There’s an online community that is hunting down coolers of Maine lobsters tucked into the bushes in major metro areas. A community that wins valuable prizes for watching a movie trailer and following the clues. That’s searching high and low for bars of soap that resemble a rising rap star or uncovering tickets and good old cash hidden around a local stadium.

This community centers on PassPass (passpass.ai), the platform for scavenger hunts, special deals, and daily prizes for its users. PassPass has gathered a community of avid hunters and connects them with brands looking for powerful new forms of engagement, from major sports franchises to Al Pacino’s latest film, Dead Man’s Wire, to hip hop phenom BigXThaPlug. To do this, the company works with local experts on the ground in 20 US cities to create awesome experiences, often by hiding cool prizes in unique, safe spots.

This fun weaves together a win-win for brands, music artists, entertainment companies, sports teams, and the people who will love what these companies offer. PassPass launched in mid-2025 and since then has managed to welcome more than 150K members and get 100K downloads of its app, though many users prefer the web version. Its events and content have gotten 1B views across channels, with more than 3M daily views on Instagram alone. 

This growth has been achieved through pure word-of-mouth, as one excited hunter has talked up the experience to another. PassPass events are much anticipated, must-attend outings, when whole families and friend groups gather. “Every day, thousands of people around the US play or hunt with PassPass. I remember this one amazing, sunny day, when we had hundreds of folks show up where we’d buried prizes in the sand at this public beach in San Diego. It was like a giant party. There were all these kids, a bunch of families, and it was mayhem,” recalls founder and CEO Edgel Groves. “Everyone grabbed the shovels we put out and ran when the hunt started. And the coolest thing was how they all collaborated, how they acted as a community and helped each other. They weren’t aggressive; they were working together, high fiving each other as they dug up cash and all sorts of other prizes. It was so much fun.”

PassPass harnesses this fun and the public’s growing interest in the intersection of entertainment, finance, and gaming to carve out a whole new category. Instead of relentlessly bombarding people with what they don’t want to see, PassPass flips the script on traditional advertising and brand activations. It wins people over with fun, real-life activities that reward them for their valuable time and attention. Instead of extracting data, PassPass lets people opt-in their information in return for moments that feel like a party (as well as deals better than you’ll find on other sites).

And when they opt in, they stay because they actually win. Open PassPass on any day, and you’ll find winners in evidence. “We have about 500 winners a month, and the majority of winners are free users, including the winner of a recent ten thousand dollar giveaway,” says Groves. “While you can absolutely win with no purchase, you increase your chances as a paid member, just as you can buy more raffle tickets and gain more chances to win in real life. You also get access to deals and hints for our scavenger hunts.”

PassPass began as a “happy accident,” according to Groves. A multi-instrumentalist and former music executive, Groves had a media company based in Nashville and wanted to find a unique way to get people out and exploring the city. To do this, he rallied many of its coolest businesses to join forces and create a passport for Nashville, combining deals and discovery. It worked so well and was so beloved that Groves decided to expand to other cities.

As he did, he learned how much people appreciated finding an unexpected reason to hop off the couch and go explore the world with other people. Groves also discovered how popular giveaways and sweepstakes were, especially as consumers are repelled by explicit ads and tired of sponcon and as everyone is looking for ways to get out of the house and do something fun together. “Contest and giveaways have always been big, but they feel very much part of the zeitgeist right now. If you add the term ‘giveaway’ to any big consumer brand name, you’ll find a contest,” Groves notes. “These kinds of activities are wildly popular. Add the game factor, and they become not just popular, but meaningful for people.” 

PassPass takes this format one step further, adding real human interest and friendly competition to the mix by turning a pedestrian sweepstakes into an unforgettable social game. PassPass is building on its success by creating more, different types of games, employing AI and other tech to create a fintech platform based on play and real value. 

As the tech expands, these games will continue to be driven by a larger purpose, a mission beyond finding better ways to match consumers and brands or throwing viral local events. “PassPass is a new kind of fintech, a way people can build wealth by having fun,” says Groves. “We're creating our own template that combines finance, gaming, and audience engagement, into gamified funtech.”