What We Learned from Tony Hsieh, Downtown Project, and VegasTechFund

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10 points·kevinbracken··8 comments

As someone born in Vegas 51 years ago, who left because there was no tech (beyond the test site and TTR), it's strange to watch this happen.

Somewhat related, Kevin Rose was also born in Vegas.

Building a box-truck attraction always costs more money and takes more time that one would expect. However it's so refreshing to build something that isn't software once in a while.

From reading about VegasTech I thought 'The Ogden' was a building owned by Hsieh and restricted to startup people - but it appears that is just a normal building lots of them have chosen to live in? Anybody have an idea of the cost to rent a 2br?

Tony does indeed own a large number of the units in The Ogden. This is mostly housing for VegasTechFund people, as well as "crash pads" with bunk beds for visitors. If I am not mistaken, the rent is about $2200 for a 2br

Thanks.

Where would you recommend to stay if I wanted to go for a week or two and check things out? I'd just be showing up unannounced (the VegasTechFund site seems to encourage that) but would want to get as close to an authentic experience as possible to what it would be like to actually live there.

Definitely somewhere downtown! Find someone on AirBnB, or hell, even stay at a downtown casino. They're still right in the middle of things.

If you want to meet a lot of interesting people in the Vegas Tech scene, maybe you could attend a taping of the Downtown Podcast (http://downtownpodcast.tv/) or come to a Tech Jelly (https://twitter.com/VegasJelly).

"More like the O.G. Den" - @opinionsonline

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