with VC backing. And then Covid19. Customers disappeared. My partnership ideas = dead. VCs turned inward to portfolio co’s. The market crashed with tons of volatility because we have an ineffective president so angel investors are out. I’ve spent $300k of my retirement and borrowed another $35k from F&F. I think I gave enough. Time to go back to steady income.

I wanted to raise $850k to build a full-scale version of TheMissionZone experience and a team to run it for the next 2 years. Imagine a streetscape scene that is like walking through a multi-level movie set with 30 different themed rooms. All connected with secret passageways, air ducts you can climb through, elevator shafts, etc. Hundreds of missions are available and you can do your work’s corporate training or your kids’ math lesson together as a family outing. You could have a James Bond themed ‘date night’ where you go out for a drink and complete a Mission while working together as a team. You could stop in for a free mission to learn about a local brewery, or car company and after a 5 minute adventure with their products, earn a coupon for a discount. Next winter when the family is all in town and you are bored with entertaining them, you shoot over and complete a personalized Mission just for your family where you all compete against one another answering family lore trivia as part of an adventure. I know I am a dreamer, but I really believe the possibilities are endless. When you build a platform, you enable people to build experiences you never envision (keeping it clean of course).

If ever there was a time for a contrarian investor to see the benefits of this vision, now is it. In just 3 months of spending all day on a screen, does anyone really want MORE virtual entertainment? Do you want to spend more time in front of a screen? There is more pent up demand for reality-based entertainment than any time in the past 50 years. People are LITERALLY protesting their right to get out of their houses, away from screens and back into the real world.

There are over 5000 movie theaters in the US, mostly closed. What will be there when they reopen? The newest Trolls movie decided to open direct to personal streaming channels. It made over $100M in 3 weeks, which is more than the first movie made in 5 months.  Theaters take 50% revshare while streaming takes about 20%. When this is over, who is going back to a theater? The chains need to evolve their experience if they are going to entice people to come back.

At the end of every customer experience, I talk to them about what they like or didn’t. I tell them they just experienced a PoC. I paint the following picture to see if they get it and what they think of our vision. Before closing I even recorded two of those interviews here and here.

Imagine you go to see the latest Mission Impossible movie. The IMF team is learning about who they are pursuing, what the target is and what resources they have. Tom Cruise gets the famous challenge, “Your Mission, should you choose to accept it…”  And then the movie stops. The lights come on and you and your friends file out to the main lobby.  You grab a drink and set up your team at a table. You all start assigning tasks, doing research, planning your mission. A middle school version might require math to solve an engineering problem to return a stolen talisman which you need some of your history lessons to know the properties of the object to find. You all walk over to the “Q-Branch” window and secure the equipment you need; screwdrivers, diagonals, a volt-meter, headsets for communication. One last pep talk from the team leader and you click ‘Launch’ from your wrist mounted device. You all go to your assigned places, enter the secret codes to open the doors. Engage. You have 3 ‘lives’ to complete the Mission. Purchasing more from your wrist if needed, interacting with the space and maybe other players. You might need to ‘hire’ a computer expert to hack a door lock for you. Or bribe someone for intelligence. Your team earns points for speed, stealthiness, efficiency, and the Mission level you selected. At the end, you might fail, or you might succeed. You see your team codename on the leaderboard screen. You return your gear, get some more snacks to quench your thirst and cool your adrenaline. You go back to the theater and see how Ethan Hunt completes the Mission.

After experiencing it on a small scale in our PoC, about 74% of our customers love the idea of this vision and would pay for it. The only people that don’t seem to get it are a bunch of investors who think that all the world wants is more enterprise SaaS to make us work more efficiently, AI/ML algorithms to buy more relevant stuff and more games to play on a screen or a headset. And yet every societal trend points to a world that wants experiences.

There are so many things I did wrong building this company. Overall I wish I had done 3 things better because these themes directly led to us not making it…

1. More planning and strategizing around business model

2. More networking and connection to VCs

3. More focus on viral growth

We’re done for now. Maybe something will change in a few years as I still have hopes of one day living this experience in the real world. My sincerest thanks to Matheus for helping me build an awesome piece of technology and to Felipe whose design and style made the whole thing feel cool and real. Thanks to my family and friends who supported me and even came out to see us. Many thanks to all 936 paying customers of TheMissionZone who helped me ‘learn while having fun’. Most importantly of all, special thanks to Sara who had to endure a lot of the emotional ups and downs on this journey. It certainly was hard on her and I may never be able to make up for it.

Josh: Out.

Indefinite Pause

Like everyone else, we are closed for business. I held out hope that there might be a window to reopen in April, but yesterday the governor asked all businesses to close until May 4. Our experience is 100% about being in a real world place with other people, touching the same objects as others…not a good thing in the time of Covid19. So we have done the prudent thing and closed all operations for the foreseeable future.

Our lease was set to end April 30 and in order to vacate the space, we needed to break down and disassemble the Zone in the second week of April. We had been planning to do the first ever James Bond Night in partnership with Cask & Vine on April 8 as a last hurrah. Obviously, this is not going to happen.

Over the next few months, Americans will be forced to further physically isolate from each other. At some point this will end and we will move forward, having been changed fundamentally. I will be curious to see what emerges. After being cooped up for many months, will we continue to embrace console gaming, VR, Netflix and screens? Or will there be a yearning for the ‘real’? Will events like Spartan Races, marathons, 5Ks and adventure sports make a roaring comeback? Will Pelotons and Mirrors really replace gyms?

I am betting that people will want something REAL. Unfortunately, we will most likely not be in operation unless I can find an investor willing to make the same bet as me. It just won’t happen for TheMissionZone.

But that doesn’t mean that we aren’t right. Two years ago we filed a patent for ‘Manipulated Reality’ and we are going to continue that process. I am hopeful that in recognizing the uniqueness of this experience, investors will come to realize the truth: Real is better than virtual. In the mean time, I will do everything possible to get us ready to open the faucet and finish our journey when the time and finances are right.

More to come. While we might be pausing operations, the dream is not dead and we will still work to bring it to fruition. In the enduring words of Don Rumsfeld…

Things will not be necessarily continuous. The fact that they are something other than perfectly continuous ought not to be characterized as a pause. There will be some things that people will see. There will be some things that people won't see. And life goes on.

CEO Update – Q4 2019

This might be the latest I have ever completed a quarterly update. It has been a rough quarter and I needed some time to recover, not to mention focusing on existential tasks.

2 years ago I started out hoping that I could prove the technology, get funded to build the full-scale vision and be off to the races.  Over that time, we have bounced around a good bit, but have largely met the goal of proving it works. The problem is that other than our customers, no one cares.

It became evident last fall that unless I could secure funding, we would have to shut down.  While we are still pursuing funding options, the end is predestined.  Our lease runs out Apr 30, we will close for good on that date.  While I still hold out hope for this technology in the future.  It would not be prudent to continue.

Objectives

1. Pitching – I feel good about our latest version of the deck.  I have several flavors and recorded videos. When we get responses, the message is consistently, ‘not our space’. But at least I know the business is pitched correctly, NO ONE wants anything physical and certainly nothing that isn’t enterprise SaaS.

2. Corporate Training – While I was able to create a generic template for the “Mission Statement” training mission and we used that for the Escapology holiday outing, we could not sell any more.

