{"id":898376,"date":"2026-09-20T01:40:17","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T01:40:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/898376\/"},"modified":"2026-09-20T01:40:17","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T01:40:17","slug":"minute-cryptic-meet-the-aussie-entrepreneur-behind-wildly-popular-clue-solving-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/898376\/","title":{"rendered":"Minute Cryptic: Meet the aussie entrepreneur behind wildly popular clue-solving game"},"content":{"rendered":"

Exclusive: One thought made it possible for Melbourne<\/a>-based entrepreneur Angas Tiernan to make a living off crossword clues. <\/p>\n

\u201cWith a cryptic crossword, you\u2019ve got 20 clues and no instructions\u2026 why don\u2019t you have one clue and instructions? That seems like the better way to do it,\u201d Tiernan explained to nine.com.au. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

One thought made it possible for Melbourne-based entrepreneur Angas Tiernan to make a living off crossword clues. \u00a0LinkedIn\/Angastiernan<\/p>\n

That thought is what inspired Tiernan to start the wildly popular online clue-solving game<\/a>, Minute Cryptic.<\/p>\n

Instead of solving an entire cryptic crossword, Minute Cryptic serves up just one cryptic clue for users to solve. <\/p>\n

Two years after its launch, more than 200,000 people log on to try and solve the Minute Cryptic every day. <\/p>\n

The game gained its popularity entirely from social media. <\/p>\n

Videos of people trying to solve the daily clue garner hundreds of thousands of views, which then encourages people to try it for themselves.<\/p>\n

Tiernan says the game is so popular because users feel a sense of \u201cjoy\u201d when they finally solve a clue.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s a similarity between a punch line and a cryptic clue,\u201d he explained. <\/p>\n

\u201cA joke is a careful construction of words, designed to surprise and at the moment of surprise, you get a delightful feeling. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou have all the pieces of the joke and when the punchline hits, everything comes together and you laugh.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s 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\u2019t know how it comes together until you work it out.\u201d<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe launched the membership in February of last year. We\u2019re profitable just from memberships alone,\u201d Tiernan said. <\/p>\n

Tiernan wouldn\u2019t say the exact number of members signed up, but conceded it was \u201ctens of thousands\u201d. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Minute Cryptic from September 16, 2026\u00a0MinuteCryptic<\/p>\n

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. <\/p>\n

On a conservative estimate of 10,000 monthly subscribers, Minute Cryptic memberships would generate $140,000 for the company annually. <\/p>\n

Minute Cryptic also makes revenue from its best-selling clue-solving books by the same name, as well as merch. <\/p>\n

How Minute Cryptic got its start <\/p>\n

While the rise of the game\u2019s popularity online seems accidental, the entrepreneur explained that everything was meticulously planned out. <\/p>\n

The videos of people solving clues actually started with Tiernan. <\/p>\n

The entrepreneur spent months posting videos of himself solving cryptic clues on social media before a game was even in development. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn startups, you\u2019re looking for the fastest, easiest way to get a real response back. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut how do you test what you\u2019re doing?\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cActually, video is the easiest way to test a product\u2026 You don\u2019t even need the product.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Tiernan posts videos of himself solving a minute cryptic every day. \u00a0Instagram\/@minutecryptic<\/p>\n

The first few videos he made were posted to YouTube Shorts, which had a strict one-minute video limit. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere was this feeling of, \u2018You\u2019ve gotta get in and get out in a minute\u2019, so that\u2019s where [solving it in a minute] started,\u201d he told nine.com.au. <\/p>\n

\u201cYouTube was not happening for me, I moved to TikTok, that\u2019s where it really ramped up\u2026 people were commenting \u2018where can I play this?\u2019 <\/p>\n

\u201cI guess the videos looked enough like a game that people thought they could play it.\u201d <\/p>\n

Tech developers noticed the outpouring of community support for the game and, extraordinarily, began reaching out to offer their services for free. <\/p>\n

\u201cA bunch of developers started reaching out and volunteering to make the game, they were like, \u2018Do you need help making this?\u2019 I was like, \u2018Yes, I do!\u2019\u201d Tiernan said.<\/p>\n

He explained that the first version of the website was made by a designer in her spare time. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Tiernan strategically trialled a primitive version of the game through social media videos to gauge interest in the product. \u00a0Supplied<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s funny, no more than $400 has ever gone into investing in Minute Cryptic. We also haven\u2019t spent once cent on marketing,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

When the website first launched, there was no membership option, but the company was making revenue from ads on their YouTube videos. <\/p>\n

In the videos, Tiernan would explain how he solved the daily clue. <\/p>\n

The videos would be served up to users on the website after they had solved the daily clue. <\/p>\n

While Minute Cryptic no longer monetises its YouTube videos, it still posts daily explanations of how to solve the clue. <\/p>\n

What is a Minute Cryptic? <\/p>\n

The Minute Cryptic is made up of three distinct parts: a definition, an indicator and a fodder. <\/p>\n

The definition comes at the start or the end of the clue, and always related directly to the answer. <\/p>\n

The indicator points out how to solve the clue, while the fodder is the word you\u2019ll use to make the answer. <\/p>\n

Next to the clue sits a number, which tells you how many letters the answer is. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

In this example, \u201cmonkey with\u201d is our indicator, telling the user to play around with the letters in the fodder. In this case, the fodder is \u201cno cigar\u201d. When you move the letters in \u201cno cigar\u201d around, you get our answer \u201cOrganic.\u201d Which ties directly into our definition \u201cAs nature intended.\u201d\u00a0Minute Cryptic <\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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,\u201d Tiernan explained. <\/p>\n

\u201cGenerally, you are getting the answer through letter manipulation. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re building the answer by mixing the letters in the clue in a certain way, or you\u2019re reversing them or placing them into each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve ever seen a video of Tiernan solving a cryptic clue, you might think he\u2019s some sort of puzzle genius – but in reality, he says anyone can solve them.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think anyone can solve it, but you\u2019ve got to try, like really try,\u201d <\/p>\n

Minute Cryptic is free to play, and there\u2019s even a handy free course to help you learn how to solve a clue. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Exclusive: One thought made it possible for Melbourne-based entrepreneur Angas Tiernan to make a living off crossword clues.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":898377,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[64,63,105],"class_list":["post-898376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=898376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/898377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=898376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=898376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=898376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}