Today we’d like to introduce you to Patrick Lota and Roy Huang.
So, before we jump into specific questions about the business, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
Roy and I have been longtime friends, eventually became a brother in laws, and are now business partners. We’ve always worked well together and things progressed organically into a business partnership. Starting in 2009, we decided to jump into the entrepreneurial world and we don’t have any plans to stop. Some of our first business ventures include salons, commercial real estate, restaurants, and production companies. We enjoy building small businesses from the ground up but none of these have been a passion project until now.
Our most recent project, Cypher Escape Experience, is our baby at the moment and we have high hopes to take it and the escape room world to new heights. Roy and I have always done escape rooms for fun and are big fans. After doing a room one day and being familiar and connected to movie sets and props, it was clear that our next business would be an escape room. At that time, we were in the process of another project but that ended up falling through which solidified our decision to open an escape room.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
True to the nature of building any business, we’ve had our ups and downs. In the beginning, we didn’t realize the task we were taking on in its full nature. There was definitely a steep learning curve, even with all of our previous knowledge of media production and set design. Figuring out and creating the right and most engaging puzzles, professional technical and set design, and finding the right contractors that understood our vision and could help us bring this room to life took time and many trials and errors. Thousands of hours have been put into every aspect of our room and we still experience hiccups along the way–that’s the way a business goes, you know? Every day we are in the process of learning.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
We are an escape room company but we rely and focus on a more high-tech approach versus your typical escape room companies. Our main goal is to create an immersive experience that stands out from the rest for the customer and brings life to the story and puzzles of the game. In everything we do we strive to be progressive and thoughtful in our quality of work. The experience of the room(s) starts before you even enter the building. Not only did we commission dramatic artwork to accentuate our building from the outside to inside but every detail was considered leading up to the escape room; from fun bean bags to relax in and enjoy playing video games while you wait or the shelving with quirky toys and figurines.
We’re most proud of giving the people an experience they’ll never forget. That’s what it’s all about. It’s not just about the escape room for us. When they leave our room our desire is for them to still be thinking and talking about it and wanting to return to experience another room that awaits them.
We set out to take an idea already familiar to the general public and elevate it, to create new standards, and to be relatable to our current technology-driven society. We like to think of ourselves as “pioneers for the modern escape room” and I think we’ve accomplished just that.
What were you like growing up?
Patrick: As a kid, I’d say that I was fairly shy but at the same time, I couldn’t sit still. I had to always be doing something; that hasn’t changed. I’ve always been driven to create and succeed at everything I do. As a teen, I enjoyed rebuilding and modifying cars. As an early adult, I shifted towards programming and computer science in college. I was a very early adopter of the Raspberry Pi and Arduino for use in projects with I/O and programmatic requirements.
Roy: As a child, I was always curious. I enjoyed taking things apart–reverse engineering, that sort of thing. Anything that allowed me to be creative was my passion. I started out drawing and painting and then as a young adult, I went into acting. Eventually, it progressed into producing and content creation. Startup projects are what I love to do.
Pricing:
- Tickets per person range $32-$45 depending on a number of people in the booking.
Contact Info:
- Address: 3731 Cahuenga Blvd Studio City, CA 91604
- Website: https://crackthecypher.com
- Phone: 818-806-0220
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/crackthecypher/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Cyph3r-Escape-Experience-2038128303073992/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/crackthecypher
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/cypher-escape-experience-los-angeles-3
- Other: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVjh1YoiwNg
Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