3. Organic Growth – Traditional advertising does not work.  We have run several campaigns on different platforms/channels and none have produced an adequate return. I have ideas for other non-ad-based options and will try to experiment with these over our last 2 months

4. “Indoor Activities” campaign – With other priorities, this was not touched. Though probably a good strategy if we can find the best communication channel/medium.

Progress

This was an easy quarter to grade and my mood and disposition reflect it.  I grade myself an “F”, the company is dying and it is my fault. I am not sure what I could have done to build a network in the VC community, but I am obviously too late to the game. I grade the company a B+ because we have consistent feedback that  customers like the product and LOVE the vision. The PoC worked and we got exactly the feedback we needed. I am confident that if we had capital I would build that vision and we could grow exponentially. The business model is solid. The product is useful and valued by customers.

Failures

• Financing – We are dying. We need cash.  After 2 years of not paying myself, my finance degree has concluded this is no longer a good investment.

• Advertising – Nothing has worked, including radio ads we started in Q1-20. I have come to the conclusion that partnerships and events are the best way to generate traffic. Groupon could work again in the future if we offer a very short mini-mission as a loss-leader.

• Progress on Missions – I had really wanted to do more to create samples of Missions that could be offered to customers and set as templates for corporate training. It just didn’t get done. This probably hampered our growth in demonstrating these capabilities.

• The Capital Network – Completely useless for getting me access to the Angel community in Boston. Some help in reworking my pitch deck, but not to the tune of $350+.

Successes

• Offsite with Escapology – We were able to turn the “It’s Our Mission” experience into a template and clone it for our competitors in Tewksbury for their winter offsite. The model worked well and it was good to get some perspective from people in the escape room business. They had fun and it was a good night for me too.

• Feedback – I have spent more time lately after Missions talking with customers about our vision and what they liked.  Some will stay 20-30 minutes to talk about all sorts of aspects of the business. It is great commentary and I have learned a lot.

Jury Is Out

• Patent – Once we have some income, we will continue this process. It is still possible that the patent could generate cash/interest in the company.

• Techstars – We were invited to apply to the Techstars Allied Space program. 

• VC – Over the next few months we will continue to try new approaches and firms.  All we need is one believer.

• Limp Mode – Just because we will close the company’s physical presence doesn’t mean that it can’t continue to exist. We will certainly keep the site up and maybe even try to offer it as a service. I may try to build out the IoT capability. There are options here.

Q1 Outlook and Objectives

• James Bond Night – We started exploring this partnership with Cask & Vine.  I want to get this done before we close.

• Corporate Training – Using the template from Escapology, I will try to sell one of our custom Missions to a local company.

• Mini-Missions – Also before we close, we will explore a partnership with NH Unicorns to see how well we can co-brand an experience with that cohort as an example of its potential.

• VC – I will continue to pursue funding until the very last minute.

• Curtain Call – After we move out of Manning St and disassemble the unit, I will write a longer post mortem about the past 2 years.

Annual Review and Summary

The year started out with a major challenge as we lost our lease and had to move, reestablishing the business and all the permits.  But things improved drastically over the summer with lots of Groupon business from families and kids out of school. Slowly this also transformed to the ‘Date-night’ crowd, confirming what I had always hoped would be a use-case for the experience.  A round of enhancements to the app made both running the Zone, and the customer experience much better (Replay!!!).  We also improved the onboarding experience with a new video and process. Through watching how the Agents approached the experience, we even got better at figuring out how to streamline their adventure for 2 people (Intel & Ops). We added several Missions to the platform and things looked like they were trending in the right direction. Customers told us they liked what we were doing. I hear so often, “I like this more than escape rooms.” We get very positive and favorable reviews.

Fall and Winter has not been good. Groupon was good for getting exposure and feedback, but financially was a disaster. Further, gathering emails has not worked for retargeting at all. The drop off when kids went back to school really hurt.

What I learned the most is that there needs to be critical mass to come back. The PoC experience was a nice taste, but no one would come back for another ‘taste’… they want the real thing.  They want our vision. The space needs to be big enough to feel unique and new and exciting. Once we figured out how this would work, it seemed VC was the natural course. I have been genuinely shocked and disappointed at how little VCs respond.  But further, the fact that none of them seem to really ‘get’ it, is painful. I can’t understand how an investment is not obvious.

As I move into the future I am convinced more than ever that this is the right approach. VR based solutions like Sandbox VR will lose their novelty, when customers start to recognize that VR isn’t real.  Photons are not atoms.

There is a great scene in the movie Star Trek Generations where Kirk realizes that reality feels different than virtual. You see his face at the point of realization above. Kirk is in the “Nexus” a storm-ribbon that travels the universe.  Inside the Nexus, there is no time.  Everything you want is immediately satisfied. It’s like heaven. Kirk is reliving a great day from his past when he used to jump a horse over a ravine. He does it once and it feels funny. He does it again and looks back as Picard rides up. Kirk relates that he has jumped the ravine 50 times and each time it “scared the hell out of me. Each time. Except this time. Because it isn’t real.” Virtual reality seems to be the best simulation for experiences we can’t replicate. But just because we think something can’t be replicated, doesn’t mean it isn’t possible. Reality is better than virtual, and pretty soon, people will see how they can have experiences in the real-world. And they will excite and scare you in ways you never thought possible. They will want more.  People will come.

Key 2019 Metrics

• Paid Customer Visits - 850

• Equity Investment -$30k

• Total Revenue (net) - $5900

• Operating Loss - $34,500

• Missions on Platform- 7

Corporate Training - Just for Fun

We opened to the public about 8 months ago. The very first Mission I created was It’s Our Mission. As of today, over 300 people have attempted this Mission. 96% completed it successfully within 3 ‘lives’ or did 10 burpees to earn an extra life. #burpees4alife

Almost everyone has fun. Overall, I think people really like the experience of being guided by the app, moving through the training space and completing tasks. This Mission requires you to work as a team. There are some challenges that can only be completed by working with your partner. Stronger team-work and communication, almost always leads to better performance.

This hasn’t been a secret, but everyone that attempted It’s Our Mission, was actually completing TheMissionZone’s new hire orientation Mission. And they paid to do it! The Mission requires the knowledge of our corporate mission statement as well as learning a little about the members of our team. I can’t give away the solution to the challenges, but the Mission is challenging enough that you have fun, but simple enough that it can be completed. And they all learned a little about this company.

I am proud that 82% that attempted the Mission are what I call, Nuclear Families. Parents and kids (not all related). Think about that for a second. Kids had fun, with adults, doing Corporate Training.

The cool thing about completing Missions, is that the knowledge that you gain, is subconscious, because you are focused on other things like completing tasks, the app, your partner, the timer.

With November, we are making a push to get more companies to give us a try. We are going to clone “It’s Our Mission” to be specific for your company or team. So the answers to the challenges will be specific to your company: Your mission statement, your team goals, your org chart. And we’re going to make it competitive. So that each team will get 3 lives to try to be the best of all the teams within your group. Here are the details…

Secret Agent Corporate Challenge

• A new Mission will be specific and uniquely aligned with your company. No one else will be able to try it

• We will use your content (training materials or website pages) to create the challenges for the Mission

• Teams will consist of 2 people

• We will charge $25/team, with a minimum commitment of 10 teams per company

• Both team members do not have to be employees. Bring your spouse, child, or a friend. Each Agent only needs to have their own email and a mobile device

• The first 3 companies to commit, will each have their own raffle provided by TheMissionZone. At the end of the competition, the winning team (fastest to complete the Mission successfully) from each of the 3 companies, will win a custom tailgate experience with The Bus - which is sponsored by TheMissionZone.

