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Our Story

Locked in our dorm rooms during the beginning of the pandemic, having binged Tiger King and The Last Dance, two bored engineers thought it would be fun to build an outdoor, pandemic-safe adventure for our classmates. Fast forward a few months, and hundreds of our business school classmates are walking all over Stanford Campus solving the puzzles we’d invented in our dorm room.

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Stanford alums turned the campus into a giant labyrinth full of puzzles in their iOS app, “The Great Game.

We certainly didn’t expect to see groups of our thirty-year-old classmates sprinting across campus, pulled hamstrings be damned, vying for the top spot on the leaderboard. Either all of our friends were way too competitive - a definite possibility - or students were having as much fun playing The Great Game as we had building it. But as graduation neared, it was time to find real jobs.

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But then, the Stanford Football Team heard about our event, and reached out to us to use The Great Game as a bonding activity for their new recruits. Except they asked if we could a build a customized version for them – sure why not? Fifty recruits played over three weekends and loved it. Maybe we could build customized versions for other organizations?

So, we sent a few emails to see if some Universities would want to use it for their Orientation programs. Would Freshmen like it? It turns out yes.

  • Johns Hopkins University -> Over 500 players played and 85% finished

  • Western Carolina University -> Over 700 players played and 95% finished

  • Salve Regina -> Over 400 students played and over 80% finished

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Holy smokes – maybe we didn’t need to find real jobs after all. Since then, we've partnered with dozens of Universities, High Schools and businesses and more than 10,000 players have played The Great Game.

During this adventure, over ten interns (super productive) and a Golden Doodle (not so productive) have joined our team. Just like our escape adventures, our journey has required a ton of teamwork, has challenged us, but most of all, it has been a ton of fun.

Running Track
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Alexander Carlisle

Cofounder

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Lydia Hylton

Cofounder

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Little Bear

Chief Napping Officer

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