05/05/2026
What happens when your first business is a success… but your second one struggles to make sales? 😫
That's exactly what happened with Hauntu.
Superdough was founded in 2014 by a group of five friends with a mission to reimagine the entertainment business in Malaysia. Their first major product, Breakout, launched in Avenue K, followed by NU Sentral, and quickly gained traction in KL’s entertainment scene.
As Breakout grew, so did their ambition to push beyond traditional escape rooms and reimagine experiential entertainment.
The feedback was consistent. Players enjoyed the story-driven puzzles in Breakout, but many kept asking for something more intense… something scarier. 👻
So in 2018, they launched Hauntu – a live, interactive horror experience where customers don’t just observe the story, they become part of it. 🎭
But that’s where the biggest lesson came for Ka Wai, one of the co-founders and Head of Marketing.
Despite having brand recognition and operational experience from Breakout, Hauntu struggled in its early stages. The key difference was that Hauntu wasn’t an extension of Breakout, but a completely new concept that required customers to first understand it before they could appreciate it.
Even with strong locations and marketing spend, Hauntu's growth was slow because that understanding didn’t come quickly. And in business, if people don’t understand what you’re offering, they won’t buy it.
That realisation changed how they built everything moving forward. The team doubled down on storytelling and experience design, while Ka Wai went back to strengthening his marketing foundation from scratch.
Today, Superdough has grown far beyond Breakout and Hauntu – expanding into other immersive entertainment experiences like family-focused concepts like Spy Game and Spy Game junior, and even going international with franchise locations across Korea, Canada, and the US. 🌍
Because building a business with a great product is only half the job, the other is making people understand it is what drives growth. Do you agree? 📈
