Museum Hack
Museum Hack is a NYC-founded tour and corporate events company running small-group "renegade" museum tours and team building experiences across six major US cities, serving both skeptical individual visitors and corporate clients like Google, Facebook, and Spotify.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2013
- HeadquartersNew York, United States
- Headcount51–100
- GTM typeB2B and B2C
- OfferingServices
What Museum Hack does
Museum Hack is a private, founder-owned tour and corporate events company founded in 2013 in New York City. It leads small-group "renegade" museum tours that reframe well-known collections through untold stories, humor, and interactive activities, targeting both consumer visitors who are skeptical of traditional museums and corporate clients seeking differentiated team building experiences. Headquartered in NYC with operations across Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington DC, and Philadelphia, the company employs 60+ team members and serves 500+ corporate clients at a cadence of 450+ events annually.
Museum Hack firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Museum Hack
- Legal name
- Museum Hack
- Website
- https://museumhack.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2013
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 51–100 employees
- Short description
- Museum Hack is a NYC-founded tour and corporate events company running small-group "renegade" museum tours and team building experiences across six major US cities, serving both skeptical individual visitors and corporate clients like Google, Facebook, and Spotify.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Museum Hack industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Experiential Museum Tours and Team Building Services
- NAICS
- Tour Operators (561520)
- SIC
- Services-Amusement & Recreation Services (7900)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Museum & Landmark Guided Tours (Skip-the-line/Docent-led) (THAJAAAC)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Art, Street Art & Creative Scene Tours (THAJAAAE), Art Museums (THAJADAA), Natural History Museums (THAJADAC)
Keywords
Where Museum Hack is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- New York
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices5 records
Markets served
Museum Hack business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B and B2C
- Offering type
- Services
- Cost components
- Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others
Revenue model
- Public Tours: Small group renegade museum tours for individuals and small groups. Standard pricing is per person with tours running 2 hours in major cities (NYC, Chicago, LA, SF, DC). Includes admission to museums and optional add-ons.
- Corporate Team Building Events: Private corporate events and team building activities at museums. Pricing varies by location, group size, and customization level. Optional add-ons include wine service, scavenger hunts, storytelling workshops, swag bags, and custom trophies. Revenue split: 68% to Museum Hack operations, 32% to museum admissions.
- Online Storytelling Workshops: Remote storytelling training workshops for corporate teams. Two-hour virtual events taught by expert guides, priced per group or per person for larger teams.
- Virtual Team Building Activities: Sister company Virtual Holiday Party provides fully hosted virtual events via Zoom and other platforms. Related services from Gingerbread Games for holiday events.
- Museum Consulting: Consulting services for museums to improve visitor engagement and experience.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Unit Pricing | Pay-as-you-go | Standard Public Tour - Un-Highlights at Art Institute of Chicago |
| Unit Pricing | Pay-as-you-go | Standard Public Tour - Un-Highlights at the Met NYC |
| Unit Pricing | Pay-as-you-go | Corporate Team Building Tour |
| Unit Pricing | Pay-as-you-go | VIP Night Tour |
| Unit Pricing | Pay-as-you-go | Beta Tours |
Go-to-market motion2 records
Distribution channels3 records
Marketing channels5 records
Museum Hack product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Museum Hack leads small-group, high-energy "renegade" tours at major US museums, using a tasting-menu approach to surface untold stories behind selected artworks. The company sells public tours to individual visitors as well as customized private corporate team-building events, storytelling workshops, and museum consulting services across NYC, Chicago, LA, San Francisco, Washington DC, and Philadelphia.
Product overview
Museum Hack is a tour and team building service company offering renegade museum tours and corporate team building experiences. The core product portfolio consists of Un-Highlights Tours (high-energy small group museum tours with true stories), complemented by VIP Night Tours, Beta Tours (early adopter testing), themed tours (Badass Bitches, Drag Tours), and scavenger hunt activities. For corporate clients, they offer Team Building Events including murder mystery tours, storytelling workshops (both in-person and online), and custom onboarding workshops under the 'Hacking Day One' brand. The company also provides museum consulting services and operates sister brands for virtual events (Virtual Holiday Party and Gingerbread Games). Services are available in major US cities including NYC, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington DC, and Philadelphia. The company conducts 450+ client events annually and has served 500+ corporate clients with over 5,400 five-star reviews.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Un-Highlights Public Tours High-energy two-hour small group tour (10 or fewer guests) using a tasting-menu approach to surface untold stories behind selected artworks at major museums. Available in NYC, Chicago, LA, San Francisco, and Washington DC for individuals and small groups.
- VIP Night Tours Premium after-hours evening museum tours offering a VIP-style experience with exclusive gallery access at the Met and American Museum of Natural History.
- Corporate Team Building Events Customized private museum-based team-building experiences for corporate groups of 10-300+, including tailored tours, games, icebreakers, and optional add-ons such as drinks, scavenger hunts, and storytelling workshops. Available in NYC, Chicago, LA, SF, DC, and Philadelphia.
- Murder Mystery Scavenger Hunt Events
Quantifiable outcome
- 87% of highly engaged employees are less likely to leave their companies (Driving Leadership Foundation study cited on site)
- +2 more outcomes
Companies that use Museum Hack
Customer profileNamed customers20 records
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles4 records
Museum Hack technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed No
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Feature4 records
Museum Hack partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Eight partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.
- Metropolitan Museum of Art (the Met)corePrimary NYC partner since founding in 2013. Museum Hack operates renegade tours at the Met, offering Un-Highlights tours, VIP Night Tours, and custom corporate events. Tours include admission and skip-the-line access.
