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Alumni Spotlight: Adventure Park at Long Island7 min read

Lorrie Funtleyder, MBA Class of 2000

If you told me 15 years ago I would be swinging from the trees, I would have told you that you were crazy! In 1999 I was finishing up my first year at Stern. I had an internship lined up doing equity research. My future husband, Brian, was preparing himself for an internship in private equity. We were both excited to graduate in 2000 with MBAs in finance, and to get challenging Wall Street jobs.

But you would have been right! On June 20, 2014 Brian and I, along with our partners from Outdoor Ventures Group, will be cutting the ribbon at the grand opening of the Adventure Park at Long Island. What a change from the spreadsheets, conference calls, industry conferences and management meetings of the past 15 years.

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The Adventure Park will be featuring eight ropes courses or trails through the trees, of varying challenge levels, from introductory to advanced. The self-guided trails do not require previous climbing experience. After receiving a safety briefing and harness, each climber selects a trail at their comfort level and then proceeds to navigate its different “bridges” or “elements” moving from tree platform to tree platform. There will be 134 unique challenge bridges and 13 ziplines. We are hoping for this to be just the first of many Adventure Parks that we build and operate.

How did we get here and why such a big change? It all started with a vacation to West Virginia during 2012, where we first experienced an Adventure Park. We had always given our children unique, challenging experiences, whether it was rock climbing, skiing, horseback riding, caving, etc. And this trip was no different.

Little did we know that this trip would have such a profound impact on our lives. All four of us were so excited about the activity, but also disappointed that we would have to come back to West Virginia to do it again. Or would we? Our wheels started turning immediately. We thought that if we could bring this concept closer to home, it could be a tremendous success, both spiritually and financially. What a great way to instill self-confidence, in kids and adults alike, while providing exercise and an awesome adventure.   As soon as we arrived home from West Virginia, we put our research hats on. It turns out, the answer was right in our backyard. At least in Westchester’s backyard.   After a fair amount of due diligence we discovered that Outdoor Ventures Group, a company based in Bridgeport Connecticut, builds Adventure Parks for others, as well as operates their own. We decided that it would be interesting to consider bringing this unique experience to New York.

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Once we got over the hurdle of finding a potential partner, we had to really think about whether the concept would sell. Were we just under the spell of being on vacation, when everything is fun and carefree, or did we really have a great idea on our hands? So we put our marketing hats on and decided to do some real life market research utilizing skills developed at Stern. Maybe my family is more adventurous than most. Maybe the target market would be too small to warrant the capital investment. So we took our 9 year old daughter and 20 of her friends to the Adventure Park in Bridgeport Connecticut for her birthday.   Of course gauging the reaction of 20 sets of parents after telling them that their child will be ten to forty feet up in the trees for three hours is research in itself. When all was said and done, our market test yielded very favorable results. Going in, some girls were scared, some were excited, and some had no idea what they were doing that afternoon. But, what they all agreed on was that they would each definitely like to come back.

We expanded our market research to include my 7 year old son and some of his friends, both athletic and academic. We got the same results. We brought our adult friends and some of their older children. Same results again.   Whenever we go to the facility in Bridgeport, we speak to customers directly to hear feedback. We reviewed the many favorable reviews on Trip Advisor and Facebook and decided that it was worth serious consideration.

We also researched our partner, Outdoor Venture Group and its president Bahman Azarm. Growing up in the mountains of Switzerland gave Bahman an early and enduring appreciation of the outdoors and love of physical challenge.  Thus, when back visiting Switzerland as an adult he was exposed to an aerial adventure park in 2006, he determined to bring the activity to the United States.  He built his first park, Catamount Adventure Park, in 2009 at Catamount Ski Area, in Massachusetts.

Following the completion of Catamount, Bahman recognized the need for specialized equipment needed to be used in these quickly popular adventure parks and travelled to Europe to research equipment used in those established parks.  In 2010, Bahman acquired the exclusive distributorship rights in the United States for the most advanced ropes park equipment available on the market, Bornack GmbH & Co, KG from Germany and added many other products to be sold to ropes course builders and operators.  Since then, Bahman, and at least one assistant, regularly visit equipment suppliers in Europe to procure new equipment and obtain factory training on repairing the equipment purchased there.

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To date, Bahman and his team have built over 15 of the largest ropes parks in North America and provide building and operating equipment to the majority of the ropes courses built by others in the U.S.  Bahman is a member of ACCT (Association for Challenge Course Technology) and has obtained level 1 and level 2 inspection status. Needless to say, we were very comfortable with our partner.

The next step was to secure the real estate and negotiate many contracts including a lease, construction agreement, and operating agreement. Again, skills learned at Stern came in handy. We drew on what we learned from Batia Weisenfeld’s Conflict and Negotiation class about interest, rights and powers. Always focus on what is in our best interest, not what you have a right to expect. Never before had our negotiation skills been put to such a test, but we survived.

While the negotiations were going on, we also had to rely on our finance skills learned in Aswath Damodaran’s Corporate Finance class, and fine-tuned through our 15 years on Wall Street. What is the initial capital outlay? What will the maintenance capital spending be? What are the variables that drive revenue? What are the fixed and variable costs? What is the payback period? What is the IRR on the investment? What are the barriers to entry and what is our competitive advantage? While we always enjoyed doing this work from an academic standpoint, it had never before been so real.

Why are we doing this? Quite frankly, it is a deep conviction in the product, business model, and the strong desire to make a difference in people’s lives. First, it gets people off the computer and physically active. Second, Adventure Parks develop the participants’ physical and mental well-being.

Third, it is environmentally friendly. A unique shim method is used to secure the platforms to the trees to avoid drilling into the trees. Bridge and safety cables are also attached to the trees using specially designed wooden slats, again to avoid drilling into them. These methods of using wooden shims and slats enable us to adjust for the growth of the trees without harming them. Therefore, the park operates with virtually no negative environmental impact and the trees are well cared for and protected.

Last but certainly not least, it is one of the most enjoyable activities available today. So I will end with another lesson from Stern, take free marketing when you can. Please come join us at the park this summer. I promise you that you won’t be disappointed.

The Adventure Park at Long Island is located at 75 Colonial Springs Road in Wheatley Heights, New York.  Our phone number is 631-983-3844. For more information, please visit our website at  http://longislandadventurepark.org.

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