How Beat The Bomb Is Funding the Space Between Rounds
Every location-based business with 7 locations is already planning for their next capital raise to continue expansion. But how to keep forward momentum during the gap between raises?
Alex Patterson started Beat The Bomb with a question: why does nothing happen at the end of an escape room? What if players were standing in front of the World's Largest Paint Bomb? Dressed in hazmat suits and being filmed on video? If they don't disarm it in time, they get blasted! If they beat it, they 'Beat The Bomb.' Disclaimer: only one in ten first-time teams do.
From a bootstrapped 500-square-foot MVP in Bushwick, Brooklyn to seven locations across New York, Atlanta, Washington DC, Philadelphia, Charlotte, Houston, and Denver, Beat The Bomb has grown into one of the most distinctive experiential businesses in the U.S. From kids birthday parties to corporate events for Amazon, Google, Delta, and Spotify, to even celebrity sightings of the likes of Usher, Venus Williams, and Tony Hawk, everyone is playing.
And it's all been built on a deliberately disciplined capital strategy.
The challenge: the gap between equity rounds
By the time most companies reach Beat The Bomb's stage, the fundamental questions have been answered. It works in markets beyond the original city. The unit economics are solid. The format scales. Seven locations across the U.S. have proved all of that.
But getting there took time and multiple rounds of equity financing. Alex bootstrapped the first location in 2017 and raised a friends and family seed round in 2019 and then a Series A and B to open Atlanta, DC, and four more cities. At each stage, he was deliberate about dilution: what is the cost of this capital to grow, and how much of the company am I giving up?
With seven profitable locations and a clear expansion formula, the next equity raise is no longer about proving the model. It's about accelerating it. But between now and that future raise, there are locations to retrofit, operations staff to hire, and product improvements to make. Each one increases the company's value before inevitable negotiations about the price of the next round.
Going back to existing investors for additional equity between rounds isn't straightforward. As Alex put it: "What's the company worth now? You've accomplished a lot since your last round, but you're not doing a full kick-the-tires of a large round with a lead that's going to set the price." It's time-consuming and negotiation-heavy even with investors who believe in the business.
The solution: non-dilutive financing that moves at the speed of the business
Beat The Bomb's president, Jesse Bull, found Wayflyer while looking at options in the lending space. To Wayflyer, Beat The Bomb had positive cash flows across its locations. It had a clear use for the capital. What it needed was speed and simplicity.
"The number one thing that recommended Wayflyer was that it was a fast process," Alex said. "It was a straightforward standardized structured transaction where we could see very clearly what the cost to the business would be. There were no hidden traps, no personal guarantees."
Comparing it to an equity raise, even with known investors, the difference was stark. A deal with Wayflyer was done in a fraction of the time, with full transparency on cost, and without the back-and-forth that comes with valuation discussions. Beat The Bomb completed its first tranche and has since moved into a second.
The results: strategic upgrades that strengthen the equity story
Beat The Bomb used the financing to do two things: retrofit several locations with a new product offering, and bring in additional technology talent.
The product addition was the Arcade Game Bay: a 3-walled social gaming room with a couch, coffee table, and access to The Bomb Bar's food and drink menu. Think the casual drop-in model of bowling or darts, layered onto the Beat The Bomb experience. It was designed for groups who wanted to play Beat The Bomb without committing to a full 1-hour Mission.
"We needed to retrofit a number of our locations as a test," Alex explained. "Having done that, we've proved this is a valuable addition to our business. That's going to be part of our future location revenue model and ultimately equity story."
That's the logic at the heart of how Beat The Bomb is using Wayflyer: each use of capital is a waypoint, a proof point that increases valuation before the next large raise. The capital is being deployed to build evidence that makes the next round more attractive and less dilutive.
As Alex put it: "I think it's fitting that the name is Wayflyer and you're funding waypoints to your next larger fundraising, increasing your valuation without taking on dilution."
The roadmap runs from 7 locations to 17 to 70: a global immersive gaming platform where teams in Brooklyn and Tokyo could eventually compete in real time. Getting there is a capital question, and Wayflyer is part of how Beat The Bomb is answering it, one tranche at a time.
Beat The Bomb is a tech-powered immersive gaming experience with 7 locations across the United States. Players earn time on a bomb clock across interactive game rooms, then attempt to disarm The World's Largest Paint, Foam, or Slime Bomb at the end. The business serves corporate teams, school groups, and consumers, and counts Amazon, Google, Spotify, Home Depot, and Delta Airlines among its regular customers.