Small to Big: Sky Zone

“We charge people to jump,” says Jeff Platt, Sky Zone co-founder and chief executive officer, of the trampoline parks franchise business he started with his father, Rick. Customers pay by the half-hour to don orange socks and bounce at one of Sky Zone’s 107 locations. That’s a lot simpler than the original plan—to create a professional sport that mixed football, hockey, and basketball played on trampolines. It didn’t take off, so the Platts converted their Las Vegas training facility into a place where kids (and adults in touch with their inner child) could jump around. —Interview by Kate Rooney

The first location was really meant to be a training ground for a new sport—there was a big court and some lockers. When we opened it up to the public, our bathrooms weren’t up to code. We didn’t have party rooms. So the space morphed over time.