By Kirk Kern
For such a young guy, Cameron Brown has a great deal of business experience.
That’s because he took his childhood hobby and turned it into his own business … and he started this at age 14. Now he has warehouses in North Las Vegas and Canada, generates seven figures in revenue and employs 24 people around the world. His hobby was speed cubing, which is basically solving Rubik’s Cube type puzzles as quickly as possible. His online business is called SpeedCubeShop.com
Brown, who moved to Skye Canyon in 2022, started speed cubing in 2006 while in junior high. His friends pooled their money together and ordered different cubes and puzzles that were mainly manufactured in China. But the order never came.
“We would get in contact with the seller and the only response we would get back was a colon and a capital S,” Brown said. “You can’t really blame the seller for any kind of shipping delay, but at the same time it was kind of a bummer as to not get any sort of information as to what happened.”
He joked with his friends that the dream would be to have his own cubing store so he could have any cubes and puzzles he wanted. Going into high school, he decided to make it happen.
He did odd jobs and sold off some of his video games and came up with $500.
“My dad was traveling in China, so I called my supplier in China and ordered 50 (popular speed cubes),” he said. “I pretty muched begged the supplier to drop them off at my dad’s hotel.”
He was able to sell them all the first in the first half hour he had them. With his earnings, he bought more and then developed his website into a viable business. He had just started high school and worked on the website after class.
“I look back at the first website and it was pretty bad,” he said.
Now, his North Las Vegas showroom is the largest in-person shopping destination for speed cubes and twisty puzzles in the world. Brown said visitors travel from all around the world to visit this location and try out cubes before making purchases. He has about 3,000 unique puzzles in stock.
Brown said there are about 250,000 cubers registered within his competition database worldwide and it has become increasingly popular among younger kids and within schools.
“Cubing is a great way to stimulate hand-eye coordination, reflex, problem solving/critical thinking skills, pattern recognition and a healthy sense of competition to beat your best time,” he said.
Brown moved to Las Vegas in February 2022 and chose Skye Canyon because of its sense of community, beautiful scenery and local business.
“I liked getting away from the ‘hustle and bustle’ that you get closer to the Strip,” he said. “I enjoy the location of Skye Canyon, the different parks and the fact that I have everything I need within a mile of my house. I also enjoy mingling with neighbors at the clubhouse and farmers market.”