We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Logan Lakos. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Logan below.
Hi Logan, thanks for joining us today. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?
Our story didn’t begin with a detailed business plan. It started with two things we both shared: a love of travel and a belief that Denver deserved more intentional ways for people to connect.
Before we ever launched Denver Pub Crawl or Out Of Office Events, we each spent time traveling internationally, backpacking through different countries, exploring new cities, and joining pub crawls in places across Europe, Australia, South America, and Asia. No matter where we were, the magic was always the same. Pub crawls brought people together. You could walk in alone and walk out with friends from half a dozen countries. It was one of the purest ways to experience a city and feel instant belonging.
When we came back to Denver, we kept asking ourselves why no one here was offering that same kind of curated, social experience. The idea of creating something better kept tugging at us.
So in February 2020, we decided to stop overthinking it. We picked a date, chose a starting bar, and put up our very first event listing. We showed up with a clipboard and zero expectations.
People came. They had a great time. The feedback was incredible. It proved the concept instantly.
And then, just weeks later, the entire world shut down.
COVID hit at the exact moment we found our momentum. Everything froze. Events disappeared. Bars closed. Overnight, the thing we had just sparked was forced into hibernation.
But we didn’t walk away from it. We used that time to refine everything. We revisited the guest experience, rebuilt our structure, improved the flow between venues, redesigned our games, and got very intentional about hospitality. We treated the downtime as preparation for a moment we hoped would come.
When Denver finally reopened, something amazing happened. People were desperate for connection. After months indoors, there was a huge emotional vacuum. Everyone wanted community, interaction, laughter, and shared experiences again. That created a massive opportunity for us, because we weren’t just offering a night out. We were offering exactly what people had been missing.
In the early days, it was just the two of us, every Friday and Saturday night, leading each group ourselves. We were the hosts, the game masters, the photographers, the problem solvers, and the entire operation. Week after week, we were out there face to face with the guests, learning what worked and what didn’t, shaping our experience in real time.
As demand grew, we knew we needed help. So we built a team around us. We hired and trained incredible staff, taught them how to lead groups with energy and hospitality, and eventually sent them out to run the events themselves. That shift allowed us to scale, take on more bookings, and maintain the quality of the experience no matter how big our events became.
Around that time, something else changed too. People started asking us to run private events. Birthdays, bachelor and bachelorette parties, corporate groups, reunions, celebrations of every kind. What started as a public, ticketed nightlife experience turned into a full spectrum of private and custom events throughout the city. And later, that naturally evolved into what is now Out Of Office Events.
From there, we grew into a full-scale business. We formed the LLC, defined our roles, created SOPs, hired and developed a staff of more than 15 people, built partnerships with bars, restaurants, hotels, and DMCs, and expanded into new markets like Boulder and Vail. We designed new formats, from dine-arounds to team building competitions, all centered around human connection.
But if we had to point to the real beginning, it wasn’t paperwork or a big contract. It was that February night in 2020, when we took the smallest possible step, launched our first crawl, and proved that people wanted this. And it was the moment after COVID when we realized just how deeply people needed connection.
Almost six years later, we’ve now produced over 1,000 unique events, welcomed more than 10,000 guests, and built a company that continues to grow in size, scope, and impact. And it all came from taking that first step, learning as we went, and staying committed to creating experiences that bring people together.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
We’re Logan Lakos and Ty Sondag, co-founders of Denver Pub Crawl and Out Of Office Events, and at the core of everything we do is a shared belief that connection is one of the most powerful forces in the world. Our work is built around creating environments where people genuinely feel that connection.
Ty’s path into this industry started with entrepreneurship. He studied in the School of Entrepreneurship at St. Louis University and, after graduating, stayed on to coach, mentor, and support entrepreneurial students building their own ventures. He worked with several early-stage startups and gained hands-on experience in events, group facilitation, and sales, learning how people interact, how groups move, and what it takes to create memorable, structured experiences.
Logan’s story started in a very different place. As the son of an Air Force officer, he moved every two years throughout his childhood. Being a classic military brat meant constantly adjusting to new cities, new cultures, and new communities. He had the chance to live abroad, travel internationally, and develop a deep appreciation for human connection, cultural nuance, and the ways people bond across backgrounds. Later, he built a career in sales and the events industry, gaining experience in hospitality, group engagement, and operations.
Fittingly, our paths crossed while working an event together, long before we had any idea we’d one day build a business around hosting hundreds of them. That shared experience in the events world, combined with our love of international travel and the pub crawls we experienced abroad, planted the early seeds of what would eventually become Denver Pub Crawl and Out Of Office Events.
Today, our services span both public and private experiences. Throughout the year, we host ticketed public events including themed crawls, club crawls, and other curated nightlife experiences designed for locals, travelers, solo adventurers, and anyone looking to meet new people in a fun and structured setting. On the private side, our work ranges widely, including bachelor and bachelorette parties, birthdays, corporate outings, team-building events, culinary dine-arounds, competitive team games, and custom-designed experiences for companies and groups of all sizes. Everything we create is built with intention, hospitality, structure, and an understanding of what helps people feel included.
What we believe sets us apart is our human-centered approach. We don’t think of ourselves simply as event planners. We think of ourselves as facilitators of connection. We get excited about the details, the flow of a group, the energy of a host, the timing between venues, the activities that break the ice, and the moments that help people relax and genuinely enjoy themselves. Because we both started in the field as hands-on hosts, we understand the anatomy of a great experience from the ground up.