- Art Institute of ChicagocorePrimary Chicago partner offering Un-Highlights tours, Night Tours, Badass Bitches tours, and Drag Tours. Revenue split of approximately 32% goes to museum for admissions and support.
- Field Museum (Chicago)corePrimary Chicago venue for corporate team building activities and large group events.
- American Museum of Natural History (AMNH)coreNYC museum partner for Un-Highlights tours and VIP Night Tours, particularly popular for corporate events and scavenger hunts.
- Fraunces TavernminorNYC historical venue partner where evening tours operate with optional dinner and drinks reservations at the neighboring tavern.
- de Young Museum (San Francisco)coreSF museum partner for corporate events, including custom murder mystery scavenger hunts and team building activities.
- Gingerbread GamesminorSister company offering fully hosted virtual holiday events featuring real gingerbread cookie kits for decorating. Recommended as add-on or alternative for holiday team building.
- Virtual Holiday PartyminorSister company providing fully hosted 90-minute virtual holiday parties via Zoom with icebreakers, trivia, scavenger hunts, and mingling time. Partner for remote team building needs.
Scale indicators7 records
Recent moves5 records
Expansion highlights5 records
Museum Hack competitors and assessment
Company assessmentDirect peers
- Context Travel: Context Travel operates small-group, docent-led cultural and museum tours in major global cities. Closely comparable model: high-end guided tours led by subject-matter experts, with strong focus on art, history, and cultural institutions, and a similar premium-ticket positioning to Museum Hack's public tours.
- Walks: Walks (including Walks of Italy, Walks of France, and Walks of Spain) operates small-group guided tours in major cities across Europe and beyond. Comparable via small group sizes, sightseeing and museum focus, and tour guide quality investment similar to Museum Hack's 'renegade' model.
- The Tour Guy: The Tour Guy runs themed, engaging museum and city tours primarily in European capitals. Comparable via entertaining tour guides, themed content (highlights, hidden gems, offbeat), and small-group formats targeting museum visitors in a similar irreverent style.
- Babylon Tours: Babylon Tours provides themed guided city and museum tours across multiple US and European cities. Comparable through multi-city guided tour operations, themed tour products (skip-the-line, hidden gems), and similar museum-focused tour content for both leisure visitors and corporate groups.
- Urban Adventures (Intrepid): Urban Adventures by Intrepid offers small-group themed tours led by local guides in major world cities. Comparable via local-guide led small-group tours, themed itineraries, and storytelling-forward casual tour formats serving similar leisure and corporate travelers.
- Secret Food Tours: Secret Food Tours operates themed small-group guided city tours (predominantly food-focused) across 80+ cities. Comparable via small group tour model, themed storytelling-led content with local guides, and a multi-city launch playbook analogous to Museum Hack's six-city US footprint.
Broad incumbents
- Viator: Viator is a global marketplace for tours, attractions, and experiences (TripAdvisor-owned). Museum Hack's direct tours compete with Viator-listed guides in the same cities; it is a broader platform with a much wider supplier base and serves as both competitor and potential distribution channel.
- Airbnb Experiences: Airbnb Experiences is a hosted experience marketplace operating globally. While not museum-specific, it competes for 'unique local experience' consumer mindshare and bookings alongside Museum Hack's public tours, especially from travelers searching in NYC, LA, SF, and Chicago.
- GetYourGuide: GetYourGuide is a global tours and activities booking platform that lists museum tours including those directly competing with Museum Hack in NYC, Chicago, and SF. Comparable as a broader marketplace competitor and a distribution channel for similar itineraries.
Emerging players
- Atlas Obscura: Atlas Obscura curates unusual places, experiences, and content, and operates Atlas Obscura Experiences (tours, events, trips). Comparable in the adjacent experiential niche through storytelling-led tours and events with strong overlap on hidden-gems and unusual-story positioning.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat5 records
Key risks5 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
Museum Hack social profiles
Digital presenceMuseum Hack financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Museum Hack leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles1 record
Museum Hack funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds
Investors
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Museum Hack M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Museum Hack
What does Museum Hack do?
Museum Hack leads small-group, high-energy "renegade" tours at major US museums, using a tasting-menu approach to surface untold stories behind selected artworks. The company sells public tours to individual visitors as well as customized private corporate team-building events, storytelling workshops, and museum consulting services across NYC, Chicago, LA, San Francisco, Washington DC, and Philadelphia.
Is Museum Hack a public or private company?
Museum Hack is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was Museum Hack founded?
Museum Hack was founded in 2013. It employs 51 to 100 people.
Where is Museum Hack based?
Museum Hack is headquartered in New York, United States, in the North America region.
How does Museum Hack make money?
Five revenue lines are on record. Public Tours are the primary driver. The others are corporate Team Building Events, online Storytelling Workshops, virtual Team Building Activities and museum Consulting.
Who are Museum Hack's main competitors?
Direct peers on record are Context Travel, Walks, The Tour Guy, Babylon Tours, Urban Adventures (Intrepid) and Secret Food Tours. Broad incumbents are Viator, Airbnb Experiences and GetYourGuide. Atlas Obscura is listed as an emerging player.
Does Museum Hack have an API?
No public API is recorded for Museum Hack.
What industry is Museum Hack in?
Museum Hack's product category is Experiential Museum Tours and Team Building Services. Its primary akta.pro industry code is THAJAAAC, Museum & Landmark Guided Tours (Skip-the-line/Docent-led), with a secondary code of THAJAAAE, Art, Street Art & Creative Scene Tours. Its NAICS code is 561520 and its SIC code is 7900.