For many of us, the love for escape rooms starts with a single, memorable game. For Joe Goldstein, a technology veteran leading the U.S. expansion of The Cyber Escape Room Co., that first game was an accident. And it was terrifying.

While in Las Vegas for his daughter’s softball tournament around 2014, Joe’s family was looking for something to do during their downtime. They stumbled upon something they’d never heard of before: an escape room. “We thought, sure, let’s give it a try,” Joe remembers. What they didn’t know was that they had booked a horror-themed room based on a B-horror movie, complete with props from the film and a live actor they weren’t told about.

“My kids wouldn’t go, one of my kids wouldn’t go into the creepy room.”

His oldest was about 14, and his youngest was only nine or ten. “My kids wouldn’t go, one of my kids wouldn’t go into the creepy room,” he says with a laugh. Despite the scares and the challenge of learning how to communicate under pressure, they managed to escape with time to spare. That single, spooky experience was all it took. “At that point, we were hooked,” Joe says. They played two or three more rooms on that same trip, sparking a passion that has since led him to play over 240 rooms across the country.

Finding the Fun in the Game

“I do enjoy rooms where you start in a jail cell, handcuffed.”

With so many games under his belt, Joe has developed a keen sense of what makes an escape room great. It’s not just about a cool theme, but how that theme is executed. He’s found that some of the most memorable experiences start with a unique challenge right from the beginning. “I do enjoy rooms where you start in a jail cell, handcuffed,” he explains. “Something that you have to solve before you get into the main room. I think it just adds a little bit more fun, a little more challenge.”

On the other hand, nothing ruins the fun faster than when the game itself doesn’t work. Joe points to rooms that are heavy on technology but lack maintenance. “I have no issue with tech-heavy rooms. I think if you do them well and you maintain them, they’re a lot of fun to play,” he notes. “But I will take an all-lock room over a tech room that doesn’t work any day.” When technology fails, it breaks the immersion and leads to frustration, ruining the entire experience.

Over the years, Joe and his family of five have developed a system, with each person naturally falling into a specific role. He and his son are often the “takeover guys,” driving the logic-based puzzles forward. His son, in particular, has an incredible talent for seeing patterns others miss. “He’ll hack a pattern puzzle very easily,” Joe says. “Game masters get pretty frustrated because he does it too early and they weren’t the clues, but he didn’t really cheat. He’s just better.”

Other family members are the quiet observers who spot hidden details, the searchers who can find anything, and the organizers who keep track of all the clues and locks. It’s this combination of different ways of thinking that makes them a successful team.

Turning a Passion into a New Kind of Business

For years, Joe dreamed of opening his own escape room, but he knew his strengths were in tech and puzzle design, not construction. “Give me a hammer, nails, and wood, and it’s going to be a disaster,” he jokes. But then he found a way to combine his professional expertise in cybersecurity with his passion for escape rooms.

“The tagline is ‘cybersecurity that’s not boring AF.’”

He discovered The Cyber Escape Room Co., a company founded in the U.K. by Amy Stokes-Waters, who had the brilliant idea to make notoriously dull cybersecurity training interactive and fun. “The tagline is ‘cybersecurity that’s not boring AF,’” Joe says. “And it really is.”

Instead of forcing employees to sit through slideshows they just zombie-click through, The Cyber Escape Room Co. uses portable, escape room-style kits to teach crucial security principles. These aren’t your typical escape rooms. They are self-contained experiences in a backpack, briefcase, or chest. A company can have 50 people in a room, break them into ten teams of five, and have them compete to solve the puzzles first. This creates a fun, competitive atmosphere where people are actively engaged in the learning process.

The games are designed to teach real-world lessons. One game, “Heist,” focuses on password hygiene and the dangers of scanning unfamiliar QR codes. Another, “Elementary,” tackles insider threats, showing how even honest mistakes can compromise a company’s security. The goal isn’t just to entertain, but to change behavior. “If I can change a behavior, even if it’s just one, make better passwords, right? Stop using your dog’s and your kid’s name and your birth date as a password,” Joe explains. By making the training a hands-on experience, the lessons stick.

Teaching the Next Generation to Be Cyber Smart

If I can change a behavior, even if it’s just one, make better passwords, right? Stop using your dog’s and your kid’s name and your birth date as a password.”

This mission to educate extends beyond the corporate world. Joe is deeply concerned about how the younger, tech-native generation is often given powerful tools without the knowledge to use them safely. “We think that because the kids are growing up with these devices in their hands… that they understand how to protect themselves,” he says. “And that couldn’t be farther from the truth.”

He points out common school practices, like using a student’s ID number as their universal password, which teaches terrible security habits from a young age. To combat this, Joe started the first “Cyber Camp” in Southwest Florida for students from incoming 6th graders to high school seniors. The camp has exploded in popularity, growing from 30 kids in its first year to over 230 applicants for just 70 spots in its third year. His goal is to push this kind of training all the way down to kindergarten. “It’s much easier to create a habit than break one,” he says.

The Future of Escape Rooms and Training

While the escape room industry continues to grow and evolve, Joe sees a unique path forward. The Cyber Escape Room Co. is pioneering a B2B mobile model that fills a specific need, but the innovation doesn’t stop there. They are already developing new tools, including an AI-based vishing (voice phishing) program where employees receive simulated scam calls. “It sounds just like a person, it’s AI, and the AI has been given a task to get information,” Joe says.

Looking ahead, he even sees the potential for augmented reality rooms, where a conference attendee could use their phone to see a virtual treasure chest on a table and solve puzzles right there. For Joe, it’s all about finding creative ways to keep the learning fresh and engaging.

Joe’s journey shows how a simple family outing can spark a worldwide movement. By taking the fun, immersion, and teamwork of escape rooms and applying it to a critical field like cybersecurity, he is not just creating a successful business; he is making us all a little bit safer, one puzzle at a time.

You can learn more about The Cyber Escape Room Co. on their website and check out their digital escape rooms here.