A company can set this up as an after hours event, offsite, or even as a benefit to their team: Bring your kids to an escape room and help mom/dad do their job. How cool would the dinner table conversation be after THAT company outing!

For more details, fill out this simple contact card below.

CEO Update - Q3 2019

This was a transitional quarter.  It started off strong and then finished weak, putting us in a position to regroup, but not without challenges.  July and August saw amazing customer visits and growth.  It seems the summer is exactly how I had hoped with kids and families looking for something to do and have fun.  September’s drop was much more than expected, but is giving us time to revisit corporate training. Having nailed entertainment Missions, this was the natural next step.  With the addition of the “Replay” functionality upgrade, we are now perfectly aligned with how an entertainment customer looks to have a great experience. 

 Objectives

1. Organic Growth – Not good.  We wrapped up the spectacular failure of using ValPak coupons.  We also tried some paid advertising on Facebook, with no success.  Need to do more testing to see what, if anything will work to build customer acquisition.

2. Demonstrate LTV – Fail.  We had a small group of customers come back for a second mission, but on the whole, we could not convert.  This is the future of the model and we need to figure this out.

3. Other Markets – We feel good about the addition of ‘mini-missions’ as a way to build brands and a better way for local companies to connect with consumers and offer discounts.

Progress

The overall Mission experience is now polished.  From the onboarding, to the experience in our waiting area, to the Mission and replays, to discussing and having fun afterward, this is now solid.  But we clearly need help to iron out the small details needed to demonstrate our ability to scale the product.  This is a catch 22 and I see no chance of reaching success without capital.  Which is our #1 new focus for Q4.  I grade me an F and the business a B.  The business could have been an A if Sept had kept up the growth rate or other metrics showed the same trends. As for me, I am failing and so to not grade me accordingly would be disingenuous.

Failures

• Marketing.  We still can’t figure out the magic sauce here.  I always knew this was my weakness and even brought in some consulting hours to help.  But there is little time to execute.

• Growth. We just aren’t seeing it. I believe in the product and how this POC is proving it.  But without growth, it’s nothing.

• Pitching the business. This may have turned a corner, but I am struggling to see a message that resonates with investors. Somewhere out there is an adrenaline junky who likes sci-fi and video games…I hope

Successes

• Content – There are 6 Missions on the platform, creating a real choice.  This is working well and having several more Missions almost ready is a good sign.

• Mini-Missions – This turned out much better than I thought.  It’s like interactive trivia except gamified.  People really love it, even for just a 5 minute experience.

• Tech upgrade - We fixed a lot of little things, increased memory and added much needed functionality, including Replay, as well as “survey” challenges, new challenge methodologies and Briefing screen enhancements. This was ALL Matheus and he completed over a dozen stories in record time and under budget.

Jury is out

•  Adding Missions – We can add all we want, but I am still not sure that the necessary process of getting people to complete a Level 1 Mission first, is good.  I don’t know any other solution, but this may not be right either.

• Onboarding – Better, but still not perfect.  Some people find it good, others not so much. Technology challenges are difficult for our demo.

Q4 Outlook & Objectives

• Corp Train – We will work to create 2 missions as a demo of what this could be.  With ‘holiday outings’ coming around, I hope to lock in a few of these and maybe even a corporate offsite half-day.

• “Indoor” activities – We are speculating that the winter might work better for bringing back some of the Nuclear Family business as people look to stay indoors.  We are going to build a campaign around “talking at the kitchen table” to help illustrate a better way to use micro-doses of experiential entertainment after school.

• Organic growth discovery – I got some great advice the other day about gathering data to know what WILL work, once we have capital to fuel the flame.  We’ve got some things in the works.

• Pitch deck – This absolutely is our last hurrah.  I might be able to get us to limp through Q1 until the lease ends, but this really is it.

Building this company is hard.  It is hard to do it alone.  But I’m not sure what single person (co-founder) would really help.  We need a team.  Marketing, Tech, Content, Ops.  That will be the winning combo and when we turn it on, it will be amazing.  Rolling into Q4 I am feeling the pressure of inevitability, but every time that customers come in and have fun, I am uplifted.  Let’s see if that can translate too.

Key Metrics

Missions on Platform – 6 (last =3)

Average Booked Revenue per customer - $10.17 (Last = $14.10  Down due to more Groupon and fewer parties)

Burn - $14.2k/Q (Last = $7.6k. Increased Dev cost and Patent Filing fees)

Paid Customer Visits this quarter – 466 (Last = 176  Up based on Groupon)

Repetition- Not So Much

When I was a kid, the one thing that drove me crazy about playing video games was when you would die, you’d have to go back pretty far or to the beginning. ARGHH Especially when you only had 3 lives, there was a chance I could mess up again before I got back to where I was.

As I considered TheMissionZone experience and thinking about it as an experiential learning platform for kids to learn STEM subjects, I thought that repeating part of the Mission would be great to assist in the learning process. That might be true, but repeating from the beginning absolutely sucks for an entertainment experience. As I tell potential Agents, I want this to be like a real-world video game.

For the past few months I have been joking with people that I hated that experience as a kid, and then I built the exact thing. How frustrating!

We’ve now had a lot of people complete Missions, and we have learned a lot along the way.

Matheus and I have been working on smaller cosmetic and functional issues for the past few months. But as of today, I am happy to say that we have corrected the biggest flaw. And with that, I’m naming this the v2.0 of the app.

Agents can now restart the Mission from where you failed!

This is a huge improvement that will enhance the realism of the experience, save time, and generally make a more game-like atmosphere at the Zone.

Everyone fails at Missions, and that is cool. You get smarter and try again. I’m happy to say the process of replaying is now way more fun and feels less like unnecessary repetition. So come on in and give it a try!

Help Me, Help You

As part of our intro for new Agents, I always make sure to point out that there is help available if they need it while on the Mission. The Help utility does not provide the answer, it’s more like a hint to get you moving. But help is not free. I tell everyone that they will lose a little of your potential points by using help (10% for each clue). Help clues are unique to each task and so they will be relevant.

But no one uses Help. It’s actually become a joke when I introduce the Operations screen and point out how easy it is to use the Help function, “It’s there if you need it. I built this whole utility, but no one ever uses it.” We’ve been up and running for a while, so I thought I would run some queries to see just how helpful Help can be.

Over the past 4 months, Agents have attempted 857 Missions. Each Agent team gets 3 tries to complete the Mission, so these attempts might reflect more than 1 for a single team. Very few missions (<10 so far) are completed on the first try. Many failures are because people don’t read the directives completely and so they guess at a solution. But I see a lot of Agents unable to focus on where their attention should lie. They clearly need a little Help.

I was very particular about the data architecture for processing and tracking Agent performance on a Mission. That enables us to drill in on the data. 404 (47%) of the 857 Missions ended in failure because of completing a task incorrectly. Another 132 (15%) failed because time ran out on the task. Because a single task will cause a failure, that means that on 536 Missions (62%) a team was presented with a task and could not complete it within the time limit. Note, there are multiple tasks per Mission. Agents attempted 5,501 tasks, so the failure rate is only ~10%.

