Can I Save This Failing Theme Park in 90 Days?
In a Nutshell
Paul Fontinelli's Boulder Adventure Park was weeks from bankruptcy with a $150K monthly shortfall and $180K debt service. A 7-day $5,000-value summer camp giveaway generated 3,700 leads at record-low cost per lead, followed by a birthday party offer that doubled admissions. The cash flow constraint was solved by the offers, but the next bottleneck is insufficient sales staff to convert the lead volume.
These notes were generated by AI and may contain inaccuracies.
Paul Fontinelli's Boulder Adventure Park is facing immediate bankruptcy with zero dollars in his bank account. The business will run out of cash within weeks. Paul has already invested $22 million total, with $8 million raised through equity and the remaining $14 million financed through bank debt. The park is currently generating $4.8 million in annual revenue but is not yet profitable. The monthly break-even requirement is $550,000, but current revenue sits at $400,000 monthly, creating a $150,000 monthly shortfall.
The core revenue comes from general admission at $32-46 per person plus $11 average in-park spend on arcade, food, beverage, and merchandise. This represents 70% of total revenue. Additional revenue streams include church groups, social groups, and the newly launched summer camp program. The business has capacity issues with peak days running at only 50% capacity, indicating demand constraints rather than operational limitations.
The park has been cash constrained since opening. The most critical moment occurred when Paul's CFO sent a cash flow projection showing they wouldn't make it through the day. Paul decided to invest his entire 401k into the business, going "all in" despite warnings from others. The monthly debt service is approximately $180,000.
The immediate priority is generating cash through a high-value summer camp offer. The current summer camp pricing includes $300 for 3 days per week and $500 for 5 days per week. A new "buy four get ten" offer is proposed at $2,000 for the entire summer, allowing parents to drop off kids any day, any time. The sales team of three people needs to close an average of 15 deals per day at $1,200-$1,300 average ticket price to generate the necessary $450,000 in additional revenue.
The summer camp landing page requires several critical changes:
- Remove multiple banners, keeping only one primary banner
- Eliminate redundant header text
- Place trust signals (Google reviews) next to the call-to-action button
- Add a safety statistic: "Last year zero falls"
- Include a money-back guarantee for parents concerned about their child's experience
- Add a video sales letter (VSSL) at the top of the page
- Remove excessive text to focus on the main offer
Four primary traffic flows will drive the summer camp offer: email list, general admission attach rates, paid ads, and direct outreach. The campaign will run for 7-10 days with heavy emphasis on the email list and paid advertising. The strategy emphasizes running one focused campaign rather than multiple initiatives due to time constraints.
Paid ads will use "unspeakable video clips" as primary creative content. Multiple offer angles include:
- Buy four weeks, get six weeks free
- $200 per week positioning
- Early bird specials
- Buy one month, get whole summer
- Buy one month, get two free
A high-stakes giveaway campaign will run for 7 days offering a $5,000 value full summer experience for up to three kids. The campaign structure includes:
- First place prize: Full summer camp valued at $5,000
- Second place prizes: $3,000 off for multiple winners
- 72-hour claim window for second place winners
- Referral system where both referrer and referred can win
- Thank you page opt-in for additional referrals
The 7-day campaign creates urgency with countdown timers. Email and text reminders will be sent showing days remaining until the drawing. After the winner is selected, all leads will be called to sell the standard summer camp offer. The campaign then transitions to evergreen summer camp advertising featuring the $5,000 value anchor.
The campaign generated 3,700 leads over 7 days in a local market, averaging 120 leads per day. Cost per lead performed better than any previous campaign. The giveaway created significant urgency, with the final 48 hours producing approximately one-third to half of total leads, following the typical pattern where the majority of conversions occur in the final 48 hours of any campaign.
The business has 150 total employees but only 10 full-time staff members. The company is positioned between the "prioritize" and "productize" phases of the scaling roadmap. The new summer camp offer represents niche-down messaging, while the VSSL serves as the primary sales aid and marketing material.
Kai and the entrepreneur began working immediately on identifying required changes and updates. Kai flew with the entrepreneur to Vegas where they worked through the night on ad copy, technical updates, and implementing changes. The emphasis was on speed, as business demands quick execution.
The offer extended the business three additional months to execute the plan. Entrepreneurship often involves sequentially securing the next week, month, or payroll period. The entrepreneur demonstrated significant grit by committing his entire life savings from his financial career into the theme park business.
Jeff Bezos's principle was referenced: when facing a 10% chance of achieving a 100x return, the bet should be taken every time despite being wrong nine out of ten attempts. However, the realistic constraint is that most entrepreneurs only have sufficient capital for two hands worth of play. The entrepreneur's situation reflects this limitation - having only enough resources for limited attempts rather than the full ten opportunities theoretically needed.
Paul confirmed he executed the play, generating 3,700 leads. The sales team proved too small to handle the volume needed to convert leads. Despite the manpower shortage, summer camps achieved a 325% increase compared to the prior year. The constraint was identified as insufficient sales team size and call sequences to handle STR leads effectively.
A second attraction offer was developed for birthdays, identified as the business's core competency. The recommendation was to spend $2,000-$3,000 rather than $20,000 on testing, then scale based on results. Permission was obtained to run ads using Unspeakable's videos, resulting in doubled admissions and visitation over the subsequent four to six weeks.
The plan called for hiring additional sales personnel to handle increased lead volume. The principle established was that with adequate lead flow, sales people generate more revenue than their cost. This was characterized as growth spend with very low risk. The constraint shifted from cash flow to sales capacity - the business now had two high-performing frontend offers but needed conversion capability.
Cash flow was identified as the initial limiting factor, requiring strong attraction offers to generate immediate revenue. With the birthday party offer performing comparably to the summer camp offer, the business now possesses two high-performing frontend offers. The current constraint is sales capacity - additional leads cannot be converted without adequate manpower to process them.
The recovery sequence required making the offer first, then generating leads, then selling those leads. The first offer was validated; the remaining work involves executing lead follow-up and conversion processes. Cash flow problems cannot be solved directly - they require executing the activities that generate cash flow.
Paul demonstrated exceptional positivity throughout the crisis period, maintaining high energy and a smile despite the high-stakes situation of potentially losing the business after investing life savings. This attitude distinguishes him from others who would likely experience depression in similar circumstances. The assessment concluded that Paul will not give up regardless of vehicle changes, and over a long time horizon will ultimately succeed.
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