After falling in love with The Met in New York City, Nick Gray started offering free tours to his friends, showing them his favorite pieces and telling cool stories about the museum and artworks. Gray’s tours eventually spread by word-of-mouth, and he started hosting weekend events and even birthday parties at the museum.
Gray wrote a blog post about his tours, and he immediately saw the demand flood in — thousands of people emailing him and wanting to join his events. That’s when he launched Museum Hack, the antidote to boring and stuffy museum tours. You know, the ones you associate with school field trips and monotone voices.
Gray’s tours focused on lesser-known paintings and artists with interesting backstories, and quickly gained popularity after being featured in the Daily Candy newsletter. To scale the business, Gray hired stand-up comedians and actors as tour guides, believing their skills would make each tour fun and engaging.
By 2019, Museum Hack had expanded to five cities with 50 employees and was generating $2.8 million in revenue. However, Gray wanted to step back from the operational side of the business. In 2020, he sold Museum Hack to the leadership team of Tasia Duske (CEO) and Michael Alexis (Director of Marketing) for a 7-figure sum.
The sale was structured as a payment plan over 3-5 years, with Gray retaining a 15{c87e2df4b343d0515d304e127afe4653a549475791ab451641a18e09bd64e760} equity stake. Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic hit shortly after, forcing museum closures and disrupting Museum Hack’s business model. The company quickly pivoted to offering virtual team-building events.
As of 2024, Duske and Alexis continue to run Museum Hack and the parent company, while Gray has sold his remaining equity stake and is no longer involved
The takeaway: Aim for the golden goose
Museum Hack fits right in the sweet spot of the demand matrix. That is, the “Golden Goose” section, with many customers and high-priced services.
Think about it: Gray could’ve written a coffee table book about his museum tours and anecdotes. But that might’ve landed in the “Labor of Love” section, with few customers. Instead, he went right for the Golden Goose, launching a variety of in-person tours for high-paying corporate groups and parties.
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