But here’s where it gets interesting. Of those 536 failures, Agents only used the help function 39 times (7%). When they DID use help, 64% of the time (25 tasks), that led to getting the answer correct. Looking at the actual submissions, 3 of the other 14 that used help and failed the task, just typed the answer wrong, so they were close. Counting those would have brought the success rate to 72%. Of the other 11 that used help, I can see in their submission that 2 were on the right path. Interestingly, 9 Help users (23%) received no ‘help’ at all (gotta work on that).

So what can we learn from this? Using Help still has a stigma but maybe not in the way we think. Asking for Help in TheMissionZone app, isn’t like raising your hand in class or calling a staff member in an escape room. It’s literally a button on the app and a popup modal. It could not be any more private. When I ask Agents why they didn’t click the button many will say something like, “I don’t want help, I wanted to do it on my own.” (Note: Many forget it was there when their adrenaline gets going) The data seems to indicate that a high percentage of people would rather fail a challenge than suffer the blow to their pride of asking for help from a computer. Wow. The larger question: Why is this kind of help not still ‘doing it on you own’?

My background in data management enabled me some foresight to realize that tracking this information and being able to quantify discussions would be useful. There are so many data points to examine; Which tasks require help? Which cause the most failures? How long were they working the task before clicking help? How much time is left on the clock before clicking help? Why are people almost twice as likely to use help on our family friendly Level 1 Mission (23 times), vs the adult themed one (13 times)?

I am so excited for the day when employers can talk with employees about getting more comfortable asking for help. I am inspired to think about a teacher talking to a student about how it’s ok to ask for help, not just on a Mission, but in the classroom…look at how much it can bring you success!

There is so much more in the data we are collecting, I encourage researchers to reach out to me so we can discuss even more beneficial ways to derive insights and affect lives.

CEO Update - Q2 2019

I finally got some validation that I am on the right path. This was a good quarter. We got lots of customer visits and we learned a ton about the experience, how to make it better and segmenting our Agents. The graph above tells part of the story. I have testimonials and notes from talking to every group that comes in and I feel excited about what we are doing. People like completing Missions!

Objectives

1. Generate revenue - This really got moving. While we don’t get much cash from Groupon, we are validating that people will pay for the experience. Some will even come back. We are ramping up marketing to generate interest.

2. New Zone- We found a new home right in downtown Derry. Being close to home has turned out to opening new opportunities and the downtown vibe is great.

3. Content- We added no Missions in this quarter. There is no excuse here. My execution has been pathetic.

Progress

The move was a disaster trying to work with the town. While I am happy that I fancied up the walls and painted them, it still burned a lot of time. I am proud of the small pivot we made to define the roll of Ops and Intel, but I still haven’t updated the video or modified our on-boarding process, which needs help. People really like the product and we are getting a good feel for how to make Missions exciting and interesting. I grade me a D+ and the business a B+. We made progress, but only a few customers are bragging about the experience, that will be the sign that we’ve got it.

Failures

• Marketing. I decided to run a Valpak ad. BIG mistake.

• Content. Like I said, no excuse.

• Blocking and tackling. Some of the easy stuff I just can’t get through. I’m falling further behind. Having customers is good, but I am losing critical time.

Successes

• Mission Experience. People are starting to really enjoy what happens here. Getting referrals and repeats has been a huge indicator of a good outcome.

• Bomb Mission. We’re almost done, I think this will be a big hit. I can’t wait to re-target and get a sense of LTV.

• Marketing. I’m starting to pay attention and I think there is a real opportunity to grow organically at the new site. Coupled with partnerships, I think we have a lot of potential. I’m excited to work with Snowbird Creative.

• Chamber of Commerce. HUGE help. We even solidified a grand opening July 25 @3PM.

Jury is out

• Financing- NEED something by year end. I am hopeful for the Capital Network to help get me closer to the Boston scene. I think our numbers are starting to tell a story.

• Market Niches- I think we have nailed the Nuclear Family and Baby Boomers with PMF. Can we build more content to extend? Can we hit other niches as well?

• Demonstrate potential- While I believe this can be a great business, I am not so sure we will be able to demonstrate a model and metrics that will survive the future.

Q3 Outlook & Objectives

• Grow revenue per customer and total visits while shifting away from Groupon for a lower CAC.

• Demonstrate LTV by rolling out more content and creative ways to get people to come back for a second and 3rd mission. Ideally build a membership model. Sign partners and sponsors.

• Other markets. I really want to roll out Missions for STEM school learning as well as firm up packaging for corporate off-sites and special events (birthdays, family reunions, challenge nights)

I am really enjoying talking with customers and getting ideas about where we are going and what we can do better. My favorite quote came from a mom and her 12 year old son after they completed a Mission. They walked out of the Zone and 30 seconds later walked back in asking to do a second. She asked me, "I don't have any money because my husband took my credit card, but can I pay you with Venmo?" That is a good sign.

Key Metrics

Missions on Platform - 3

Average Revenue per customer - $14.10

Burn - $7,600 (per quarter)

Paid Customer Visits this quarter - 176

We Moved!

Well after a lot of craziness, we are open at the new site in downtown Derry, NH It’s pretty great being right downtown and still having straight-in parking spaces, only 100 feet from the main strip. The farmers market and park is right across the street along with direct access to the Rail Trail. So far all the neighbors have been awesome. We couldn’t be happier.

The Derry-Londonderry Chamber of Commerce is helping us with our grand opening and ribbon cutting, so I hope everyone will come down and check us out. Mark the date, July 25, 3:00 PM Our new address is 16 Manning Street #106 right across from Derry Feed. We’re hoping to roll out a new Mission for the opening. See you all soon!

Intelligence & Operations

In the coming months, we will be releasing more complicated Missions, and not all of them will allow unlimited replays. Some will have prizes associated with completion. First try completion will be important for an Agent’s competitiveness.

We’ve come to learn some interesting things about Mission success. The Briefing screen has always been the source of Intelligence to help an Agent be successful. No one has attempted a Mission solo. As a result, near everyone operates as a team of at least two. When this is the case, one Agent is the Operations Lead and the other is the Intelligence Officer.

There have been very few (single digit) Missions completed on the first try. So we wanted to share some observations of those Agents that have been most successful.

• Trust is key. A team of two will absorb a significant amount of data as part of the Mission prep and execution. It happens too fast for each task while operating. You have to trust your partner in their role.

• Specialization has to be taken seriously. A single team member cannot do both jobs once the Mission has started. You can run in solo mode, but only if you take 5-10 minutes to prepare. Do your job and do it well.

• Know your job - Operations. If you are running Ops, read each Task Directive completely. Pay attention to each word. Share the clue with your Intelligence operative. Monitor the clock. Watch the door indicators. Move quickly and set the tempo. Make decisions. Use the “Help” if you are running low on time, better to lose 10% of your points total than to fail.

• Know your job - Intelligence. Intelligence operatives are the most important part of the team. Read the briefing and apply it to the Task Directive as they come up. CLICK THE LINK!!! The background information in each task link is usually critical to the success of the Mission. Try to pair the words in the Task Directive to what you see in the Briefing and link details. Provide actionable intelligence to the Ops Lead. Don’t overthink. The purpose of the clues is not to confuse the team but to provide intelligence so they can complete the tasks quickly.

• THIS IS NOT AN ESCAPE ROOM. Not everything in the room is relevant or a red-herring to throw you off. These are training spaces designed to simulate real world operations. You should not see something that looks out of place for the space you are in.

