Meet the Aussie entrepreneur behind wildly popular clue-solving game Minute Cryptic

Exclusive: One thought made it possible for Melbourne-based entrepreneur Angas Tiernan to make a living off crossword clues.

“With a cryptic crossword, you’ve got 20 clues and no instructions… why don’t you have one clue and instructions? That seems like the better way to do it,” Tiernan explained to nine.com.au.

That thought is what inspired Tiernan to start the wildly popular online clue-solving game, Minute Cryptic.

Instead of solving an entire cryptic crossword, Minute Cryptic serves up just one cryptic clue for users to solve.

Two years after its launch, more than 200,000 people log on to try and solve the Minute Cryptic every day.

The game gained its popularity entirely from social media.

Videos of people trying to solve the daily clue garner hundreds of thousands of views, which then encourages people to try it for themselves.

Tiernan says the game is so popular because users feel a sense of “joy” when they finally solve a clue.

Read more

Major Australian fashion brands Cue and Veronika Maine enter administration

“I think there’s a similarity between a punch line and a cryptic clue,” he explained.

“A joke is a careful construction of words, designed to surprise and at the moment of surprise, you get a delightful feeling.

“You have all the pieces of the joke and when the punchline hits, everything comes together and you laugh.

“That’s kind of what a clue does, you carefully construct words, it all comes together and at the moment of realisation you got a feeling... all the pieces are there, but you don’t know how it comes together until you work it out.”

When the site first launched in 2024, there was no way to monetise the game, however now, the website is fully funded by its membership model.

“We launched the membership in February of last year. We’re profitable just from memberships alone,” Tiernan said.

Tiernan wouldn’t say the exact number of members signed up, but conceded it was “tens of thousands”.

The subscription option offers the free minute cryptic, as well as additional bonus clues, mini-games and the option to create your own clues for $14 a month or $140 a year.

On a conservative estimate of 10,000 monthly subscribers, Minute Cryptic memberships would generate $140,000 for the company on a monthly basis, totalling $1.68 million annually.

Minute Cryptic also makes revenue from its best-selling clue-solving books by the same name, as well as merch.

How Minute Cryptic got its start

While the rise of the game’s popularity online seems accidental, the entrepreneur explained that everything was meticulously planned out.

The videos of people solving clues actually started with Tiernan.

The entrepreneur spent months posting videos of himself solving cryptic clues on social media before a game was even in development.

“In startups, you’re looking for the fastest, easiest way to get a real response back.

“But how do you test what you’re doing?”

“Actually, video is the easiest way to test a product… You don’t even need the product.”

The first few videos he made were posted to YouTube Shorts, which had a strict one-minute video limit.

“There was this feeling of, ‘You’ve gotta get in and get out in a minute’, so that’s where [solving it in a minute] started,” he told nine.com.au.

“YouTube was not happening for me, I moved to TikTok, that’s where it really ramped up… people were commenting ‘where can I play this?’

“I guess the videos looked enough like a game that people thought they could play it.”

Tech developers noticed the outpouring of community support for the game and, extraordinarily, began reaching out to offer their services for free.

“A bunch of developers started reaching out and volunteering to make the game, they were like, ‘Do you need help making this?’ I was like, ‘Yes, I do!’” Tiernan said.

He explained that the first version of the website was made by a designer in her spare time.

“It’s funny, no more than $400 has ever gone into investing in Minute Cryptic. We also haven’t spent once cent on marketing,” he said.

When the website first launched, there was no membership option, but the company was making revenue from ads on their YouTube videos.

In the videos, Tiernan would explain how he solved the daily clue.

The videos would be served up to users on the website after they had solved the daily clue.

While Minute Cryptic no longer monetises its YouTube videos, it still posts daily explanations of how to solve the clue.

What is a Minute Cryptic?

The Minute Cryptic is made up of three distinct parts: a definition, an indicator and a fodder.

The definition comes at the start or the end of the clue, and always related directly to the answer.

The indicator points out how to solve the clue, while the fodder is the word you’ll use to make the answer.

Next to the clue sits a number, which tells you how many letters the answer is.

“The definition will get you to the answer in a direct way, then the rest of clue gets you to the answer through wordplay, which is generally letter manipulation,” Tiernan explained.

“Generally, you are getting the answer through letter manipulation.

“You’re building the answer by mixing the letters in the clue in a certain way, or you’re reversing them or placing them into each other.”

If you’ve ever seen a video of Tiernan solving a cryptic clue, you might think he’s some sort of puzzle genius - but in reality, he says anyone can solve them.

“I think anyone can solve it, but you’ve got to try, like really try,”

Minute Cryptic is free to play, and there’s even a handy free course to help you learn how to solve a clue.