Our Story

Founder, Jonathan (John) Williams, conceived the earliest version of RedBrick Entertainment in high school. As a senior, he would organize exaggerated scavenger hunts with his friends. In these races, they would get in their cars and race across town to be the first team to solve the clues. During the races, the group was constantly stopped by people who shared their excitement for the idea.

John shared this story with his freshman roommate, Connor Stanley, and he thought the idea was fantastic. Together, the two began pursuing the idea outside of their business classes at Wake Forest University. The original concept was called Scavenge, and it would be an Amazing Race-style event. The goal was to mix the elements of an escape room and a Spartan Race. However, despite their excitement for the concept, it lacked feasibility. Specifically, the group could never figure out how to build a profitable company with the expected marketing costs.

Meanwhile, John observed a different problem. One of the major draws to Wake Forest for John was its small community feel. However, he noticed how many students felt left out of this community, particularly among his friends who were first-generation college students. These observations inspired John to work with his university on events in numerous areas. Over the course of the year, he found that the standards for successful engagement were a lot lower than he had expected.

John saw the potential to solve two problems at once. Could he help create more inclusive college environments with engaged students, and provide a platform for the scavenger hunts he and Connor were creating? As the duo researched whether universities were a viable option to host these events, they realized the event planning process was expensive, time-consuming, and produced poor results not just at Wake Forest, but at universities across the country.

Drawing on their experience as students and the concepts they were learning in their business classes, they began formulating a system to modernize the planning process for large-scale events. The result was a system based on process innovation, student insight, and creative methods for generating engagement data. This is how RedBrick Entertainment was born. Connor's and John's innovation was motivated by the unique experience college offers. Each day, their work was inspired by the potential of creating a more positive and memorable experience for students.

 Upon graduation, Connor left the company to move to New York, but his impact laid the foundation for what will eventually become a major presence in the student engagement space.