secretThe startup, designed to put together a surprise night in the city for couples – or a surprise night in the health crisis – is expanding to Austin, Texas, the first market outside of Seattle.
The company, which was founded in February 2019 and raised $ 1.3 million, traditionally focuses on getting people out of the house for activities, dinners, drinks, desserts, and transportation. Users define settings and communicate with Mystery via the app.
COVID-19 changed things and Mystery turned to his Night In boxes in March. A specially crafted box is sent home to a shopper and includes a dinner for two, an activity and some other goods from local partners. The aim was to keep the business going and to support Mystery's partners, whose business was affected by social distance contracts.
The start of Mystery in Austin starts with Night In.
"With the success of Night In and the way it helped our Seattle partners, we found that a product focused on local love is a great way to introduce yourself," said Emma Biskupiak, Marketing Director of Mystery .
The Austin Night In experience features food, fun activities, and other thoughtful details from city vendors. Biskupiak said Austin was part of a list of cities that Mystery wanted to expand into, and called the city a "kindred spirit" to Seattle, where both "are driven by music and art, food, and nature" and "there is a similar one." Value for a strong work-life balance that is important for our products. "
Night In has attracted more than 20 small businesses and employs the small startup. According to Biskupiak, the engineers have used the downtime for the traditional mystery product, so users can expect updates and improvements to the app and user experience when they reopen.
Based on its experience, the company tends to be more intimate in small groups, so it is confident that people will be more sensitive to this “data” sooner rather than later.
With the upcoming Mother's Day on Sunday, Mystery is also making a special box for mothers to pamper themselves from home. The box is not combined with a meal, but offers small activities and goodies from small businesses. And for the first time, the mystery product can be shipped anywhere in the country.
