Music Bingo sounded stupid and I didn't want to do it.

NOW HIRING:

- Servers

- Bartender

- Line Cook

- Dish washer

- Quiz Master

Said the blackboard at my soon-to-be local pub, Scran & Dram, in New Hamburg. It was the last week of August, 2017, just a few days before moving into a new home with my family. We were popping in for lunch after completing the walk-through and inspection. At least once a month for the last year we'd been driving out from Mississauga to check on the progress of the house, always in need of a bite to eat before heading home. We were greeted and the staff asked when move in day was, I guess we were already kinda like regulars.

I couldn't help myself when the server brought over our drinks, "what's the deal with the Quiz Master thing on the blackboard?"

"Our current trivia guy got a new job and can't keep hosting, so we need a new one", he said. "Wanna do it? You'd be perfect."

By the time we were done our meal I'd made up my mind and settled on fair terms, a couple of free beers and a half-price dinner. Turns out our server was also the manager and was hoping to start up the next season of trivia the following Thursday.

Moving away from a big city, our friends, and family, to a small town we'd never heard of over an hour away was a pretty big change. "What better way to meet people and become a part of this community than to host the weekly quiz night at the local pub?", I thought.

I hosted trivia nights there for a couple of years. I even recruited a backup host and took a season off to bring my own team and play. We ended up winning a keg at the end of it and threw a party at our place, inviting all of the regulars and staff.

The idea I almost said no to

In early 2020, the manager came to me with a new format he wanted to try. Music Bingo. My response was swift and a little harsh: "that sounds stupid and I don't want to do it, nobody wants to play bingo, this is a trivia spot."

That sounds stupid and I don't want to do it.

He convinced me to join him and check it out at another spot before writing it off completely. We went, he paid, it was fun, more fun than I had expected. I agreed to give it a shot, figured out how to build the sheets, started putting playlists together, and hosted three Thursday nights at Scran before the world shut down.

500 people on a Teams call

COVID closed the pubs in March 2020. I was at home, my friends were at home, everyone was bored. I decided to take music bingo online using Microsoft Teams to give my neighbours and friends something to do on a Thursday night. Response to my Facebook post in the community group was lukewarm, I think I had about 30 people join that first night, they were mostly friends and neighbours that I convinced to help me test it out. No prizes at first, just bragging rights and fake internet points.

It grew fast. Within a few weeks I was averaging over 500 players every Thursday. People started joining from outside my town, then from outside the region. At its peak, I had people dialing in from Atlanta, Georgia and London, England, joining a game being hosted from a spare bedroom in New Hamburg, Ontario.

Local businesses started coming onboard with prizes, gift cards, gift baskets, donations. I ran it every single Thursday through every lockdown until the bars opened again. It became the highlight of my week. More importantly, it became the highlight of a lot of other people's weeks too. I had families telling me it was the one thing they all looked forward to while being separated. I had people that lived alone tell me they didn't know how they would have made it through without my weekly game. That's when something clicked for me about what this could actually be.

The unexpected corporate connection

By that point I'd also moved into a new role at my day job. I worked for Microsoft, we had originally moved because my customers were in Waterloo Region. This new role was fully remote, my boss was in Seattle, and the rest of my team was spread around the world. With everyone stuck at home, our teams were craving connection the same way everyone else was. I mentioned my little hobby to my boss and she asked if we could try it out that Friday, the leadership was desperate to find new ways to bring in some fun and raise morale.

"Happy Hour Music Bingo with DJ Jazzy Jeff" became a staple in the team's calendar. Fun Friday sessions with my team turned into year-end celebrations for other departments which turned into fundraisers for the whole company. It really caught on. I started getting requests from ERGs (Women at Microsoft, Military at Microsoft, and others) to run events for their communities. I ran international games for folks in Europe, Australia, and Asia.

I ran hundreds of events inside Microsoft over those years. Some were just for fun. Some raised money. One fundraising event alone brought in over $20,000. I didn't plan for it to become a proof of concept for corporate events, but that's exactly what it was.

The business hiding in plain sight

When the lockdowns ended and bars reopened, I found myself sitting on a whole pile of content, a refined format, real data on what worked, and proof that music bingo could work at scale in a corporate environment. I decided to take my hobby and turn it into a side hustle. After some interesting discussions with my manager, HR, and our legal team at Microsoft about my side hustle, I decided that going after corporate work wasn't in the cards at that moment and went the pub route instead.

The first one was Hop House in Uptown Waterloo. My model was simple. I'd supply the content and game materials, they'd find a host and pay them separately. They found someone. They sent him to Scran & Dram to watch a game and see if it was something he'd want to do.

That's how I met Mike. How he met me is his story to tell.