* . *
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact
Thursday, July 31, 2025
Earth-News
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    Sens. Blackburn, Warnock introduce CREATE Act to provide tax relief to music creators – Yahoo Home

    Sens. Blackburn and Warnock Launch CREATE Act to Deliver Tax Relief for Music Creators

    That’s (Political) Entertainment: When Theatre Meets Politics

    Future Script: How Generative AI Is Changing Collective Bargaining in the Entertainment Industry – Jackson Lewis

    Future Script: How Generative AI Is Transforming Collective Bargaining in Entertainment

    The SBA’s live-entertainment bailout was supposed to end two years ago. We still don’t know how $1.5 billion was spent. – Yahoo Home

    $1.5 Billion Live-Entertainment Bailout: Two Years Later, Where Did the Money Go?

    Wall Street Bets: Caesars, Golden Entertainment, Churchill Downs, GLPI, Boyd – CDC Gaming

    Top Wall Street Bets: Caesars, Golden Entertainment, Churchill Downs, GLPI, and Boyd Take Center Stage

    Micro wrestling coming to NE Ohio – Cleveland.com

    Get Ready, NE Ohio: Micro Wrestling Is Making Its Exciting Debut!

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp (CTSH) Q2 2025 Earnings Call Highlights: Strong Revenue … – Yahoo.co

    Cognizant Q2 2025 Earnings: Impressive Revenue Growth and Key Takeaways

    Revving Up The U.S. Technology Engine – Forbes

    Revving Up The U.S. Technology Engine – Forbes

    More than just a hockey player – Rochester Institute of Technology Athletics

    Beyond the Ice: The Inspiring Journey of a Remarkable Athlete from Rochester Institute of Technology

    Smart Logistics in Warehousing – From Legacy Protocols to Green IoT – How Technology Is Reshaping the Sustainable Supply Chain – Logistics Viewpoints –

    Smart Logistics in Warehousing – From Legacy Protocols to Green IoT – How Technology Is Reshaping the Sustainable Supply Chain – Logistics Viewpoints –

    AI’s race in the dark with China – Axios

    The High-Stakes AI Race: Innovation and Competition in the Shadows

    Eagle Unveils Revolutionary X-Ray Technology at Pack Expo

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Business
  • Entertainment
    Sens. Blackburn, Warnock introduce CREATE Act to provide tax relief to music creators – Yahoo Home

    Sens. Blackburn and Warnock Launch CREATE Act to Deliver Tax Relief for Music Creators

    That’s (Political) Entertainment: When Theatre Meets Politics

    Future Script: How Generative AI Is Changing Collective Bargaining in the Entertainment Industry – Jackson Lewis

    Future Script: How Generative AI Is Transforming Collective Bargaining in Entertainment

    The SBA’s live-entertainment bailout was supposed to end two years ago. We still don’t know how $1.5 billion was spent. – Yahoo Home

    $1.5 Billion Live-Entertainment Bailout: Two Years Later, Where Did the Money Go?

    Wall Street Bets: Caesars, Golden Entertainment, Churchill Downs, GLPI, Boyd – CDC Gaming

    Top Wall Street Bets: Caesars, Golden Entertainment, Churchill Downs, GLPI, and Boyd Take Center Stage

    Micro wrestling coming to NE Ohio – Cleveland.com

    Get Ready, NE Ohio: Micro Wrestling Is Making Its Exciting Debut!

  • General
  • Health
  • News

    Cracking the Code: Why China’s Economic Challenges Aren’t Shaking Markets, Unlike America’s” – Bloomberg

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Trump’s Narrow Window to Spread the Truth About Harris

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    Israel-Gaza war live updates: Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh assassinated in Iran, group says

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    PAP Boss to Niger Delta Youths, Stay Away from the Protest

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Court Restricts Protests In Lagos To Freedom, Peace Park

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Fans React to Jazz Jennings’ Inspiring Weight Loss Journey

    Trending Tags

    • Trump Inauguration
    • United Stated
    • White House
    • Market Stories
    • Election Results
  • Science
  • Sports
  • Technology
    Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp (CTSH) Q2 2025 Earnings Call Highlights: Strong Revenue … – Yahoo.co

    Cognizant Q2 2025 Earnings: Impressive Revenue Growth and Key Takeaways

    Revving Up The U.S. Technology Engine – Forbes

    Revving Up The U.S. Technology Engine – Forbes

    More than just a hockey player – Rochester Institute of Technology Athletics

    Beyond the Ice: The Inspiring Journey of a Remarkable Athlete from Rochester Institute of Technology

