Cranium games: From crying in a parking lot to a multi-millionaire

Scan time: 2-3 minutes / Read time: 4-5 minutes

Hey rebel solopreneurs 🦸‍♂️🦸‍♀️

Ever feel like you've missed your window to chase something bigger?

You know that voice: "Isn't it too late to start over at 32? Everyone else figured this out in their twenties. What if I've already wasted my best years?"

Meet Richard Tait - a 32-year-old who felt completely lost after leaving Microsoft, got brutally rejected trying to become a DJ, but channeled that crushing failure into building Cranium, a $75+ million gaming empire that outsmarted industry giants Mattel and Hasbro.

But his journey started with tears on a Seattle sidewalk...

🧘‍♂️ From servant family to software dreams

Richard came from a long line of servants in Scotland.

His grandfather? A chauffeur.

His great-grandfather? A gamekeeper.

But his dad flipped the script by getting an education and landing a job at Polaroid.

"My dad changed the trajectory of our family," Richard says.

"He demonstrated that through hard work and perseverance, you can change the direction of your life."

Young Richard got his first taste of programming when his dad handed him a music synthesizer kit.

Mid-1970s.

He's programming musical instruments and falling head-over-heels in love with technology.

Fast forward to university at Heriot Watt in Edinburgh - basically the geek capital of Scotland.

1986 rolls around.

Richard graduates with a killer idea.

Picture this: confused customers walking into computer stores, knowing their budget and how they'd use it, but totally clueless about which machine to buy.

His expert software would solve that exact problem.

He knew he was onto something big.

But here's the thing - Scotland in the '80s?

Zero venture capital for a 21-year-old with dreams.

His business crashed and burned.

That's when a friend dropped some wisdom: "You need to go to a country that celebrates entrepreneurial spirit - America."

So what'd Richard do?

At 21, he left everything - parents, family, his entire world - and jumped on a plane to America.

But his next career move was about to shock everyone...

🧩 The Microsoft golden handcuffs

Richard enrolled in business school at Dartmouth with one goal: work for Apple.

Without a green card?

Apple said thanks, but no thanks.

Then Microsoft called.

This was 1988 - they had about 2,300 employees.

Richard packed everything into his car and drove cross-country to Seattle.

"A door had closed at Apple, but another door opened which was Microsoft," he says.

Here's the kicker: he was the lowest-paid graduate in his entire MBA class.

But you know what?

He didn't care.

Working with a software company felt like following his heart.

Walking into Microsoft, Richard thought he was pretty darn smart.

Reality slapped him hard.

Almost every single one of those 2,300 employees was smarter than him.

Can you imagine that feeling?

(Pretty humbling, right?)

That's when Richard had to get real with himself: "What's special about me? What can I bring to the table?"

He wasn't the best coder.

Definitely not the smartest tech guy.

But here's what he discovered about himself: he had this ability to rally people around a mission.

"I can galvanize people around 'we can make history,'" Rich realized.

Over 10 years, he started 14 different businesses within Microsoft.

Not bad!

But then 1998 hit.

Suddenly, colleagues were calling him "old school."

Microsoft had exploded from 2,300 to 80,000 people.

The whole culture shifted.

Richard felt like a stranger in his own workplace.

Time to go.

But his identity crisis was about to spark something incredible...

🎪 The DJ disaster that changed everything

At 32, Richard was completely lost.

He wanted to reinvent himself as... wait for it... a DJ.

Growing up, he idolized John Peel, this legendary British DJ who introduced bands like The Clash and Sex Pistols to the world.

Richard wanted to be America's John Peel.

(Pretty big dreams, right?)

So what'd he do?

Enrolled in Bellevue Community College for DJ classes.

For seven months!

He recorded a demo tape and marched into The Mountain, Seattle's hottest radio station.

Picture this: 32-year-old ex-Microsoft guy sitting across from the CEO with his proposal and cassette tape.

"I want to be a DJ at your station," he said confidently.

She looked at him like... well, like he was nuts.

"Do you really think it's going to be easy?" she asked.

"I studied for seven months. I'm ready!"

"Unfortunately, you're not ready."

Richard wasn't giving up: "I'll work for nothing. Maybe start making coffee?"

"I'm sorry. You becoming a DJ would not happen."

Ouch.

He walked out, crumpled up his proposal and cassette, and tossed them in a trash can.

Then the tears came.

"When someone rejects you, they're rejecting you," he says.

"They are not saying your skills are bad, they are saying that you, as a person, are not good."

He spiraled into depression.

His whole identity was tied to companies, not himself.

Sound familiar?

Little did he know, failure was about to become his greatest teacher...

🕵️‍♂️ The napkin that built an empire

Richard and his wife went on vacation with their friends Dan and Maggie.

Sunday afternoon.

Rain pounding outside.

They were stuck indoors with absolutely nothing to do.

Dan and Maggie had an idea: "Let's play Pictionary!"

Now, Richard was a Pictionary legend.

He'd literally never lost a game.

They absolutely crushed Dan and Maggie.

High fives, victory dances, the whole nine yards.

Dan and Maggie couldn't handle the defeat.

"Scrabble! Right now!"

Plot twist: Richard was terrible at Scrabble.

Dan and Maggie? Total word wizards.

They demolished Richard and his wife.

Sitting there feeling like a complete idiot in front of his friends, Richard had this lightbulb moment.