• Understand the actual instruction in the task directive. If it says to find something and then click “OK” to indicate that you have found it, don’t try to anticipate the next step. Trust your Tech Support team to guide you along the Mission…click OK. (but don’t click until you actually have the thing described in the task directive :) )

The purpose of a Mission is to prepare and execute well. While luck may help you, you should not rely on luck to help you through the next task or find the next clue. Missions don’t work like that. The nature of the tasks is sequential and has purpose. These are not arbitrary puzzles.

Remember, prepare smart, train hard, and have fun. Talk with your partners about the respective roles of Operations and Intelligence and learn to be a cohesive team.

The 3 Types of Customer Success

This is Barbara. She’s my best customer. She has brought in 2 large groups and has committed to bringing more. While on a Mission and instructed to text an image of the “operating plan”, she sent this image. I laughed and held the Mission:Fail buzzer extra long. Then we all laughed together.

I talk to every customer after each Mission. I ask what they thought about the experience, what they like, what they think is lame. I encourage everyone to be harsh and to take my business card and email me after if that would be more comfortable. I log all the feedback.

I try to make the best of every interaction and help my customers be as successful as possible. I have divided this strategy into 3 cohorts.

1. Let your stars work for you. I would hire Barbara to do marketing for me if I could. She sells the product for me. I’m going to reach out to her to see how I can help her enjoy the experience even more.

2. Look for gems in the masses. Most of my customers have fun and enjoy the experience. They aren’t in love yet. But they have fun, they tell me specific things they liked and I work to enhance them. People tell me they like the app, they like feeling successes and moving from room to room. They make suggestions, like wanting to play in the dark or wanting to restart in the middle of a Mission (it’s coming). I once saw a mom and her adult son hug in one of the rooms when she discovered something that he couldn’t figure out. One family said they liked it more than Boda Borg.

3. Learn from failures. I’ve had 3 bad customer experiences so far. One showed up without a reservation when we were in the middle of moving. They drove an hour. I felt awful. Another I had to cancel when the town wouldn’t grant my Certificate of Occupancy in time for their reservation. It was a birthday surprise. I felt responsible for ruining it. The last was a birthday party that didn’t go well. I have since changed the birthday format and we had a party last weekend that gave me a 5 star review on Google and they bought T-shirts. I do a better job of communicating and posting our hours. I’m making changes based on every mistake and I try to contact the customer and offer them something for free to make up for it.

One thing I have had to learn is that not everyone will enjoy the experience. Some people come in with preconceived notions of an escape room and are disappointed. One told me the tasks were too obvious but they failed the Mission multiple times. Honestly, I don’t think they liked the idea of ‘failing’. Some want a longer experience, but I really want to stay in the 20-30 minute range.

I hope that all customers will love the experience as much as Barbara. But I know that won’t always happen. We won’t please everyone. We can’t make every interaction delightful. That is hard for me to accept. I want everyone to feel value in what they paid for and come away with a big smile on their face, joking about some part of the Mission and strategizing on how they could have figured something out faster. Not every customer will experience success, but we try really hard to make it the best experience we can.

CEO Update - Q1 2019

This quarter started out as a disaster, got challenging and then finished on a high note. In January we had a major problem getting approval from the town to begin operations. I lost a little over a month making changes to the Zone to comply with regulations that I thought were exempt. We finally opened and then the landlord informed me that he did not want to renew my short term lease…just as I got things running!. But in the last week of March, after turning on advertising through Groupon, over 40 people came in and paid to complete a Mission! We even hosted 2 birthday party groups. So overall things are looking positive.

The feedback from groups has been amazing. Families with middle school and younger kids love working as a team and sharing the adventure. We talked about future Missions and they are excited. A millenial group of 5 had a blast and wants more with more physical challenges and complexity. The only negative feedback was from a family with young adult children, they felt our base (easy) Mission should be longer. To me, that’s a win…they want more!

Objectives

1. Generate revenue - We got some and that is good. I learned about new ways to market and charge for services. Birthday parties work really well. We have a few new ideas for Q2 also.

2. Hit Metrics- I set a revenue goal for the 1 month of operations in Q1 and we blew past that one. We got lots of people in and are building a customer list that should be the base for extending usage and figuring out LTV.

3. Content- 3 Missions are in place. That is far less than the 10 I had set as a goal. But we had to refactor the intro video and the “free” mission. So the experience is much better now.

Progress

I was in a funk for most of Q1, it was a rough time and some personal stuff didn’t make things any easier. But we weathered that well and things are definitely looking up. I grade myself a B+ for working through those issues, getting a product experience that makes customers happy and continuing to build. I grade the company an A-. We delivered flawlessly and the product worked great. People see the value and they have fun in ways that I didn’t anticipate. The team dynamic is really working well. Some Agents are even coming up with ideas I hadn’t considered.

Failures

• Location Location Location. Not only did the building have scaffolding covering our office for a month, but at the end of April, we will be homeless. The short term lease definitely limited risk, but it made it hard to plan. We still haven’t had a grand opening.

• Content. We need more and I need to do a better job of creating a points system and Mission levels and conveying those to customers so they can get the experience they seek.

• Pricing and offerings. Yes you should always go to market with a product that you are a little embarrassed of. We did. I wish I had thought a little more about product offerings and pricing, but that’s always a tough balance.

Successes

• The videos are definitely working. People are starting to get it. We are not all the way there yet, but defining ourselves as not an “escape room” but rather a Mission experience where you break into a space, is resonating.

• Sales. I was doubtful, glad they are coming in.

• Experience. Things are working exactly the way I hoped. I got the video cameras working and can watch Agents interact in the space and the concept really works.

• Feedback. I have been meeting with people at Venture Cafe, teachers, parents, PTOs, etc. Everyone is super helpful and has great ideas. Special hat tip to my Adviser Anita who recommended doing reservations. I never would have thought of this, but people really like making appointments.

Jury is out

• Need to find a space and the rent won’t be as cheap, can we sustain that level of income to make it work? Can we find a space and move with minimal down time?

• Schools. I met with teachers who are VERY encouraging. They recommended a new approach and I am hopeful that this can start to catch hold.

• Financing. I want to hire people this summer. I haven’t paid myself in 15 months. We need to secure financing in Q2 or boost revenue to the point that we are sustaining operations.

Q2 Outlook & Objectives

• Establish revenue, metrics and contacts for a financing event. I know we can grow at scale. Bootstrapping this MVP has proven that. Time to take it to the next level.

• New space, grand opening, establish roots. I’ve had to be cautious because I don’t have a future space that we can call home. This must happen or we are done.

• Content. My current pace is 1 mission per week. I need to double this and find a partner.

Overall I am happy with where we are headed now. This next quarter is another transition to a fully operational concern. We’re ready.

Key Metrics

Missions on Platform - 3

Average Revenue per customer - $10.43

Burn - $4,500 (per quarter)

Challenge: Accepted

Today I got a little surprise that threw me for a loop. I am not going to be able to extend my lease as I had hoped. We’ve been in this space just 3 months and now it’s time to move. I can’t even really get going before I get pushed back to [START]. Yes I knew this was a risk. Intentionally signing a short-term lease so I didn’t get locked down was the trade-off. So here I am.

I admit, I was a little down at first. After 14 months of building the product (the app, physical infrastructure, electronics, content), I just want to start marketing and selling to prove the concept! This was the last thing I needed.

