February 6, 2017

Meet Rachel Lane of cityHUNT

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Rachel Lane.

Rachel, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I personally started working with the company in September 2011 as an Assistant Adventure Guide. The man who was running the LA division at the time was a friend of a friend and he needed some help on a few of the bigger events. I think I showed a fair amount of enthusiasm because I still could hardly believe running scavenger hunts was truly a job one could get paid for. Over the next year or so, I became his main assistant and eventually, I asked for more responsibility: to build hunts and run them on my own. I didn’t know this at the time, but my request was perfectly timed because he was thinking about moving to Northern California to start a new business venture with his wife. About a month later, he asked me to take over his work with cityHUNT on a trial basis, and it became permanent maybe six months later.

Great, 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?
It has mostly been a smooth road and always an exciting one. Now that I have years of experience building and running hunts, I have been given a lot of creative freedom to create the events I think are best for my clients, which is great. We have developed an app over the last few years that has really taken our hunts to the next level. We definitely have busy seasons and times that aren’t so busy. We have had some struggles when we tried to do some public events, rather than our typical private ones. Advertising and working with deal sites is always a struggle for these kinds of things.

Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about cityHUNT – what should we know?
Generally, we provide team-building events in the form of photo-based scavenger hunts. We do also do private parties and we have other kinds of events we offer as well, but our scavenger hunts are what the company was built on and what we’re known for. I personally produce, build, and run all Southern California events and sometimes other events around the country, when necessary. Basically, this means that I speak with all my clients to get an idea of what their event is about, what goals they are looking to achieve, any themes that they want, customizations ideas, etc. I build a personalized event in the area selected (we do hunts everywhere!) and I am the host and Head Guide on the day of the event.

As far as the company goes, I am proud of how we have grown since I began working here in 2011. The app that we have developed has really given our hunts a whole new life. We are able to do so much more now and in so many more places. We now offer (unstaffed) mobile events for smaller budgets and for cities that we don’t have regular staff in. I think we have made our events very accessible. I think what sets us apart from other companies is our product and what our clients end up with after their events. You do not end up with a bag full of useless items, as many would expect from a scavenger hunt. Because our events are mostly photo (and video) based, our clients end up with albums full of memories of their event and the silly, fun, and creative things they did to complete the challenges. All of our events are also customized, so no two hunts are ever the same. That is also something I’m very proud to represent.

Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
Enthusiasm. When I’m training new Adventure Guides, I always tell them that enthusiasm and energy is the most important element to running an event. For many corporate hunts, participants are unsure of what they’re getting themselves into and if it will be too silly for them. When you come into these events with enthusiasm, that energy tends to spread. It also helps to drive that competitive spirit, which tends to really kick in when the event starts. It’s great when I see people who are acting a little “too cool for school” at the beginning come back at the end sweaty, laughing, and bragging to other teams about how great they did. And I do see this very often!

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