June 16, 2008
Battle baron | A chat with Keith Lemay, founder of CyberLANd in Brunswick.
Founded: July 2007
Employees: One full-time and one part-time
Startup costs: $200,000
Projected revenue, year one: $110,000
Projected revenue, year two: $125,000
Contact: 725-8627
72 Maine St., Brunswick 04011
www.brunswickcyberland.com
How would you describe this business to somebody?
Basically, we are a gaming center. It's known as a couple different things depending on who you are. In the industry, it's what's called a LAN center ˆ local area network. That basically means all the computers in here are connected together. They're hooked up to the Internet, but they're also hooked up to each other so that they can share games.
Is there a certain kind of game that people usually play here?
Most people are playing nowadays what's known as a first-person shooter [like] Treasure Hunter, space marines shooting aliens, or they have some modern warfare ones, where you actually play like you're a member of the army. We also have role-playing games [like] multi-player online, strategy games.
With a limited budget, we have to be a little picky and choosy as to what we get, but we do take the most popular games and they're already all loaded into the computer. We probably have upwards of 30 games. We also do console gaming ˆ Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, as well.
Do you have a typical customer?
Mostly high school. That's probably 50% of my clientele. We don't really have a ton of material [that's rated] for anybody under 12. Sometimes parents with pretty young kids come in [and ask], "What do you have that my son can play?" "Your son is seven ˆ not a lot." I keep a few kids' games on the computers and on the consoles.
How does pricing work?
We do basically two different kinds. Guest pricing, for people who don't come in very often, is $5 an hour. A membership is $25 a year, and that lowers the [hourly] price. Their pricing is $4 an hour. In addition to that, I have all-day passes. Those are $15-$20 depending on whether you're a member.
How did you start the business?
Me and my wife lived up in Vermont before this. I was in tourism, and tourism's terrible. It's so stressful. We moved down here and I had a couple of options. I ran a couple of businesses before, as a manager, and I like games and I'm good with computers.
Where did you get the idea?
Places like this are actually popular out West, in Texas and in Florida. It's not an idea that's huge on the East Coast. There's at least one other in the state of Maine. The idea kind of sprouted from the original Internet cafes in the 90s. A select group said, "Let's get rid of the coffee and put more computers in."
There are LAN parties. People bring computers from their house, set it up at someone else's house, basically so they can all play games with each other. People basically went, "Well, why don't we build a place where people didn't have to lug all their equipment around?"
I did a lot of touring different facilities when doing research. What we're trying to do here [is be a place where] people can feel comfortable coming in. They can come in, hang out ˆ I'm not going to kick you out. As people feel comfortable, they'll play a game. If you look around town, there's nowhere else to go.
How did you finance the business?
Oh, that. I have a partner down in Massachusetts that was my sole financial backer.
Why did you choose that route?
Because the banks didn't like my idea. I don't know if you've ever tried to get financing for a business ˆ it's extremely difficult for an unproven idea. I went to a bank and said, "LAN center," and they said, "What's a LAN center? You mean an arcade?" Please don't say that. So these are guys in suits that didn't like video games back when it was Pacman. We get a lot of stereotypes. Arcade pops into their head, and that has negative connotations. The other thing is ˆ "Oh, kids playing violent video games." The reality is that if they don't play it here they're going to somewhere else. Maybe their parents should come in and play games with them. It's not catch in the backyard with a baseball, but it's spending time together.
Interview by Kerry Elson
Employees: One full-time and one part-time
Startup costs: $200,000
Projected revenue, year one: $110,000
Projected revenue, year two: $125,000
Contact: 725-8627
72 Maine St., Brunswick 04011
www.brunswickcyberland.com
How would you describe this business to somebody?
Basically, we are a gaming center. It's known as a couple different things depending on who you are. In the industry, it's what's called a LAN center ˆ local area network. That basically means all the computers in here are connected together. They're hooked up to the Internet, but they're also hooked up to each other so that they can share games.
Is there a certain kind of game that people usually play here?
Most people are playing nowadays what's known as a first-person shooter [like] Treasure Hunter, space marines shooting aliens, or they have some modern warfare ones, where you actually play like you're a member of the army. We also have role-playing games [like] multi-player online, strategy games.
With a limited budget, we have to be a little picky and choosy as to what we get, but we do take the most popular games and they're already all loaded into the computer. We probably have upwards of 30 games. We also do console gaming ˆ Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, as well.
Do you have a typical customer?
Mostly high school. That's probably 50% of my clientele. We don't really have a ton of material [that's rated] for anybody under 12. Sometimes parents with pretty young kids come in [and ask], "What do you have that my son can play?" "Your son is seven ˆ not a lot." I keep a few kids' games on the computers and on the consoles.
How does pricing work?
We do basically two different kinds. Guest pricing, for people who don't come in very often, is $5 an hour. A membership is $25 a year, and that lowers the [hourly] price. Their pricing is $4 an hour. In addition to that, I have all-day passes. Those are $15-$20 depending on whether you're a member.
How did you start the business?
Me and my wife lived up in Vermont before this. I was in tourism, and tourism's terrible. It's so stressful. We moved down here and I had a couple of options. I ran a couple of businesses before, as a manager, and I like games and I'm good with computers.
Where did you get the idea?
Places like this are actually popular out West, in Texas and in Florida. It's not an idea that's huge on the East Coast. There's at least one other in the state of Maine. The idea kind of sprouted from the original Internet cafes in the 90s. A select group said, "Let's get rid of the coffee and put more computers in."
There are LAN parties. People bring computers from their house, set it up at someone else's house, basically so they can all play games with each other. People basically went, "Well, why don't we build a place where people didn't have to lug all their equipment around?"
I did a lot of touring different facilities when doing research. What we're trying to do here [is be a place where] people can feel comfortable coming in. They can come in, hang out ˆ I'm not going to kick you out. As people feel comfortable, they'll play a game. If you look around town, there's nowhere else to go.
How did you finance the business?
Oh, that. I have a partner down in Massachusetts that was my sole financial backer.
Why did you choose that route?
Because the banks didn't like my idea. I don't know if you've ever tried to get financing for a business ˆ it's extremely difficult for an unproven idea. I went to a bank and said, "LAN center," and they said, "What's a LAN center? You mean an arcade?" Please don't say that. So these are guys in suits that didn't like video games back when it was Pacman. We get a lot of stereotypes. Arcade pops into their head, and that has negative connotations. The other thing is ˆ "Oh, kids playing violent video games." The reality is that if they don't play it here they're going to somewhere else. Maybe their parents should come in and play games with them. It's not catch in the backyard with a baseball, but it's spending time together.
Interview by Kerry Elson
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