Local entrepreneur Brad Baker has owned a home A/V business in the Hamilton/Fairfield area for 15 years. However, he credits another venture, his virtual pinball machine business, with getting him through a seriously tough time.
“During the recession, the home audio-visual industry was really tough, since people weren’t building homes, we were really struggling,” says Baker. “My brother owns and runs arcades, and he had heard of virtual pinball technology. He asked me to make one machine to put in his arcade for people to play. I did a lot of woodworking in the past, so I thought it would be fun, and people enjoyed it and asked if I could build more for them. I made a few in the garage, and I got multiple orders quickly.”
The popularity of these virtual pinball games in traditional pinball cabinets allowed Baker to launch a new business focused on these games, VPCabs. Baker has scaled VPCabs and now has a larger manufacturing shop in downtown Hamilton’s German Village. The team assembles their pinball cabinets with the high-end electronics and screens that allow each machine to provide hundreds of pinball game options.
While the cabinets were consistently popular for years, a big burst of business came after Baker’s successful deal-making with Daymond John on Shark Tank. The few minutes of airtime didn’t reveal the long, complex process that Baker went through to arrive on the show.
“I originally applied via an online application, not a casting call,” explains Baker. “My family loves watching the show and my kids said I should try to get on Shark Tank. I wasn’t chosen the first time; then, however, they called me back a year later, saying they’d been following my business and wanted to work with me.”
Baker’s journey could have stopped at any moment, but he made it through the applications, the homework, the practice session, and taping itself. Nearly a year later, he got word that he was going to be on the air.
“We were the most expensive retail product to ever be on Shark Tank, with our most popular machines retailing for $8000. No one was sure how we should prepare,” says Baker. “We did a little prep, and we mentioned on our website that orders would take longer because of the busy time.”
During the airing party that Baker and his team held, the world discovered that Baker had made a deal with Daymond John, a famous entrepreneur and Shark Tank venture capitalist. Working with John would allow Baker to expand his business using John’s networks and influence.
With his new investor and hard-earned fame, Baker has continued to expand and is now working toward a new dream: the Pinball Garage, a bar, restaurant, and pinball arcade. Menu items will include real Texas smoked barbecue, brick-oven style pizza, and hoagies. The brisket will be the centerpiece, incorporated in everything from sandwiches to barbecue pizzas.
“We’re excited for our menu to really surprise people,” says Baker. “I have some culinary experience, and I wanted the food to be something special.”
There will be various screens for a sports bar atmosphere, and there will be an outdoor dining area. A huge part of Baker’s goal is to feature a variety of local companies as suppliers.
“Our goal is for people coming into town for a weekend to try all the downtown options; there is going to be so much business to go around, and we all want our products to do well,” says Baker. “We want to keep as much money local as we can.”
For now, however, being part of the renaissance of downtown Hamilton is just a part of the work going on with the pinball business. For instance, after licensing games from large game design companies for the machines, Baker is now working with Hamilton-based Wraith Games toward the first original pinball game specifically for VPCabs machines.
“We’re excited about what’s happening in Hamilton; it is super cool to see all the reasons why people are coming downtown,” says Baker.