Today we’d like to introduce you to Nicole Michelau.
Nicole, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I had always dreamed of owning my own business, but for a long time, taking that kind of risk just wasn’t realistic. I was a single mom, the sole support of my family, and although I had plenty of ideas, I needed the security of a paycheck.
After moving to Richmond and starting a new chapter in my life, I happened to see a rage room featured on a television show. I immediately thought, “That’s it. That’s the business I want to own.” I had no background in entertainment or attractions — I was a chef — but I knew how to work hard, and I understood why people might want a place where they could break something, let off some steam and have a great time doing it.
We started developing and testing the Rage RVA concept in 2018 and welcomed our first guests in January 2019. Since then, it has been quite a ride. We made it through a three-month shutdown during COVID, grew into a much larger location, hosted thousands of guests, and welcomed everyone from couples on date nights and birthday parties to corporate groups and people who simply needed to have a little fun after a bad week.
We’ve smashed a lot of dishes, electronics and cars along the way, but what has stayed with me most are the people. You can really see someone walk in carrying the weight of their day and walk out smiling.
Now we’re entering the next chapter of Rage RVA. We’ve returned to our original home base and are building a mobile rage room that will let us bring the experience directly to companies, festivals, parties and events around Richmond, while still giving guests a place to come smash with us when the trailer is at our HQ.
It’s definitely not the path I would have predicted when I first saw that television show, but I think that’s part of owning a business. You learn, you adapt, and sometimes you have to be willing to break your own model and build something new.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Smooth? Not even close! I think anyone who has owned a small business for any length of time probably laughs a little at that question.
We opened in January 2019, so we had just over a year under our belts when COVID hit and we had to close for three months. We survived that, continued growing and eventually moved into a much larger location on Main Street. That brought its own challenges. Rage rooms are expensive businesses to operate — insurance, breakables, electronics, labor and the physical wear and tear on a building all add up quickly. At one point, we even found ourselves rebuilding a foundation wall — definitely not something I imagined when I decided to open a rage room!
Eventually, the owner of our Main Street building decided to sell. Purchasing it wasn’t financially realistic for us, and staying as tenants would have meant rent of about $6,800 a month. We had to make a difficult decision: keep a big, beautiful location and pass those costs along to our customers, or rethink the entire business.
We chose to rethink it.
That decision ultimately led us back to our original home base and to the idea of taking Rage RVA mobile. Building the mobile room has brought an entirely new set of challenges — figuring out the trailer, electrical, climate control, fabrication and how to translate an experience we’ve delivered for years into a much smaller space.
There have definitely been moments when things didn’t go according to plan, and plenty of expensive lessons along the way, but I think one of the biggest things I’ve learned is that surviving as a small business isn’t about getting everything right the first time. It’s about being willing to change when something no longer makes sense.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’ve never had a particularly traditional creative career. Before Rage RVA, I spent years working as a cook and chef, which is creative work in its own way. I’ve always enjoyed making things, solving problems and figuring out how to turn an idea in my head into something real.
Rage RVA gave me a completely different outlet for that creativity. I’ve played a big role in developing our brand and, more importantly, the actual experience our guests have. There wasn’t really a blueprint for building a rage room when we started in 2018, so a lot of it involved experimenting, learning what worked, and creating something that felt like us rather than copying what someone else was doing.
I think that’s still the part I enjoy most. Now we’re taking an experience we spent years developing inside traditional rooms, and figuring out how to reinvent it inside a mobile space. It’s part design, part problem-solving, and part figuring things out as we go — which, honestly, describes a lot of my career.
How do you define success?
Success to me is being able to take care of my obligations, support the people I love and build a business that can sustain itself. Of course the financial side matters — you can’t keep the doors open on good intentions alone.
The part that actually makes me feel successful is seeing people leave happy. Sometimes they come in excited and just want to have fun, and sometimes you can tell they’ve had a really difficult day. Either way, when someone walks out smiling, laughing, or telling us how much better they feel than when they arrived, that feels like a win to me.
We’ve always tried to give people a good experience for a fair price and make sure they feel like they got what they came for. After all these years, knowing that we’ve created something people genuinely want — and that thousands of people have chosen to spend their time with us — feels like success to me!
Pricing:
- Sessions start at $25
Contact Info:
- Website: https://ragerva.com
- Instagram: @ragerva
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ragerva/
