Chris Kuehn shares how connection shapes leadership across Indoor Active Brands; a growing portfolio spanning trampoline parks; pickleball; mini-golf and food. His approach combines high expectations with accountability; integrity; respect and teamwork while keeping remote employees involved and focused on delivering stronger franchisee and guest experiences.
Seasoned sales and operations leader with decades of experience leading teams for Restaurant365, Sonic, Denny’s, Arby’s, Golden Corral and more; specialized in driving technology transformation & focusing on operational efficiency and profitability
Company: Altitude Trampoline Park
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Chris Kuehn: Indoor Active Brands is a portfolio company focused on developing world class brands in the indoor, active entertainment industry. We are owned by NRD Capital. We currently have 4 brands under development: Altitude Trampoline Parks (~$175M and rapidly growing domestic and internationally), The Pickle Pad (Pickleball), Birdie ParTee (Indoor Mini-Golf) and Crave Social Eatery (craft restaurant supporting all 3 brands). I’ve been with Indoor Active Brands for ~2 years, joining in May of ’24 as COO for Altitude and was named President of IAB in November of ’25. I previously worked at PepsiCo, Yum Brands, Arby’s, Golden Corral and Restaurant365.
If you were in an elevator with Warren Buffett, how would you describe your company, your services or products? What makes your company different from others? What is your company’s biggest strength?
Chris Kuehn: Indoor Active Brands is focused on active play — getting children and families off the couch and off the phone and into exciting, cutting edge and on-trend activities that stimulate the mind and body. We are the only portfolio company franchising in all of these segments (adventure parks, pickleball and mini-golf), opening the opportunity to entrepreneurs across the globe and allowing IAB to scale quickly. Plus, it is so much better for you than a fast-casual restaurant and a lot more fun than insurance. Our biggest strength is definitely our people!
Quiet quitting, The Great Resignation, is an ongoing trend causing many businesses to struggle to keep talent engaged and motivated. Most are leaving because of their boss or their company culture. 82% of people feel unheard, undervalued, and misunderstood in the workplace. In your experience, what keeps employees happy? And how are you adapting to the current shift we see?
Chris Kuehn: Our product and culture are areas that our team members believe in and can feel good about. We say, “Work Happy” and do our best as leaders to model that value. We are still 100% remote, are a small team, and allow our team members to make a difference in the business. We strive to hire team members who have high energy and high drive and want to make a difference in the organization. I consider myself a pretty driven “boss” and have high expectations for our teams who support our franchisees and guests. My personal approach is to model, connect and involve — model the right behaviors, connect with all constituents and involve all team members. In my experience talented employees want to drive the company’s performance. We allow our team members to do just that and reward them with recognition and career growth, which has been pretty effective. My personal values are accountability, integrity, respect and teamwork… striving to live up to those behaviors and values has served me well in my leadership positions and developing strong relationships with my team and organizations I’ve been fortunate to lead.
Online business keeps on surging higher than ever, B2B, B2C, online shopping, virtual meetings, remote work, Zoom medical consultations, what are your expectations for the year to come and how are you capitalizing on the tidal wave?
Chris Kuehn: Our guests experience our concepts on-site and in person, but we are 100% a digital, tech-forward company and a big online retailer. We source and book 50%+ of our business online and have a goal to get to 90%+. Making our transactions frictionless and easy to navigate is a core focus…we are not where we want to be but are making solid gains every day to deliver an exceptional buying experience for our guests. We’re paying that off with an incredible in-park experience that keeps guests coming back.
Business is all about overcoming obstacles and creating opportunities for growth. What do you see as THE real challenge right now?
Chris Kuehn: We will continue to innovate and strive for continuous improvement, and we are doing good work in that area — but so are our competitors. The environment we are in is definitely a share battle for occasions…I like our chances with what we are doing. We are a fighter brand and have incredible white space in the U.S. and internationally to build our brands and deliver a differentiated, compelling guest experience. Winning with the guest, one guest at a time, will create opportunities for all our stakeholders.
In your experience, what tends to be the most underestimated part of running a company? Can you share an example?
Chris Kuehn: Being the lead executive for multiple brands is something new for me. It’s a tremendous honor but also comes with elevated accountability. I don’t think there’s anything that I underestimated…I come from the marketing discipline in franchise restaurants, where I always kidded that I lived for 25 years in a world of “7-Day Contracts” …so I’m fine with the pressure. Staying connected with a fully remote team has probably been the biggest challenge, but I have a great team. Beyond the challenge of staying connected, I have learned quite a bit about how best to finance growth, cash management, insurance and state/local compliance laws and some other areas that I didn’t necessarily have to get into the weeds on in previous roles. It’s been a lot of fun, but I haven’t taken a week off in two years.
On a lighter note, if you had the ability to pick any business superpower, what would it be and how would you put it into practice?
Chris Kuehn: I’d like to be faster than a speeding bullet. I really enjoy being in the parks working with our GMs and owners across the country. If I could move around the country or world a lot faster that would be nice!
