4 ms·

It's not really clear that this is actually a new startup, but regardless of that, investing in Las Vegas real estate strikes me as an extremely bold move.

cdjarrell 15y ago
Extremely bold, you have to love not only Tony's vision for what he wants to see in a city but also that he has the fortitude to act on it
- smhinsey 15y ago
  Yes, it reminds me of Sim City 2000's arcologies, which, as I'm sure anyone who loved that game as much as I did would agree, is the sort of thing dreams are made of (I'll pass on the rocket boosters though). It's really unfortunate for me that this iteration is in Vegas.
mason55 15y ago
Seems to me that he's investing in Zappos. That investment just happens to come in the form of buying real estate in Las Vegas. I wonder what the monetary difference is between building up Vegas and building their own campus. If you accept the fact that you need a decent campus to attract top talent then your investment only needs to make up the difference between the cost of building your own. Throw in the fact that it's more attractive to have your campus downtown than out in the sticks of Henderson and you're really not looking at needing to make up a ton of money. Even if you end up losing a little bit of money you could very well come out ahead.
- arkitaip 15y ago
  As the article says, Hsieh is after the synergistic effects that you get with melting pots; things that manifest themselves in a chaotic, cross breeding, art meets science meets business meets community world that you rarely find on a corporate campus.
  - mason55 15y ago
    Yup. People who think he's investing in this as real estate are totally missing the big picture.
TheHegemon 15y ago
Yes, extremely bold move. Take this as someone who had a company move to Vegas and more than half (including myself) the company left because of it. There is a certain type of people that can stand the culture and atmosphere that is Vegas, and intelligent tech people usually aren't that type.
- jgilliam 15y ago
  His point that Zappos isn't a technology company, but rather a customer service company makes Las Vegas the perfect fit. Las Vegas is the #1 city in the world for service industries.

cdjarrell 15y ago

Extremely bold, you have to love not only Tony's vision for what he wants to see in a city but also that he has the fortitude to act on it

smhinsey 15y ago
Yes, it reminds me of Sim City 2000's arcologies, which, as I'm sure anyone who loved that game as much as I did would agree, is the sort of thing dreams are made of (I'll pass on the rocket boosters though). It's really unfortunate for me that this iteration is in Vegas.

mason55 15y ago

Seems to me that he's investing in Zappos. That investment just happens to come in the form of buying real estate in Las Vegas. I wonder what the monetary difference is between building up Vegas and building their own campus. If you accept the fact that you need a decent campus to attract top talent then your investment only needs to make up the difference between the cost of building your own. Throw in the fact that it's more attractive to have your campus downtown than out in the sticks of Henderson and you're really not looking at needing to make up a ton of money. Even if you end up losing a little bit of money you could very well come out ahead.

arkitaip 15y ago
As the article says, Hsieh is after the synergistic effects that you get with melting pots; things that manifest themselves in a chaotic, cross breeding, art meets science meets business meets community world that you rarely find on a corporate campus.
- mason55 15y ago
  Yup. People who think he's investing in this as real estate are totally missing the big picture.

TheHegemon 15y ago

Yes, extremely bold move. Take this as someone who had a company move to Vegas and more than half (including myself) the company left because of it. There is a certain type of people that can stand the culture and atmosphere that is Vegas, and intelligent tech people usually aren't that type.

jgilliam 15y ago
His point that Zappos isn't a technology company, but rather a customer service company makes Las Vegas the perfect fit. Las Vegas is the #1 city in the world for service industries.