But then you remember your training. Breathe Josh. Analyze the problem. Talk it out (aka text the wife). Sara started looking for new spaces and encouraged me to look too. Truth be told, this place isn’t that great. I would like a little more traffic and to be closer to some of the industrial companies that will help bring in corporate training, off-site, and new-hire orientation business. And honestly this is a little more space than I need to prove product:market fit.

I’ve been surfing real-estate sites for the past hour and there are some good options out there. Plus, I intentionally built this Zone unit to easily break down in case this happened.

So when life throws you a shit sandwich…throw it the f-out and go make your own sandwich!

Today’s news started out looking pretty crappy. And don’t get me wrong, no matter how big a happy face I put on, this is really annoying. But then I thought about texting with Tay last night. In about 2 hours she starts 3 days of Recognition, out at USAFA. Some might say my problems pale in comparison. So in solidarity with Cadet 4th Class Taylor Rutstein… it’s time to get some!

Hooyah, universe. Challenge accepted.

CEO Update - Q4 2018

Q4 2018 finishes out a complete year of TheMissionZone’s existence.  We did not go out with a bang as I had hoped.  While it looked like we might catch up on some of our goals, we did not make up the ground I had intended.  As such, we were able to sell gift certificates in 2018 and generate revenue, but we did not actually deliver a product to the market. 

The end of the year necessitated a transition and pivot in distribution strategy.  I abandoned the Mobile Unit approach.  In talking to potential customers, it became clear that this would not work.  Instead, we found a great site and began preparations to open our very first Zone.  We also figured a better way to create a transition room and incorporate that into the Missions as a challenge.  A lot of small developments happened that will enhance the customer experience and having a space to make this real, greatly simplifies our ability to prove product:market fit.  We were lucky to sign a short-term lease, limiting risk in making this pivot.

Objectives

1.      Tech Development – The app is complete and we have been creating test missions to work with the physical space.  This is a great win.

2.      Physical space – Everything is complete and working. I am very happy with the locks, controller, lighting and other components.  This will make the experience very dynamic and I think create a great sense of excitement for the players.  However, at year end, we still don’t have a permit from the town to operate.

3.      Team/Network - I did almost nothing on this front.  We are focused on product, product, product.

Progress

This is a tough quarter to grade.  I grade myself a B, because even though we didn’t accomplish our goals, I am VERY happy with the decision to pivot.  This was a significant commitment, but as I read Blitzscaling, I grew confident in my conviction.  Adoption will require enabling customers, partners and investors to see the potential of the platform.  That would never have been possible with the mobile unit strategy.  Plus finding a site that would give me a short-term lease, was a huge win.  I grade the company a D; we are not operating yet and that is bad.

Failures

• Town permitting process- I could have hired some construction PM to run this for me with better results.  But I learned so much about what needs to happen in the future as we expand to larger spaces.  I made several mistakes here, but I gained great insight.

• Mission construction- This is turning out to be harder than I thought.  I have the outlines for several critical missions, but I have not finalized the details.

• Finding partners- Given my acknowledgment above, this turned out to be less successful than I hoped.  We need a video to make it real and put the pieces of the puzzle together visually.

• Describing the product- Even my best friends still don’t get it.  This is job #1 in Q1-19.

• Finances- We really needed some significant revenue in Q4.  This will be a strain moving into Q1.

Successes

• Communications, content and videos- We were able to deliver some good content in Q4 that will set the stage for product rollout in Q1.  These were well received. In addition, there is a lot of paperwork required to make this work, it is good to have this complete.

• Town permitting process- As noted, I consider this a very painful win.  If we see significant success and growth, upscaling to a larger space will be critical.  We now know exactly what this will take.

• Opening a space- I am so excited about this.  This will prove to be the single best decision I have ever made.

Jury Is Out

• Product:Market fit- The whole thing might not work as well as I dream.  I am always cognizant of this reality.  Now that we are closer to a rollout, the doubts are creeping in.

• Revenue- Can a single site generate enough revenue to justify the projections I have made for growth?

• Continuing at this Zone- From an operational perspective, I have about a month or two to plot out how this is going to work and figure out lease options.  This will be tough.

Q1 Outlook and Objectives

Generate revenue- We need demo videos, content, sales, partners.  A lot needs to happen to create a curve up and to the right.

Hit metrics (Missions, Sales, Customer feedback) – The clock is now ticking.  We are measuring everything.  Q1 means that all the metric goals we have set will now have evaluations at the end of the quarter.

Annual Review and Summary

Despite some serious challenges and complexities for this year, and making much less progress than I had hoped, I am still optimistic about what we are doing.  I believe in this platform.  Most importantly, I stayed true to core values for the company.  I am constantly working, but I have not missed critical events.  I helped my wife sell her house and move in with me.  I went to horse shows.  I spent time with my older daughter when she was home on leave from USAFA.  We took vacations.  I got married.  Our employees worked remote.  These philosophies have matured over the years on my personal blog.  Most importantly, no matter the complexities of the day, I continue to embody the spirit of We Don’t Work on Powder Days.

As I look at the year in totality, I feel pride for what we have accomplished.  In 12 months, we built a patent pending product that incorporates software, hardware and physical infrastructure.  We nearly opened a physical store.  I am a bootstrapped solo founder and proved that good architecture is the key piece to building a virtual team. I have assembled a group of advisers that give me awesome feedback and insight. I have built relationships with educational institutions.  We are getting people excited. 

2019 will be an exercise in bringing all of it to fruition.  Big picture, we need success on our metrics, a fundraising event, and evolving the product to the next level of scale to support that growth.  Challenge accepted.

Key 2018 Financials

Equity Investment -$65K

Software development - $39K

Zone Development - $4K

Patent Filing - $12k

Revenue - $25 :)

We Make the Good GREAT

Look at our MVP store front, is it the best? No. Nothing ever is “the best”.

As we get started here at TheMissionZone, I’ve been thinking a lot about hiring. Next week I hope to release and start selling an actual product before our Groundhog Day public launch. It should give a good opportunity to figure things out. After all, I am not perfect and I need some time to shake out how things are going to work. Assuming that I am successful and we demonstrate value, I am hopeful that capital will follow and I will be able to start hiring people full time.

You hear about the big tech co’s and especially Netflix and the endless focus on hiring “the best people”. I am not the best, and it would be arrogant to assume that I was. Further, while I agree with the notion of hiring people that complement rather than reflect your own skills, that doesn’t mean that that requires the “best” people. Everyone has their own areas of expertise and I have no idea which of those would be the most important for our success. How could I?

So I am vowing not to even bother searching for the “best” people. I want good people that always want to be better. And by working at TheMissionZone and committing to our vision, employees should know that they are not expected to be great. They are only required to strive for greatness. That is a whole process and one that will be refined over time. We are in the business of helping associates be better at whatever they do or whatever they dream of doing. We will make you better. You will make me better.

If someone is already “great” or the “best”, what possibly could a company see in a long term investment in that person? They are acknowledging that the person can’t get any better. So they reward you based on continued performance at that level? How do you grow?

At TheMissionZone, I want every employee to always want more of themselves. That is defined across all dimensions including professional, personal, physical health and community involvement. We don’t want someone who is great already, we want you to grow and be greater than you were the day before.

How to Teach Problem Solving

“By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.”   -Benjamin Franklin

 There are a lot of ways to make decisions.  There are also numerous methodologies to employ critical analysis skills to help make decisions and choices.  Regardless of your preference, you should at least have one.  Taking the mental steps to walk through a process, no matter how quickly you stop at each step, is a good way to approach choices in life.  Remember the words of Neo when reflecting on humanity, “The problem is choice.”

