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Nate Martin’s timing was perfect. “Escape rooms” were having an international moment—starting with one business in Kyoto, Japan, in 2007, and then rapidly expanding across Asia and Europe. They’re like an interactive puzzle: People pay to be locked inside a room and work together to complete a series of tasks in order to “escape.” In August 2013, just as the concept was expanding in the U.S., Martin invested $7,000 to build one called Puzzle Break in Seattle, and he made his money back by the end of the year. He then franchised in Long Island and struck a deal with Royal Caribbean to install escape rooms on cruise ships—grossing $660,000 in 2015, and putting him on track to more than double his revenue in 2016.

Despite his success, he cautions entrepreneurs against following his lead. “There are now more than a thousand escape rooms, each competing with exponentially larger budgets,” he says. “The barrier to entry is rising so fast, no one could get away