Owner & Fungineer at Durham Escape Rooms
Benito Suppa is the Owner and self-described “Fungineer” at Durham Escape Rooms, located in Whitby, Ontario, Canada. He opened the first escape room facility in his town, and the business will celebrate its 10-year anniversary in October 2025.
Benito started his entrepreneurial journey with a food truck in 2015 before pivoting to the escape room industry after playing his first escape room at Escape Maze in Peterborough for his wife’s birthday. Growing up, he wanted to either own a restaurant or work for Nintendo, and the escape room business turned out to be the perfect blend of both worlds.
Durham Escape Rooms has grown from a 4,000 square foot empty space to a 6,200 square foot facility featuring 10 rooms and a full production workshop equipped with 3D printers and CNC machines. This in-house capability allows for custom prop creation and quick repairs without relying on outside vendors.
Benito is an active member of the escape room community, serving on the TransWorld board and frequently speaking at industry conferences. He also provides consulting services, helping veteran owners with prop creation and new owners with business strategies and operations.
Fun fact: Benito calls escape room owners “entre-prisoners” because they are literally shackled to their businesses.
Benito Suppa, owner of Durham Escape Rooms in Ontario, shares his decade of experience running a 10-room escape room facility. He covers the art of "Fungineering," the importance of SOPs, staffing strategies, in-house production capabilities, and the collaborative nature of the escape room industry. A must-listen for any escape room operator looking to scale.
Host Dmitry Mikhaylov interviews Benito Suppa about his decade of experience running Durham Escape Rooms in Whitby, Ontario.
Key topics: Fungineering (engineering fun), balancing aesthetics with gameplay, staggering game start times for a 10-room facility, comprehensive SOPs, treating staff well and paying above minimum wage, the advantages of an in-house workshop with 3D printers and CNC machines, and the collaborative nature of the escape room industry.
Notable quotes: "My job is to make people have a good time... I engineer fun for people." - Benito Suppa. "If you're the smartest person in the room, you're in the wrong room." - Benito Suppa. "People don't quit bad jobs, they quit bad managers." - Benito Suppa