At TheMissionZone we are strong believers in the OODA loop as a discipline for the decision making process.  OODA is an acronym for Observe, Orient, Decide, Act.  It was first postulated by US Air Force Colonel John Boyd in 1961.  Boyd lectured often on the topic.  While we find the methodology useful, we acknowledge that sometimes certain aspects might be overkill.  Nevertheless, having a methodology and using it, is good practice.  Many students have never contemplated that decision making can have structure, since they are often reactionary to life.  And even adults sometimes forget that they can be a little more strategic in addressing challenges. 

Thus we have architected an experience at TheMissionZone around the OODA loop, though it should seem fairly subtle to a player. The emphasis is on learning, and having fun while doing so. But every interaction follows a process. This process is detailed below.

• Observe.  Players should take stock in the Mission they have chosen, as well as the requirements and outline for the Mission.  This is clearly displayed on the Briefing screen, and in fact all Missions have some sort of plot and guidance for each of the Objectives and Tasks.  The Briefing provides a roadmap for what needs to happen to successfully complete the Mission.

• Orient.  Preparation is the most important part of completing a Mission or any action in life.  This is where you learn, gather data, and place yourself in the best position to ensure success.  Most often, life gives you clues on what areas need preparation.  Teachers, managers, coaches and other resources are there to help guide you in this process.  In a Mission, most Objectives and Tasks have links on the Briefing page to content that will help you prepare for that Mission.  These could be instructional videos, or websites with documents, or simply images that are relevant.  The successful player will use these materials and be prepared.

• Decide.  All players are required to complete a Mission Execution Form.  Each player decides how much detail to include, but the idea is to document the plan and how an individual or team will complete the Mission.  For teams, this should be a critical step in the process, but even for an individual, we think it is good to spend a few minutes thinking about what will happen and visualize the approach.

• Act.  Players gear up and attempt to successfully complete the Mission.  This is the most consequential step in the process.  And we hope it will be the most fun and exciting.  While success is evaluated and scored on performance in how an individual or team Acts, players should remember that many components got them to this phase.

Loop.  After any action, we strongly encourage an After Action Review and evaluation against the original plan.  There are specific steps on the Mission Execution Form to guide this focus.  But most importantly, even in success, there can be lessons learned from any action.  These lessons should be employed for future Missions or in the case of a failed mission, trying again.

“There are no losses in life, only lessons”

Announcing Our Partners Program

An introductory video describing our partner program and how you can earn money for your creative content.

A while back we announced this program and now it is here. Check out the video and the new Partners page on our website for full details.

Simply, we created some screens that allow people to configure Missions on the platform. You think of some creative challenge, key it into the website, and then people come and can ‘play’ the Mission at our new site in Londonderry, NH (opening Dec 2018). What’s more, we will share some of the revenue generated from each Mission played, with YOU!

And to kick off the program, we are offering this special…we will pay $20 for each Mission completely configured onto the platform for the first 50 Missions that are created. You can create 1 or all 50, just build some awesome content!

Check out our Partners page for more details. Join our team!

CEO Update - Q3 2018

Q3 was all about building product...again.  To say that we are behind is an understatement.  But fortunately, while we have not completed a lot of items, we made a lot of progress on many of them.  Q4 will be all about closing. As I started looking at all of our deliverables for the rest of the year, I realized that many of them had a long lead time.  And so I had to start working on some of them thinking about elapsed time to still hit them by EoY. Unfortunately that meant that some of the easier short term things didn’t get done.

In addition, I focused on developing the app for our Partner program so that creating content would be much simpler. I believe this is the right strategy as demonstrating the power of the marketplace, will be critical to customer success and getting top quality content. It is clear that we can’t create it all. We added some functionality specifically so content creators will have an easier time crafting Missions.

Objectives

1. Tech Development - Could not be happier with both functionality and aesthetics. There is so much capability and flexibility that I think people will really be impressed. We are 95% complete.

2. Mobile Unit Construction - Behind schedule. But we ran a test and things worked as planned which is a good sign that this will work. We also ran an IoT controller test and I am confident that this will also scale.

3. Team/Network - I have come to realize that we don’t need 3 people full-time (like a traditional startup), but rather we need about 12-14 people at varying degrees of part-time-edness. Over the past quarter, this group is starting to come together. We just need a few more pieces to the puzzle but this has gone well.

Progress

So overall I grade me a C and the business a B-. We certainly sacrificed in this quarter in the hopes of delivering more in Q4. As we used to say, slow down to speed up. It never materialized before, let’s see if I can make it a reality.  

Failures

• There were some small misses on design, missing a few fields here and there in the table structure, but overall nothing major in the tech.

• I reached my limit with the crappy brand/logo and that needed to be fixed (see successes).

• VC outreach. This is going to be hard. I met with several potential investors and so far, no one sees the scale play. I’ll have to work on that and generate some data to back it up.

• The damn magnetic skin-logos for my new truck. Who knew the stupid thing was PLASTIC?!?! UGGGGHHH. I am so annoyed with this one.

Successes

• We have a new mascot (see above)! The Mace is still our Spiritual Advisor, but Goose is the full-time product representative. I mean come on, look at that face, you have to love us!

• Logo design. Felipe = Genius. I knew I would need to do this last quarter, I am so glad I pulled the trigger. Having professional looking materials, is a huge win.

• Studio. Can’t wait to start recording videos

• Decision to find a space. This one is on the DL. Announcement hopefully soon.

• Team. In the past 3 months I have met with some amazing folks in my network and gotten some great feedback. This is hard for me to do, but the responses have been awesome and I am getting more comfortable with making the ask.

• With help from Whitney, I figured out how to completely integrate with the OODA loop… blog post coming soon!

Jury Is Out

• I am a little unsure of whether the design for creating content will work. I skimped a little here going all out for a back-office process.

• Can we generate creative content? Will it be engaging?

• Can we generate revenue in Q4. THIS WILL BE CRITICAL, for several reasons. I really don’t want this thing to end before we get started.

Q4 Outlook and Objectives

• Formalize team. While I am sure this is the biggest reason I won’t get into Techstars again, I like my format and I have an idea how to instantiate the relationships.

• Open site. This is happening. Get ready for a grand opening!

• Finish product development. Can’t wait to do a full product demo. I think everyone will be impressed.

• Begin Marketing. A lot needs to be done here for content, funnel and a plan. I might need some more help. I have an idea so we will see how this shakes out.

Even my Q3 update is late, but better than never. In Q4, I intend a much healthier stream of communication. Keep your eyes open…yes I know I am 31% through the quarter already…shut up:)

Our New Studio

Josh shows how to turn your garage into a studio for instructional video

I’m a big fan of video. I believe it is the best way to convey information to an audience. I want to make sure that our videos look good and sound good. But I didn’t want to just sit in front of the camera, I wanted to use the whiteboard to sketch out the big concepts. It looks more engaging when the presenter is up and moving around.

So I converted one of our garages into a studio. Rather than just showing the finished product, I thought it might be useful for other startups to see how $150 can make a decent studio. This video walks through that process. I also detailed a parts list at the end of this post and in the video.

