Florida Entrepreneur Turns Love Of Theme Parks Into New Media Startup ThrillGeek

Thrillgeek, Florida startup,startup interview

For a lot of kids who grow up in Florida or move to Florida at a young age, the novelty of theme parks wears out. I have a bunch of friends from Florida in their 20’s and 30’s who can’t stand the thought of Disney parks. The traffic, the congestion of people, and prices that are driven up because of a year-round flocking of tourists make residents run away when it’s vacation time.

That’s not the case for Clint Gamache. Gamache loved thrill rides, roller coasters, and theme parks when his family moved to Florida 20 years ago, and today he still does. In fact he loves theme parks so much he started a new media company called ThrillGeek.

Gamache, who is a data collector for a major rental company by day and an Android fan and developer by night, decided to forego the typical technology blog and launch ThrillGeek.

ThrillGeek combines Gamache’s loves of photography, videos, and story telling with his love of theme parks into a simple, easy-to-understand and navigate website for anyone to find out about the latest rides, park news, and specials. Theme park operators are starting to catch on as well, and they’ve been giving Gamache access to new ride launches and early news.

Just in time for 4th of July vacation planning, we got a chance to catch up with Gamache. Check out our interview below:

EE-FORENTREPRENEURS

What is your startup called?

Our startup is called thrillgeek.com.

What does your company do?
 

We are a website dedicated to covering and sharing the world of theme park news.  We are a simple, straightforward theme park news website.  We report videos, photos and even some sounds from the theme park world, all in a simple to read blog format.

 

Who are the founders, and what are their backgrounds
 

The founder of Thrillgeek is Clint Gamache.  Clint has been into theme parks ever since his parents have moved me down here to the sunny state of Florida almost 20 years ago.  Ever since his first visit to the theme parks here in Orlando, I have found myself fascinated with everything they have to offer.  From the rides, shows and everything in-between, they are a fascinating place to visit and explore.  I enjoy photography, videography and of course, spending time at our local theme parks here in Orlando, Florida.

Where are you based?
 

Thrillgeek is based in the sunny state of Florida!  Home to some of the best theme parks in the world!

What problem do you solve?

I created Thrillgeek with the mindset that many other theme park blogs are extremely busy and are overwhelming.  You go to some of the other theme park blogs and you are overwhelmed with vacation planning information, reservations and other information that some of the more hardcore theme park nuts like me don’t really want to see.  We just want the breaking theme park news!

Why does it matter?
 

Millions of people visit theme parks every year.  There are a select few people though that enjoy reading theme park news.  That is where Thrillgeek comes in.  Many theme park websites out there offering many things, such as vacation planning, and other stuff that the theme park nuts do not want.  We matter because we want to be a simple theme park news, photo and video website in a simple to read blog format.

What are some of the milestones your startup has already reached?

We started off fairly small as all blogs do, but we are growing every month and have increased our viewers every month.  We started almost 4 months ago and started with about 3,000 hits the first month.  June is coming to a close and we are already passed 6,000 viewers with a little bit of time to go in the month.  We recently have covered major grand openings of some of the biggest area theme parks, including the grand opening of Transformers: The Ride 3D at Universal Orlando and the new Antarctica attraction at SeaWorld Orlando.

What are your next milestones?
 

Thrillgeek has begun building media relationships with the local area theme parks.  Our next event will be at Legoland Florida to cover the grand opening of their new ride.  We are currently funding a indiegogo crowdfunding program to help raise money for new camera equiptment.  Over the past few months we have doubled in viewership, and I hope this growth continues.

Where can people find out more? Any social media links you want to share?
 

Thrillgeek has all of the social media platforms.  Our Facebook page can found here, our Twitter here and our Flickr page can be found here.

 

Our Twitter handle is @thrillgeek

Now check out Aspiredu the Florida startup that won $25,000 at everywhereelse.co 

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image: 15pictures.com

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