    Smart Logistics in Warehousing – From Legacy Protocols to Green IoT – How Technology Is Reshaping the Sustainable Supply Chain – Logistics Viewpoints –

    Smart Logistics in Warehousing – From Legacy Protocols to Green IoT – How Technology Is Reshaping the Sustainable Supply Chain – Logistics Viewpoints –

    AI’s race in the dark with China – Axios

    The High-Stakes AI Race: Innovation and Competition in the Shadows

    Eagle Unveils Revolutionary X-Ray Technology at Pack Expo

    Trending Tags

    • Nintendo Switch
    • CES 2017
    • Playstation 4 Pro
    • Mark Zuckerberg
No Result
View All Result
Earth-News
No Result
View All Result
Home Business

How Tough Mudder’s millionaire founder lured investors into funding his immersive gaming venture

March 25, 2024
in Business
How Tough Mudder’s millionaire founder lured investors into funding his immersive gaming venture
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Without investment, turning a million-dollar idea on paper into a reality is nothing more than a dream. Or at least, that’s usually the case. Tough Mudder, the military-style endurance experience—where contestants looking to test their mental and physical limits can take on 5K to 24-hour muddy obstacle courses that require them to run, jump, crawl, climb and swim—was the exception to this rule. 

Its founder Will Dean, a former British counter-terrorism officer, was forced to self-finance the obstacle course after investors couldn’t wrap their heads around why anyone would pay to go through such torture.

“We found a small ski hill in the middle of nowhere in Pennsylvania, we built a website and then suddenly we were selling tickets and I realized I don’t need to raise any money,” he recalls to Fortune. “We sold 5000 tickets in three weeks, so it turns out they were wrong.”

Tough Mudder went on to become one of the U.S.’ fastest-growing athletic and “team bonding” activities, by 2017 it was turning more than $125 million a year, as per the Financial Times and over 6 million people have completed the obstacle course since its launch in 2009.

But by 2020 the company plunged into administration following various disputes and was sold to Spartan.

Two years before it all came crashing down for Tough Mudder, Dean cashed in on his brainchild for “millions”, bought a new house, and after “three months proper off” started brainstorming his next venture.

The British entrepreneur’s second light bulb moment came on a family day out with his two kids at a VR experience on a wet Sunday afternoon.

“I found myself with motion sickness,” he remembers, adding that it resulted in him throwing up in a Swansea shopping mall bin.

“If VR is succeeding and people are doing it, yet in my experience it’s antisocial, not fun, and it makes me sick—you can’t help but think I could do this better.

“Having finished Tough Mudder, which was all about bringing people together through sheer physical endeavor, I thought to myself: I wonder if I can create some sort of business that uses tech in a similar way to create shared memories?”

Nine months later, he brought David Spindler, a fellow Tough Mudder veteran, on board as co-founder and CFO and built a simple prototype for what is now Immersive Gamebox in a warehouse in North London.

All of the games, which currently include ones based on Ghostbusters, Black Mirror and Paw Patrol, put the players in the heart of those imaginary worlds with rescue missions and virtual villains displayed on the touch-sensitive walls, paired with surround sound and motion trackers—no headsets needed.

But Dean would have to impress investors to get his idea off the ground.

“With Tough Mudder, you could sell the ticket before you built the thing,” the Harvard Business School alum says. “With this business, you’ve got to build the thing before you sell the ticket.”

How he literally played investors off against each other

The entrepreneur spent days pitching for funding for business idea number two, a London-based immersive group gaming experience, before offering investors the chance to go head-to-head in a live demo.

He emailed venture capitalists inviting them to test the game for themselves while flexing that he knows “a thing or two about putting on live experiences and selling tickets”.

“I’m not Elon Musk, but because I’ve created Tough Mudder, all the major funds were all willing to come and at least see what I was up to,” Dean says. “The idea was to make sure they got a high score and then they’d post-rationalize everything.”

The CEO staggered each firm’s appointment, used their company name as their team name, and had their scores ranked on a public leaderboard.

“It was very deliberate,” Dean adds. “Look at all these other people—if you don’t invest, one of these other people will.”

It worked. Investors injected $3.5M into his venture and the startup officially opened for business in October 2019. 

Since then, it has raised $65 million to date from backers including Index Ventures and Sweet Capital; partnered with the likes of Netflix for a “Squid Game” experience; and expanded beyond U.K. territory to over 25 locations spanning from the States and Dubia to Australia and Berlin. 

Today, 1.2 million people have given the in-person gaming experience a go and the plan now is to open 1,000 sites by 2028.