Step by step instructions…

1. Paint one wall with a flat paint, preferably light and soft in tone.

2. Make a table that rolls that is at a good height to move your camera as needed. I used a 3 drawer file cabinet that I already owned and made a platform with castors on the bottom.

3. Hang your company logo and a whiteboard on the painted wall

4. Buy 2 light strips, LED is best. Attach to a piece of wood, I love using 1X2s for stuff like this. Attach the 1X2s to small blocks of wood like a 2X3, with hinges.

5. Attach the blocks to the ceiling so the lights can hinge down and up out of the way.

6. Find some 12 or 14 gauge solid wire (romex style) wire to screw to the ceiling that can easily wrap around the lights to hold them up and out of the way.

7. Use a light strip with a switch to control the lights if they don’t have a switch of their own. Attach to the ceiling. Usually you can use the outlet from your garage door opener.

8. Staple the edge of the blanket to an 8’ long 1x2. Then lay 4 mini-bungies over the stapled edge and screw the board to the ceiling with the stapled side facing up (creating friction with the ceiling and better holding it in place) PRO-TIP: find the ceiling joists first.

9. Find an old blanket that you can lay on the floor to further dampen sound.

Watch the video below for more instruction!

Blankets 3@ 5 = 5

Bungees 1 @ 7 = 7

Lights 2 @ 27 = 54

1x2s 5 @ 2.23 =11

Hinges 1 @ 2.99 = 3

Whiteboard 1 @ 60 = 60

Wheels 4 @ 3.19 = 13

Total $ 151

Working With Josh

I recently heard a podcast with Claire Hughes Johnson of Stripe.  When she started at Stripe, she wrote a document about how best to engage her in a professional setting. This is absolutely brilliant. And I am going to encourage all future employees of TheMissionZone to do the same. In fact, it should be the cover letter for every person that applies to join our team.  This is my own version, though I admit I borrowed several pieces of this from multiple blogs...

Principles that hold true

• Sense of humor- I have a healthy sense of humor and I love joking around

• Work:life blend - I call it a “blend” because I want to make it easier to have both throughout any given day.

• Honesty - Please don’t bullshit me.  I would much rather the truth than blowing sunshine up my ass or holding back reality.

• Humility - Please don’t fluff me.  I do some things well and I am horrible at other things.  I need a lot of support to get things done, but I will absolutely contribute what I do best to the team’s efforts.

• Transparency - In reality, not much needs to be secret.  No one dies in our world because of a decision, so make sure that everything you do is clear to others.  Always share with me the “why” of something.

• Respect - I will always respect your opinions as long as they are based on facts.  Facts are key.  If you have an opinion based on a fact but that “fact” proves to be incorrect, you better be flexible with your opinion as well.  When you cite an opinion, tell me all the relevant facts that led you to believe it and which facts you weigh more than others, including facts that might undermine your argument.

• Feedback is your friend - No one is perfect.  We can all do better.  So when someone offers you feedback, you need to listen.  You might disagree.  But make sure you have reasons to disagree and have a discussion intellectually.  Do not make it personal and try to attack back.  It’s ok to refute feedback, but do it civilly.

• Life is not zero sum - I believe that it is ok for two sides to both win, and for two sides to both lose.  It is not necessary for one side to lose if the other wins, in a two sided transaction.  This isn’t sports.

• Everyone is part of making the world a better place - Do your part.  Set an example.  The outcome of something big is always the sum of many small things, contribute one of those small things.

• Efficiency- I hate waste.  So thinking for efficiency is important in everything, don’t waste if it can be avoided.

• Understand ”why” - I believe that knowing the “why” something is/happens/happened is critical to learning.

• Strive to be smarter - You will never know everything and there is always someone who knows something you don’t.  Try to keep current.

• Community - Everyone needs to be part of the team for it to succeed.

• Be sheepdog strong.

 Approaching me

• I have a system for organization, it’s not great, but it works for me.  Please respect that.

• Please don’t be too formal.  Talk to me as if you were my friend.

• Be bold and confident.   If you have an idea, argue your point, have facts to back it up.  If you just have ideas and opinions, be honest that they need proving, I will work with you if I know the purpose is to polish details.

• I think big picture first and then fit details and examples into a model.

• DRAW PICTURES.  I love whiteboards.

• Know how to speak clearly and logically.   Whatever your native tongue, speak it well.  Use correct grammar.

• If you work for me, you ARE doing something valuable to the company and the mission, if you feel you are not, help me eliminate that role and I guarantee we will find you a better job within the company.

• Don’t be territorial or a tree hugger, know when to make decisions for the greater good.

• I respect changing direction and new lines of thinking, but make a decision and commit.  Don’t hedge.

• If you want to grow or go, tell me and we will work on it together.  Your success is my success.

• Sometimes I need to be smacked in the face, do it, but be polite :)

Management style

• I try to be hands off.  Please just do your job, and surprise me with your ingenuity, creativity and ambition.

• Help me learn.  No one knows everything.  You know something that I don’t and vice versa.  Let’s work together.

• Propose solutions and then let’s discuss. Never come to a meeting without a proposal to solve a problem.  Write out the broad strokes and then we can assess. 

• NEVER HAVE A PRE-MEETING MEETING!!!  Don’t ever get a group together to discuss before a larger meeting, what a waste of time.

• I shouldn't have to assign work.  If you know your job/goals and we defined your role, take it on and nail it.  Don’t make me chase you.

• A crisis means all-hands, I don’t care where you work.  We are on the same team.

• I like data and facts.  Be sure you have the correct metadata so we are using the same definitions for those facts.  Don’t play games by slicing some dataset to meet your pre-defined conclusions.

• I like a plan that speculates on outcomes so we have a benchmark to make evaluations and changes against later.  Always keep track of the history of a project so we know how it is progressing.

• Tell me about your life.

• Communication Channels

  • Email - Longer than a thought, but not important enough to save as a document.  Company announcements are a good example.

  • Phone - When something is complex and requires back and forth.  If there are multiple back-and-forths trying to resolve a decision, get on a call.

  • Video - Should be the default for remote conversations.  We both deserve full attention.

  • Text - If you know I am out and asynchronous communication is ok.  Or if you know I need to be stealth.

  • Slack - For most company communications.

  • F2F - I like meeting face to face.  If possible, we should.

  • Meetings - If multiple people need to receive information (all-hands) or if multiple people need to weigh in on a decision. 

  • 1:1 meetings - Personal contact and feedback is important.

Stuff not to do

• Play the blame game.  Take responsibility, learn a lesson, move forward.

• Laziness, flakiness.  Come on, Do Your Job.

• Not taking ownership.  Read Extreme Ownership.  Everyone should live this way.

• Groupthink - Stand up and challenge a consensus.  The world needs more rebels.  Just do it with respect.

• Throwing bombs or passive aggressiveness.

• Screamers - If you have ever yelled at someone in the office, you will not work at TheMissionZone.

• Insults - Nope, Never.  Everyone is a person and deserves respect...Except Trump.

• Keep secrets.  Get everything out in the open.  Transparency is good, it helps us succeed.

• Take a challenge or debate as personal.  We are discussing an idea.  Even if you are wrong, I could respect you more if you help fomulate the reasoning and are part of a discussion.  Just because I challenge you doesn’t mean that I don’t respect you.  If you help me think through an issue, I respect you more.

• Be stubborn - Know when to stop.  There are times to give up on something, try to see it, or be open to others helping you see it.

To get to know me and the way I think, read my personal blog at www.joshrutstein.com