small business spotlight
Triangle Treasure Hunt WRITTEN BY DENA DAW | PHOTOS COURTESY OF TRIANGLE TREASURE HUNT
Complete with a map, hidden clues and a treasure chest, Triangle Treasure Hunt offers participants the perfect opportunity to channel their inner child. Co-creators Ben and Whitney Strunk started the business after returning home from a romantic trip in Florence, Italy. “Our first treasure hunt was part of an Airbnb experience. We were going through the winding streets of Italy, and neither one of us spoke Italian,” said Strunk. “We struggled a lot, but we actually got engaged at the end of the hunt, so it has some special meaning for us.” “After coming back from our trip, we looked for a similar experience here in North Carolina and couldn’t really find anything that was quite the same. We decided to make our own, and we’ve been running Triangle Treasure Hunt since 2018.”
62 MARCH 2022
Similar to an outdoor escape room, Triangle Treasure Hunt asks participants to find a treasure chest by cracking codes, solving puzzles and combing local areas for clues. There are locations in Raleigh, Durham, Cary, Apex and Fuquay-Varina. Participant Ashley Hunter joined a treasure hunt in downtown Raleigh with her parents and two kids in tow. “When we saw it, it was right up our alley as we love doing escape rooms and this seemed similar. We had an absolute blast,” said Hunter. “If you like ‘The Amazing Race’ TV show and imagine participating in it one day, this is a great warm-up.” Strunk recently talked more about their adventure-based business and what kind of experience they hope to give potential treasure hunters.
How does Triangle Treasure Hunt work?
We have 60-90 minutes of walking team scavenger hunts. There are a number of different locations, but for all of the hunts you get a treasure map that will lead you around the surrounding area looking for clues. There are some additional puzzles that you have to solve with the ultimate goal of opening the treasure chest. The first team to open it wins the grand prize, but there’s a prize in there for everyone who finishes. We also have public and private hunts. The public ones are listed on our website so anyone can sign up, but we have private ones for companies, team-building groups, birthdays, etc. Why did you want to work for yourself?
I have always been entrepreneurialminded and wanted the freedom to create an
