Abby Hussey

Abby Hussey ditched a corporate career in banking to forge her own entrepreneurial path, and it clearly was the right decision.

Today, Hussey owns two Urban Air Adventure Parks — in Fort Collins and Aurora, Colorado — with plans to open two more Colorado parks by 2025. Hussey’s Urban Air parks lead the Colorado market in recurring revenue and total revenue and have done so since their respective openings.

Her success is driven by her people-focused approach. “Leadership is more than running daily operations with our management team,” Hussey said.

“Leadership, to me, is modeling behavior with customers. It’s taking an interest and treating our staff with empathy for the jobs they do. It’s giving our team a voice in strategy and decision-making. In every industry, it’s the people who make a business successful. Connecting with and caring about my people — both the team and customers will always be paramount. As a leader, I will always care about our people.”

Urban Air is a franchised indoor family theme park. The mission statement is: To impact the lives of every kid by helping them CELEBRATE special moments, ESCAPE the hardships of their everyday lives, and CONNECT through active play and socialization.

Hussey has executed the Urban Air strategy so well that she is president of the company’s franchise advisory council, sharing messaging from the home office in New Jersey with franchise owners across the country.

“It keeps me in touch with the entire base of franchisees and I enjoy being their conduit and influence to our franchisor,” she said. “Staying active with fellow franchisees, our franchisor, my team and customers is the secret to staying influential. It is as simple as staying plugged in. Our mission to watch guests celebrate, escape and connect will be the heartbeat of how Urban Air business will continue to influence and lead family entertainment.”

Hussey, a married mother of two boys, made her first attempt at opening a franchise with a preschool from 2008-2018 before shifting her focus to Urban Air. Her experience working with families in the preschool gave her a roadmap for navigating family entertainment.

Hussey and her husband, Scott, opened their first Urban Air location in Fort Collins in 2019 and expanded to Aurora in 2020. Both locations ranked in the top 15 among all Urban Air spots across the nation. They plan to expand to Westminster and Centennial by 2025. Collectively, the organizations will employ a management team of 20 and over 250 young adults.

“Abby is highly involved with her parks and focuses on enhancing the guests’ experience, finding ways to improve operational efficiencies, maximizing revenue streams, and providing a high-performance team culture,” her staff said. “It’s her mission to continue serving the families within her communities with a safe, clean and friendly venue.”

Hussey has been featured in Hemispheres magazine, the Denver Business Journal, American Woman television, Global Franchise Magazine, and she was interviewed for a story in the Los Angeles Times.

“Perfection will never be found,” Hussey said. “However, by chasing perfection one will achieve excellence.”