Over time, we’ve built strong, trusted partnerships with bars, restaurants, hotels, and DMCs throughout the front range, Denver, Boulder, and in the mountains. These relationships allow us to design experiences that feel seamless and thoughtful, where each venue plays a part in the story of the event.
For readers who are hearing about us for the first time, here’s what we want them to know: our work is about people. It’s about creating environments where strangers become friends, where teams reconnect, and where groups walk away having shared something meaningful. Whether it’s a public crawl on a Saturday night or a corporate event for a national company, our goal is always the same, build connection, create joy, and make the experience unforgettable…and we’re just getting started!
Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.
When we launched Denver Pub Crawl, it was never meant to become our full-time careers. It began as a side hustle, something fun and creative to work on while we focused on other business ideas. We just loved hosting people, creating experiences, and bringing groups together, and this felt like a natural outlet for that. But we had no idea how quickly it would take on a life of its own.
Once Denver reopened after the pandemic, demand exploded. What started as weekend events suddenly became something much bigger. We began selling out crawls with more than 100 people, which was one of the first major signs that we had created something special. The response from the community was overwhelmingly positive, and before long, we were running public events every weekend and being asked to host private groups as well.
One of the most important milestones in our growth was hiring and developing our first team members. For a long stretch, it was just the two of us leading every crawl, every Friday and Saturday night. When we finally reached the point where we needed help, we knew that bringing on staff wasn’t just about scaling, it was about taking care of people, building culture, and doing things the right way. From the beginning, we prioritized paying our team fairly, training them well, and creating an environment where they felt valued and supported. Developing great hosts who could deliver the same warmth and energy we built the company on was transformational. It proved that the business could grow beyond the two of us and allowed us to take on more private events, birthdays, bachelor and bachelorette groups, and corporate outings.
Growth, however, came with challenges. There were times when we were stretched thin financially. We were hosting events at a high frequency, paying our team, covering venue fees, marketing costs, operations, supplies, and reinvesting everything back into the experience. There were months when, after taking care of our staff and all of our expenses, there was nothing left in the bank. The business came uncomfortably close to running out of money more than once.
And then, just when things felt tightest, everything shifted. Several corporate clients reached out around the same time and booked large-scale experiences that stabilized the business and gave us the breathing room we desperately needed. These events were pivotal. They didn’t just help us recover financially, they helped us understand the larger potential of what we were building. The same connection-driven experience that worked in nightlife could also transform team culture, corporate outings, and company events.
All of these moments, both the victories and the scares, are what ultimately turned our side hustle into our full-time work. It wasn’t a single decision made in a moment of clarity. It was a series of steps, challenges, opportunities, and breakthroughs that added up over time. The more we poured into the business, the more it demanded from us, and the clearer it became that this wasn’t just a weekend project anymore. It was a real company that had the potential to grow, last, and create impact.
Looking back, the side hustle didn’t suddenly become a full-time career. It gradually pulled us in, one milestone at a time, until the only logical next step was to give it everything we had. And doing that is what allowed it to grow into what it is today.
What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?
Our reputation has been built on something very simple, but very rare these days: doing good business with good people. From day one, we knew that if we were going to grow in a sustainable and meaningful way, it had to start with relationships, trust, and showing up for others. That mindset has shaped everything we do.
A huge part of our reputation comes from the relationships we’ve built with our bar partners. We’ve always approached these partnerships as true win-win collaborations. We bring them consistent business, and in return they take incredible care of our crawlers. They let us skip the lines, they offer exclusive drink specials, they create a welcoming environment for our groups, and they trust us because we communicate with them openly and transparently. Those relationships aren’t transactional, they’re long-term partnerships built on mutual respect and shared success.
Another major piece of our reputation comes from our team. We’ve hired people who genuinely care about the business, people who lead groups with pride, integrity, and warmth. When our staff go out to host crawls or corporate events, they’re not just representing a job. They’re representing a company they respect and believe in. As leaders, you can’t ask for anything more than that. When your team cares, your customers feel it instantly.
We’ve also worked hard to be the kind of company that does right by our guests. Whether it’s our public crawlers or our corporate clients, our mindset has always been service-first. We want people to feel taken care of, welcomed, and valued at every step of their experience. That approach has resulted in hundreds and hundreds of five-star reviews across Google, Facebook, Yelp, Airbnb, Groupon, and TripAdvisor. Some of our favorite reviews come from people who had no idea what to expect, who showed up alone or unsure, and left saying it was the highlight of their trip or the most fun they’ve had in Denver. Those reviews, from people all over the world, have played a huge role in building our credibility.
Being a small, locally owned business has also shaped our reputation. We’re truly part of the Denver community. We show up. We support local bars, restaurants, and hotels. We create fun social media content that reflects the spirit of the city. And we operate with transparency, reliability, and a genuine desire to serve both locals and travelers.
At the end of the day, our reputation wasn’t built through advertising or shortcuts. It was built through relationships, consistency, hospitality, taking care of people, and staying true to our values. Everything else grew from that foundation.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.crawldenver.co & https://www.oooevents.co
- Instagram: @denverpubcrawl & @_outofofficeevents_
- Facebook: Denver Pub Crawl & Out Of Office Events
- Linkedin: Denver Pub Crawl & Out Of Office Events
