Hidden Gems: Meet Justin Fugate of Clock N’ Key Mobile Escape Rooms

Today we’d like to introduce you to Justin Fugate

Hi Justin, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My name is Justin Fugate, and I am a 17-year-old high school senior who founded Clock N’ Key Mobile Escape Rooms at the age of 14. Throughout my life, I have dreamed of making a significant impact, and upon discovering my passion for adventure and games, I chose to follow this enthusiasm into youth entrepreneurship by creating Escape Rooms.

My love for Escape Rooms began when I experienced my first game during a summer camp field trip in Middle School. Having always been captivated by mysteries and adventure, I sought a way to infuse my daily life with excitement and enjoyment. Upon encountering the concept of Escape Rooms, I realized that I wanted to create my own. After designing and hosting several games for neighborhood and at home events, I recognized the potential to transform my passion into a real, functioning business. Since then, I have dedicated myself to pursuing my entrepreneurial goals and have gained valuable experience along the way. From participating in school clubs and competing in an FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America) National Leadership Conference to presenting in pitch competitions and finalizing in spotlight competitions in Denver, Clock N’ Key and entrepreneurship has become a central part of my life, allowing me to express who I am. I take great pleasure in seeing my games come to life and in providing others with a sense of wonder and intrigue.

My vision doesn’t stop here though. Someday, I hope to own a company that will provide adventure and mystery to many, allowing everyone to hang on to childhood wonder.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Though there have been many bumps along the way, as is with every start-up and business, I think the biggest challenge I’ve encountered is the difficulty of balancing youth entrepreneurship with the busy and eventful life of being a teenager. Though I love to identify myself with my small escape room business and youth entrepreneurship, I am also a high school student that is at a point in life where I am still growing and learning. I am still just a teenager that wants to stay out late with friends, and go explore nature, and go on first dates. I am still just a teenager that is starting to apply to college, that is planning my first solo vacations, and that is planning my life.

Part of my teenage life involves the many clubs and organizations I am involved with as extracurriculars as well as my devotion to my Christian faith. When you combine school with extracurriculars, faith, and personal life, it doesn’t leave much time for anything else. So, trying to find time for running a small business is hard.

Alongside the challenge of balancing teenage life and youth entrepreneurship, I faced the challenge of going into running a business with no idea what I was doing. Fortunately, under the advantage of living in home with my parents as a kid, I have more grace when making mistakes since its less impactful. However, having been a 14-year-old, and even up to now at 17, I am still learning a lot and have made a lot of mistakes along the way as I learn how to run a business to begin with. Understanding aspects of marketing, networking, record keeping, and the legalities of being a sole proprietorship are difficult concepts to grasp on your own.

As I have progressed, I have learned so much and met wonderful people that have taught me things I hadn’t known. I have also learned to balance my time and schedule so I can be both a teenager and a youth entrepreneur.

Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Clock N’ Key Mobile Escape Rooms is an Escape Room business that brings the thrilling experience of an Escape Room to clients and sets it up in their homes, event venues, or corporate locations for teambuilding and recreational activity. Whether it is for your teenager’s birthday party, adults’ night out, a holiday party, or business event, Clock N’ Key offers 3 unique game experiences you can have brought to and set up for you. With Clock N’ Key, the game experience is not only unique because of its mobile character, but also because the quality of the immersion and atmosphere is not sacrificed for lighter and easier travel or set up time, being both effective and “incredibly fun”.

I am most proud of how unique my game experiences are. All 3 of my games are 100% original, and they have the ability to bring the fun of an escape room conveniently to someone in their own home for an affordable price. I am also proud of how amusing my games are for people, allowing them to become characters in a story and play a role in an adventure. I have received so many reviews of people who said they loved their experience, and I delight in getting to watch players faces light up as my games come to life. Clock N’ Key is known for its attractive environments, mobile character, and pleasurable puzzles, and I am very proud to know that I built that.

Clock N’ Key mainly serves areas in the north Denver Metro such as Longmont, Erie, Fort Lupton, Lafayette, the tri-city area, and surrounding towns, but will make longer trips to places like Denver, Greely, and Loveland for an extra fee.

What matters most to you?
The thing that matters the most to me with Clock N’ Key is learning to grow into the person I want to be and living the life I want to live. I want to do something with my life that I can look back on and remember. I want to be able to sit and think about my life when I’m retired and say, I followed something I loved and made people happy along the way. This matters so much to me because I understand that time is precious, and we only have so much time to be alive. What we do with our lives is the only thing we ever will do, and we can decide how we want to spend the precious time we have, and by extension, how we want to be remembered. At the end of the day, it isn’t about whether you lived a successful life or not, it’s about whether you lived a fulfilling life and followed what you love. So, I am the owner of Clock N’ Key Mobile Escape Rooms now to hit the ground running on becoming the person I want to be and starting to live the life that will fulfill me while I am still breathing. Because I am alive now, and really, that’s all that matters.

“Today is the youngest you ever will be. The best time to have planted a tree is 20 years ago, but the second-best time is today.” – Unknown

Pricing:

• $180 for groups 2-4 (1 hour booking)
• $200 for groups 5-8 (1 hour booking)
• $220 for groups 9-12 (1 hour booking)

Contact Info:

• Website: https://clocknkey.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clocknkeyescapes/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61550477218742