We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Caitlin Nelson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Caitlin below.

Caitlin, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What can you share with us about the story behind how you found your key vendors?

Searching for product in this industry – Rage Rooms- is interesting and can be difficult. When we first started 3 years ago, we were hitting every yard sale we could, and finding items on FB market place to purchase from locals. Lots of gas and time was involved, not to mention items were not always there when we arrived. A year or so into it, I was approached by a manager at the Habitat for Humanity. He had heard of us from his sister, whom I bought coffee from regularly. His main job at Habitat, was donation intake. He had noticed that a portion of the donations given to them were unusable. A vase, 99.9% in tact, had to be tossed in the trash because no one will buy it with cracked glass. Trash. Garbage. Addition to the landfill with no financial benefit to Habitat, just more man hours having to sort and trash items. He got with us, we took a look at the items, and now they are getting a financial benefit from us, and we are getting reliable, great items from them. What I found is that, while the items still end up in the landfill (or recycled if they are metal or electronic), at the very least, we can make sure these items “go out with a bang.” I am so grateful for their partnership! They are a wonderful facility, with great staff. And they have the best prices!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

While I might be the sole owner now, that wasn’t the case when I started Shatter. My brother, Dillon, and I both had lost our jobs during COVID, and had decided to put our money and minds together on this idea. A friend of mine had told me about Rage Rooms many years ago, and it seemed like the perfect time to create and capitalize on that idea. Marta, Dillon, as always- I love you and thank you for sharing your ideas and time! I would not be where I am without either of you.

Rage Rooms give a lot of freedom to interpret what we wanted to offer. We decided to go with a “Package Price” rather than per person. We believe this gives you guys the freedom to decide how much you want to break and it’s easier on the pocket. Our helpful and friendly staff understand all of the emotions that are involved with this unique experience, and are familiar with how to help encourage your session in the right direction. Most people come for the fun! But we are very effective with emotional sessions, and we even offer a package that is geared towards helping you target grief. This package gives extra time so that you can break items with intention, and assimilate back to reality slowly. We are also more mentally prepared for your visit and know better how to act. The items are painted black on the outside, and are filled with bright colors inside to represent breaking through your grief, trauma, or anger. All of these emotions are hard to navigate. We can help point you in the right direction.

We are not therapists or counselors. But we are incredibly fortunate to have the opportunity to help individuals face those emotions head on and give you a safe space, free of judgement, to express yourself and feel those feelings out loud.

Of course, our main attraction is breaking items and is super fun no matter your state of mind. But we also offer a paint package, Splatter, where we wrap the room in plastic and let you go to town with paint. There are no breakable items in this package, which makes it more kid friendly as well as auditory friendly. Smashing loud items can be a trigger, and the paint is a great way to express feelings as well as take the art home and revisit your experience. Also, we can make it a fun Blacklight experience with UV reactive paint!

Over the last 3 years, the customers here have given me so much of their emotion, their time and their energy- and I cannot express my gratitude enough. This is, down at it’s core, a retail store. But the customers are more understanding and open than any group I’ve encountered. They genuinely seem happy, thankful and at times even changed after the experience. I hope that everyone gets a chance to feel that way, even if it only lasts the afternoon. Being able to connect with people I just met, and see a side of them that perhaps their family has never seen… I don’t know, I can’t put into words how lovely that feels to bond on a very emotional and human level. It’s like a really gentle, unspoken understanding when we part ways. We all experience these emotions, happy through sad, and we are all human.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

I am always honest when I tell people, I was lucky to have some savings and a business partner who also had some savings to be able to start this business. We did not need to take out any loans, which I whole-heartedly believe is a great place to start when you are thinking about starting your own business. I am happily starting my 3rd year, and I don’t owe anyone money. Are we a large facility? No. But I have taken the steps to be able to move forward and possibly expand without having debt behind me. I am incredibly grateful to have had a co-partner to start. Being able to pay myself very little and reinvest the money into the business was key.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

I think we can thank our reputation to word of mouth marketing. Truly, I do very little advertising. I am cheap in that way. But currently I do not need to invest a lot into it. Because our facility is so small, we actually book up pretty quickly (especially on the weekends and during the winter months). Through a rise in popularity for Rage Rooms, we have so far been able to take advantage of just being the only facility within 50 miles that does this type of thing. If you’re in Northern Colorado or even Wyoming, if you search “Rage Room near me” we pop right up. Mainly our customers are keen to tell others about their experience because it is so unusual, and often helpful. We accept donations as well and many people find us that way. With staff members who are super friendly, and a space that is safe and comforting it has been easy to come across new customers! We are so grateful for passing on the word!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.shatterfoco.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shatterfortcollins