Denver company creates national pub trivia empire

By Steve Graham

Just like Geeks Who Drink trivia rounds, there are eight questions in this quiz, and the theme is Successful Denver Companies.

What did John Dicker do after an “awful” trivia outing?

He started his own trivia company.

John Dicker moved from Colorado Springs to Denver in 2004, and was looking for new friends and some after-work entertainment.

“I went to play trivia night and it was awful,” Dicker said. “I thought I could do better.”

He soon met Joel Peach, a serial entrepreneur. They took over the trivia night in one lower downtown bar. With some aggressive marketing and a creative format, they generated some buzz and expanded into other Denver venues. Pretty soon, they launched Geeks Who Drink (GWD), with Dicker as quizmaster in chief and Peach as chief financial officer.

Are all 50 states listed under the “quizzes by state?”

No, but there are 50 two-letter postal codes.

GWD is now in more than 1,000 venues across 48 states, plus Ontario and the District of Columbia. It is the biggest wholly-owned pub trivia company in the nation. Dicker notes that a competitor with a franchise model is in a similar number of venues.

Dicker declined to say how much GWD earned last year, or even how much venues pay to host the quizzes, but the company is clearly very successful, paying more than 40 full-time staffers to write and edit the quiz, and manage the company.

The company has grown alongside high-end brewing.

“The rise of craft beer makes what we do a bit more viable,” Dicker said, adding that the pub quiz format doesn’t work in dive bars where patrons are slamming $2 PBRs all night.

How do you convince bar patrons to put down their phones?

By “having a voice.”

Dicker said anybody could read Trivial Pursuit cards or ask about sports stats, but Geeks Who Drink added some personality to the quiz that still really covers the traditional categories, such as geography, history and pop culture.

Will Herdrick, owner and brewer at Intersect Brewing in Fort Collins, started hosting Geeks Who Drink for some Wednesday entertainment.

“We saw a need for a nice hump-day break to the weekly grind for our neighborhood and CSU taproom regulars,” he said. “Plus you’re not allowed to use your phone for Geeks, so it’s nice to see people disconnected from technology and hanging out together.”

Herdrick said he knew GWD would run a more entertaining quiz than his own staff.

“I think the key to running a successful business is to know what you are good at, and finding the right people for things you are not good at, or don’t have the time for,” he said.

How is sports like the abortion issue?

Ask John Dicker.

He said GWD largely avoids sports, because it is so divisive.

“It’s the abortion issue of pub trivia,” he said. “People either want lots of it or none of it.”

GWD may add one or two sports questions to the final “random knowledge” round, but usually avoids full rounds about athletes and statistics.

How many trivia questions are there per week?

At least 448.

The GWD team writes a full quiz for each night of the week, with eight rounds, and eight questions per round (plus a few bonus questions each night).

“We write more original content each week than Jeopardy,” said Dicker.

Six-time “Jeopardy” champion Christopher Short runs the GWD editorial team that writes all those questions.

Which Hasbro dice game was invented by a rich couple who wanted a diversion on their pleasure boat?

Yahtzee.

That’s one of Short’s favorite “duh” questions — the type of question that will have you blurting out the answer to impress your friends, or smacking your head and going “duh” if you get it wrong.

“A good trivia question should teach you something even if you get it right, and if you get it wrong, you think you almost got it right,” he said. “It shouldn’t make you feel dumb. We’re an entertainment company. We’re not scolding you.”

Short, a former Colorado Springs Gazette copy editor, said he is constantly discovering new facts to add to the trivia mix.

“When I stop learning things in this job, that will be time for me to pack it in,” he said.

Would anyone fly to Las Vegas to play pub trivia?

Yes.

The 13th annual Geek Bowl, held in Sin City in March, was basically sold out last December. Dicker said shortly after launching the company, he decided to host a national trivia contest. The first edition did not go as planned.

“I’m amazed anyone bought tickets to Geek Bowl Two after Geek Bowl One,” he said.

After those initial growing pains, it has become a successful event, with musical guests and substantial cash prizes.

GWD also hosts regular theme nights, with upcoming quizzes dedicated to “Game of Thrones,” “Golden Girls” and “Futurama.”

Is pub trivia education or entertainment?

Both, but mostly entertainment.

Short insists that his writing crew thinks of pub trivia as entertainment first, but educational second.

“There aren’t a lot of cultural forces right now that want to make knowledge cool,” Short said.

To be successful at Geeks Who Drink, you have to know stuff. But Short said rattling off encyclopedic facts is just boring.

“We are really just entertaining drunks but doing it in the smartest way we know how,” Short said.

Steve Graham is a freelance writer and former newspaper editor who likes taking his two young boys biking, hiking and brewery-hopping in northern Colorado.