Motley Clue Adventures

What Motley Clue Adventures does

Motley Clue Adventures is a privately held, founder-operated team building service provider based in Raleigh, North Carolina. Founded and run by co-owners Dennis and Cinda Putnam, the company designs and hosts immersive, puzzle-based mystery scavenger hunts conducted in person at three partner museums: the NC Museum of History, the NC Museum of Natural Sciences, and the NC Museum of Art. The core product consists of three tiered corporate event packages (Core Group up to 6 participants at $1,999, Explorers Edition up to 20 participants at $2,699, and Premier Experience up to 100 participants at $3,899) built around four signature themes (Murder at the Museum, Chron-illogical, The Inheritance, and Spies Among Us). Events are facilitated by trained hosts who guide teams through Da Vinci code-style puzzles using props, audio clues, and exhibit-embedded clues, concluding with a structured debrief that ties team behaviors to workplace takeaways.

The company's customer base is concentrated in the Raleigh/Research Triangle Park corporate market and includes enterprise clients such as Cisco, Red Hat, Novartis, UCB Pharma, Syngenta, and Relias Learning. A second revenue stream, the Museum Partner Program, licenses curated ($3,999) or fully custom ($6,999) scavenger hunt content to museums for their own visitor engagement programming, extending the business model beyond direct event delivery. Marketing and distribution are conducted primarily through the company website, partner museum venues, customer testimonials, and the founders' local corporate networks. The company has no external funding, no disclosed employees beyond the two founders, and operates exclusively in the Raleigh, NC metro area.

Name

Motley Clue Adventures

Legal name

Motley Clue Adventures

Website

https://motleyclue.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2007

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Motley Clue Adventures is a Raleigh, NC-based, founder-operated team building company that hosts immersive, puzzle-based mystery scavenger hunts at three North Carolina museums for corporate clients, primarily in the Research Triangle Park market.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Holly Springs

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Corporate Team Building Events: Direct sales of team building experiences at museum venues. Three pricing tiers based on group size and included amenities (conference center, facilitator, snacks, prizes).
2. Museum Partner Program - Curated Themes: Museums license pre-designed scavenger hunt themes ($3,999) with standardized puzzles and mechanics customized with exhibition-specific clues.
3. Museum Partner Program - Custom Themes: Museums license fully custom-tailored scavenger hunt experiences ($6,999) uniquely aligned with their vision, identity, and exhibits.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Motley Clue Adventures hosts immersive, puzzle-based mystery scavenger hunts inside Raleigh-area museum venues as corporate team building events, with three tiered event packages (Core Group, Explorers Edition, Premier Experience) and four signature themes. A secondary line licenses themed and custom scavenger hunt digital booklets to museum partners for their own visitor engagement programs.

Product overview

Motley Clue Adventures offers interactive museum-based team building experiences combining puzzle-solving adventures with team bonding activities. The core product consists of three event packages (Premier Experience, Explorers Edition, and Core Group Hunt) priced from $1,999 to $3,899, featuring four signature mystery themes (Murder at the Museum, Chron-illogical, The Inheritance, and Spies Among Us) conducted at North Carolina museum venues. The company also provides a Museum Partner Program offering two museum-facing products: Curated Themes Collection ($3,999) and Custom-Crafted Expeditions ($6,999) that allow partner museums to deploy themed scavenger hunt booklets customized to their exhibitions.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Premier Experience: Full museum team building experience with conference center for up to 100 participants, includes professional facilitator, prizes, post-hunt photo reel, and snacks.
• Explorers Edition
• Core Group

Products and services

• Premier Experience A premium 3.25-hour immersive museum team adventure for medium to large corporate groups. Includes professional facilitator, dedicated conference center rental, post-hunt snacks and waters, prizes, and a photo reel. Supports up to 100 participants with pricing starting at $3,899 for up to 25 participants and additional per-participant fees for larger groups.
• Explorers Edition Hunt A streamlined 2.5-hour team-building adventure for small to medium corporate groups (up to 20 participants), meeting directly at the museum without a conference center. Includes engaging puzzles, dynamic challenges, and prizes for the top three teams, priced at $2,699.
• Core Group Hunt An experiential challenge designed for a single small team of up to 6 participants, featuring fast-paced problem-solving with teams ranked by score and time. Awarded a Motley Clue Certificate of Achievement, priced at $1,999.
• Murder at the Museum A team-based who-dunnit mystery adventure where teams solve puzzles to piece together the murder of Museum Curator Nathanial Grimsley and determine which of four suspects committed the crime, conducted inside partner museum venues.
• Chron-illogical A time-travel themed mystery where teams must identify a thief who has disappeared into the past with a stolen time machine, tracking them through history to prevent a time-space catastrophe within a two-hour timeframe.
• The Inheritance

Quantifiable outcome

• Teams receive standing ovations and continue discussing the event for days afterward
• +1 more outcomes

Named customers6 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Three partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• NC Museum of HistorycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner museum venue in downtown Raleigh (5 East Edenton Street). Smithsonian affiliate welcoming 465,000+ visitors annually including 83,000+ school groups. Hosts team building events with group sizes of 9-100 participants.
• NC Museum of Natural SciencescoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner museum venue - largest science and nature institution in Southeastern United States with over 1 million visitors annually. Premier destination for team building events in central Raleigh.
• NC Museum of ArtcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerPartner museum venue with group sizes of 9-75 participants. Free on-site parking available. Historic art collection started in 1947 when NC General Assembly appropriated $1 million for works of art - first state legislature in US to do so.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves4 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Broad incumbents

• The Escape Game: The largest escape room operator in the US with multiple locations. Competes for the same corporate team building and group entertainment spend that Motley Clue targets, though via owned facilities rather than partner venues.
• Outback Team Building & Adventure: Established corporate team building company offering a wide range of programs including scavenger hunts across North America. Larger and more diversified than Motley Clue but competes for the same enterprise customer.
• The Go Game: Corporate team building and event company with technology-enabled scavenger hunts and city games. Comparable customer segment (enterprise corporate teams) and event-driven GTM motion.

Direct peers

• Watson Adventures: NYC-based scavenger hunt company that runs museum-based mystery hunts and corporate team building events in museums. Most direct comparable in terms of format, customer base, and museum-venue approach.
• Museum Hack: Company offering "renegade" guided tours and corporate events at museums in multiple major US cities. Most comparable in combining museum venues with corporate entertainment and team building.
• CityHunt: National scavenger hunt company offering team building scavenger hunts in multiple cities using GPS and mobile app technology. Comparable in customer base (corporate groups) and product category, though with broader geographic reach.
• Strayboots: Scavenger hunt and team building platform with operations in 70+ cities worldwide, including self-guided and facilitator-led formats. Directly comparable product and target customer.
• Wild Key Adventures: Adventure scavenger hunt and team building company operating in major US cities. Comparable team building scavenger hunt format with similar corporate customer focus.

Emerging players

• 60out Escape Rooms: Escape room operator in Los Angeles offering corporate team building packages. Competes for a subset of the same corporate experiential entertainment market via owned facilities.

Regional players

• Action Target Challenge: Mobile team building and scavenger hunt operator active in the Southeast US. Regional competitor that overlaps with Motley Clue's Raleigh/RTP territory and could compete for the same enterprise customers.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/MotleyClueAdventures
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/motley-clue-adventures

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Motley Clue Adventures