Nate Martin (born January 13, 1983) is an American entrepreneur, game designer, and software executive. He is the Co-founder and CEO of Puzzle Break, the first American room escape company. He is often referred to as the "Founding Father of Escape Rooms." He is an alumnus of the

DigiPen Institute of Technology DigiPen Institute of Technology is a private, for-profit university in Redmond, Washington. It also has campuses in Singapore and Bilbao, Spain. DigiPen offers bachelor's and master's degree programs in Computer Science, Animation, Video Game ...

with a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...

in Real-Time Interactive Simulation and Computer Science.

Career

Software

In 2006, Martin started at

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation, multinational technology company, technology corporation producing Software, computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at th ...

in the Windows team. Before leaving in 2013, he worked as a software engineer and program manager on products including

Windows Vista Windows Vista is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was the direct successor to Windows XP, which was released five years before, at the time being the longest time span between successive releases of ...

Windows 7 Windows 7 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and became generally available on October 22, 2009. It is the successor to Windows Vista, released nearl ...

Windows 8 Windows 8 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was released to manufacturing on August 1, 2012; it was subsequently made available for download via MSDN and TechNet on August 15, 2012, and later to ...

Windows RT Windows RT is a mobile operating system developed by Microsoft. It is a version of Windows 8 or Windows 8.1 built for the 32-bit ARM architecture (ARMv7). First unveiled in January 2011 at Consumer Electronics Show, the Windows RT 8 opera ...

, and Windows 8.1. Martin joined

Electronic Arts Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted th ...

as a Senior Product Manager in 2013 to help run the Global Online Services organization. During his time at EA, he worked on several games including Battlefield 4.

Puzzle Break

In August 2013, Martin and Dr. Lindsay Morse co-founded the escape room company Puzzle Break. Based in Seattle, Puzzle Break was started with an initial self-investment from Martin of $7,000. Under Martin’s leadership, Puzzle Break has opened locations in Seattle, San Francisco, Long Island, Boston, and on several Royal Caribbean cruise ships. Puzzle Break’s revenue in 2016 was over $1,000,000. He was named a 2017 Puget Sound Business Journal 40 Under 40 Honoree.

Media

Martin is a frequent lecturer and podcast guest on the topics of escape rooms, interactive entertainment, and entrepreneurship. His interviews have appeared in the New York Times, Entrepreneur Magazine, and Forbes. In 2017, he spoke on the future of experiential storytelling at the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,6 ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Martin, Nate 1983 births American business executives American company founders Living people People from Beaver, Pennsylvania