"Why isn't there a game that gives everyone the chance to shine? Something where we don't have clear winners and losers?"

On the plane home, he grabbed a napkin and started sketching with a Sharpie.

What if you combined Scrabble, Pictionary, Charades, and trivia into one epic party game?

Nobody had ever brought all those experiences together before.

When he called his dad to share the news about starting a toy company, his dad wasn't thrilled.

"What am I supposed to tell my friends?" his dad asked.

Richard felt that familiar pang of insecurity, but he said, "Tell them I'm following my heart. I'm creating something magical - an entertainment company where everyone shines."

But building the game was just step one - now they had to sell it...

⛳️ When every store said no

Richard teamed up with Whit Alexander, his former Microsoft colleague.

Neither had any gaming experience.

But they decided to create a company built on one philosophy: give everyone the chance to shine.

They spent seven months creating Cranium - lightning fast for the gaming world.

Here's how they tested it: Richard invited eight of the toughest Microsoft program managers to his house.

"They absolutely tore the game to shreds," Richard remembers.

But here's the thing - the feedback was brutal but helpful.

They made changes fast.

Next step: manufacturing.

They made 29,000 games in Sturtevant, Wisconsin.

Then reality hit.

They approached major retailers and heard the same word everywhere: "No."

Every store's shelves were packed.

Plus, they'd missed the annual Toy Fair where retailers make their buying decisions.

Richard and Whit sat in a Starbucks, feeling like complete failures.

29,000 games.

No stores.

No clue what to do next.

"That's a dark moment as an entrepreneur," Richard admits.

But then Richard looked up from his coffee and noticed something.

The people standing in line?

They were exactly their target customers - young, dating, professional types.

Lightbulb moment.

Richard turned to Whit: "What if we take our games to where our customers actually are, instead of where games are supposed to be sold?"

That sentence changed everything in the gaming world.

Their genius workaround was about to revolutionize an entire industry...

🌈 The Starbucks breakthrough that shocked the industry

They targeted three places: Starbucks, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble.

Getting Amazon's attention was tough - buyers wouldn't return their calls.

So Richard got creative.

He found Amazon employees through mutual friends and invited them over for game nights.

The strategy?

After they played Cranium and had a blast, they'd go to work the next day raving about this amazing game to their buyer colleagues.

Brilliant, right?

It worked.

Amazon's buyers heard the buzz and agreed to sell Cranium online.

Starbucks was next.

After some digging, they found David Brewster, who handled in-store technology.

Perfect timing - David had young kids and loved family games.

They eventually got a meeting with Howard Schultz, Starbucks' founder himself.

Both David and Howard gave Cranium the green light.

Historic moment: Cranium became the first non-coffee product ever sold in Starbucks stores.

Barnes & Noble seemed impossible.

Richard flew to New York to meet their buyer.

"We don't sell games. Only books," she said firmly.

Richard had 15 minutes left in the meeting.

He spotted two women chatting by the water fountain.

You need four people to play Cranium properly.

Richard + the buyer + those two women = perfect.

Somehow, he convinced the women to join an impromptu game right there in the office.

All four players had a blast, including the skeptical buyer.

Result?

Cranium landed in 110 Barnes & Noble stores.

Those 29,000 games?

Sold out lightning fast.

Big retailers like Toys R Us, Target, and Walmart started knocking on their door.

But Richard did something crazy - he said no for two whole years.

He wanted to keep Cranium feeling special and exclusive.

When people couldn't get it at mass retailers, the buzz grew even louder.

But success brought a new set of challenges they never saw coming...

🎁 From port strike to $75 million exit

After two years of exclusivity, they finally opened up to the big retailers.

Christmas was coming.

They ordered tons of inventory from China.

Then disaster struck: port workers went on strike right before the games were supposed to arrive.

They could literally see their containers sitting on ships in Seattle's harbor, but couldn't touch them.

Panic mode: they had to fly games from China to meet retailer demands.

The cost nearly destroyed them.

It took years to recover financially.

But slowly, Cranium kept growing.

Year two hit $1 million in revenue.

Then something magical happened on national TV.

Julia Roberts was a guest on Oprah and mentioned she'd discovered this amazing new game called Cranium and "couldn't stop playing it."

Richard and Whit were watching, completely freaking out.

Their customers started calling themselves "Craniacs" and spreading the word everywhere.

They sold their first million games with zero advertising budget.

By 2001, Cranium won "Game of the Year."

They won it five out of the next six years.

But then 2008 approached.

The financial crisis was brewing, and Richard and Whit could see the storm coming.

Big retailers were pushing inventory risk back onto manufacturers.

They went to their board with a tough decision: time to find a bigger partner.

In January 2008, Hasbro acquired Cranium for $75+ million.

Richard reflects: "We built the third largest game company in the world. I would never have been the third best DJ in the world. Never."

🥂 Your turn to get awesome!

Richard's "disadvantage" - starting completely over at 32 with zero gaming experience - became his secret weapon.

His late start led to $75+ million in revenue because he brought fresh perspective when others were stuck in old patterns.

Your timing is perfect - just like Richard's "late" start at 32 that gave him the maturity and experience to see what younger entrepreneurs missed.

I'm excited to see what you build next.

Let the good times roll for you! 🍨

Your 'partner in rebellion with the status quo' vijay peduru 🦸‍♂️