‘Create this fear of missing out’

The reason Dean’s investment hack did the trick isn’t just because getting a high score stroked the egos of venture capitalists playing at Immersive Gamebox (although, he admits, that helped.)

It’s because they could see who they could lose the business to—and that’s something any entrepreneur can emulate.

“You have to create this sort of fear of missing out,” Dean says. “I remember someone saying, ‘Greed starts negotiations, fear closes them.’”

So how can an aspiring entrepreneur instill fear in big-shot investors?

Dean has a few tricks up his sleeve: Turn up to a pitching presentation with the wrong investor’s name on the deck. 

“Say, ‘Oh, I’m sorry, that’s still that presentation has the name of one of your competitors,’” he laughs. “I don’t know how that happened.” 

He’s even emailed investors in the past with the wrong email, before swiftly sending a follow-up note saying: “Please ignore that email that was meant for somebody else.”

“Things like that are not bad ways to create a bit of competitive tension,” Dean assures.

Subscribe to the new Fortune CEO Weekly Europe newsletter to get corner office insights on the biggest business stories in Europe. Sign up for free.

>>> Read full article>>>
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source : Fortune – https://fortune.com/europe/2024/03/24/how-tough-mudder-founder-will-dean-lured-investors-into-funding-immersive-gamebox/

Tags: businessMudder'stough
Previous Post

Homebuyers expecting big savings after realtor settlement likely in for letdown: ‘Everyone is turning this ruling into what they want it to be’

Next Post

Stellantis uses ‘mandatory remote work day’ to cut 400 white-collar jobs

New DNA Analysis Allows Scientists To Identify Specific Animals by Their Feces – Smithsonian Institution

Breakthrough DNA Analysis Enables Scientists to Identify Animals Just from Their Feces

July 31, 2025
Some killer whales hunt in pairs to maximize their bounty – Science News

Some killer whales hunt in pairs to maximize their bounty – Science News

July 31, 2025
Be Like Blippi Week – Adventure Science Center

Join the Fun: Be Like Blippi Week at Adventure Science Center!

July 31, 2025
Martha Stewart questions Meghan Markle’s lifestyle brand: ‘Hope she knows what she’s talking about’ – Page Six

Martha Stewart Raises Eyebrows Over Meghan Markle’s Lifestyle Brand: “Hope She Knows What She’s Talking About

July 31, 2025
Trump Executive Order Ends De Minimis Exemption for Rest of World – The New York Times

Trump Executive Order Ends De Minimis Exemption for Rest of World – The New York Times

July 31, 2025
Mexico’s economy grew 0.7% in Q2, outpacing analysts’ forecasts – Mexico News Daily

Mexico’s economy grew 0.7% in Q2, outpacing analysts’ forecasts – Mexico News Daily

July 31, 2025
Sens. Blackburn, Warnock introduce CREATE Act to provide tax relief to music creators – Yahoo Home

Sens. Blackburn and Warnock Launch CREATE Act to Deliver Tax Relief for Music Creators

July 31, 2025
Malnutrition rates reach alarming levels in Gaza, WHO warns – World Health Organization (WHO)

Malnutrition rates reach alarming levels in Gaza, WHO warns – World Health Organization (WHO)

July 31, 2025
Ahead of Trade Deadline, Trump Threatens Canada for Backing Palestinian State – The New York Times

Trump Delivers Stark Warning to Canada Over Backing Palestinian State Ahead of Trade Deadline

July 31, 2025
Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp (CTSH) Q2 2025 Earnings Call Highlights: Strong Revenue … – Yahoo.co

Cognizant Q2 2025 Earnings: Impressive Revenue Growth and Key Takeaways

July 31, 2025

Categories

Archives

July 2025
MTWTFSS
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
28293031 
« Jun    
Earth-News.info

The Earth News is an independent English-language daily published Website from all around the World News

Browse by Category

  • Business (20,132)
  • Ecology (747)
  • Economy (772)
  • Entertainment (21,652)
  • General (16,209)
  • Health (9,809)
  • Lifestyle (780)
  • News (22,149)
  • People (774)
  • Politics (781)
  • Science (15,985)
  • Sports (21,269)
  • Technology (15,751)
  • World (755)

Recent News

New DNA Analysis Allows Scientists To Identify Specific Animals by Their Feces – Smithsonian Institution

Breakthrough DNA Analysis Enables Scientists to Identify Animals Just from Their Feces

July 31, 2025
Some killer whales hunt in pairs to maximize their bounty – Science News

Some killer whales hunt in pairs to maximize their bounty – Science News

July 31, 2025
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Privacy & Policy
  • Contact

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

No Result
View All Result

© 2023 earth-news.info

Go to mobile version