Today we’d like to introduce you to David Goldstein.
David, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Head First Events is the combination of 30 years of work in entertainment, theater and education. On April 15, 1988, America’s First Murder Mystery Dinner Theater opened with an interactive murder mystery entitled Death & Taxes. It was described at the time as a combination of Medieval Manor and Shear Madness. It started downstairs in the Cantab Lounge in Cambridge and then a second Cambridge location and we crossed the river to Boston. From there we had 21 Mystery Cafe locations all across the US and one in Canada and another in Europe. Mystery Cafe’ was a hit.
Since then, Mystery Cafe became a corporate entertainment company and was the foundation for a corporate Team Building company, TeamBonding which has been my passion business for the last 20 years and has been recognized by INC Magazine as one of the fastest growing companies in the US, five times.
Mystery Cafe has been joined by Boston Chocolate School and Tours, the Haunted Dinner Theater, Finnegan’s Wake and Meeting Escapes under the umbrella of Head First Events.
Always the entrepreneur, in 2016, I became a partner of Adventure Activities USA which offers mobile adventures including Axe Throwing, Arrow Tag, SUP and Kayaking and more.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It has had its challenges and I think one of the things people say, ‘be nice to the people on the way up the ladder as not only do you meet them on the way down, they try to push you down further’. One day shortly after our big New Year’s Eve party for 500 people, we weren’t able to pay the bill, and things got a little scary in that every morning people would call, asking for money, threatening us and we used to call going to work, H.E. double Hockey Sticks. Once we got through the mornings we worked to rebuild the company, focus more on corporate events and slowly pay back the bills. Not fun but we were able to focus on a more fun and more rewarding part of the company and out of that came TeamBonding.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Head First Events story. Tell us more about the business.
When I started the company we used to have to make decisions on finances as compared to what was the right thing to do so that the company was able to continue. We had a licensee that always made the right decisions because she had enough money to treat the customer like they should be treated regardless of the short-term loss. I used to wish we could do that.
Now we can do that. We focus on quality, not quantity. We are not trying to be the biggest, just the best. We can innovate and create, develop and deliver new offerings. Our team works so well together and they really care about the experiences that we offer. We have been on the forefront of every major development in our industry from scavenger hunts and culinary programs to corporate social responsibility, escape rooms and high tech. We have the largest selection of team building offerings, available nationwide.
What sets us apart is that we work with our clients every step of the way and tailor the experiences to meet their needs and budget. We partner with them.
Has luck played a meaningful role in your life and business?
Luck, haha. I am big believe in the quote that says that “Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity”
Contact Info:
- Address: 298 Tosca Drive, Stoughton, MA 02072
- Website: http://www.teambonding.com, http://www.headfirstevents.com
- Phone: 781-793-9700
- Email: david@teambonding.com
- Instagram: @teambonding
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TeamBonding/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/teambonding
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