Tony Hsieh's new $350 million startup

I'd be really interested in doing a tech startup (well, moving one) to Las Vegas -- aside from a stupid Clark County registration law, and the risk of financial/social problems due to so many foreclosures, it would be great. Good infrastructure, cheap flights, super cheap housing (sign me up for a 4500 sf McMansion for $300k...), etc. Easy to get people to visit for a few weeks at a time, easy to get hotels, generally low cost of living, and 24h everything, subsidized by old people and stupid people who can't do math.<p>Everyone at my startup is into firearms, so we'd far prefer Nevada to California. Clark County's handgun registration law is the main reason we haven't bought a place there already.<p>Schools suck, but that's not personally an issue, and I'm sure a 100+ person company with ~10 students could figure out a solution for employees.

And here's why I think Tony Hsieh is the next, better Steve Jobs that understands business, people and community like no other leader today. Why better? Because the man radiates a genuine compassion towards others that Jobs never had. If any other business leader had announced such a visionary idea I would have been incredibly skeptical, but I have total confidence in Hsieh and find his vision inspiring and quite convincing.

Sounds like he is trying to build Silicon Valley in Vegas.<p>Reminds me of this PG essay: <a href="http://www.paulgraham.com/maybe.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.paulgraham.com/maybe.html</a><p>Or this one: <a href="http://www.paulgraham.com/siliconvalley.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.paulgraham.com/siliconvalley.html</a>

I love this idea, but I couldn't help but think of Foxconn City and that one Simpsons episode where Homer moves into a great new job with a supporting city run by an evil genius.<p><a href="http://www.wired.com/rawfile/2010/11/thomas-lee-foxconn/" rel="nofollow">http://www.wired.com/rawfile/2010/11/thomas-lee-foxconn/</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Only_Move_Twice" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Only_Move_Twice</a>

How far is too far for building a culture of "fun with a little bit of weirdness?"<p>I find Zappos dedication to fun weirdness to be a little much to begin with. But now buying land surrounding your call-center with plans to build an entire city for employees to live/work/play in? And "dorms" to live in? That's a lot.<p>I'm all for free jet flights (<a href="http://www.launch.is/blog/leak-zappos-ceo-gives-employees-free-private-jet-service.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.launch.is/blog/leak-zappos-ceo-gives-employees-fr...</a>) but this is a bit much for me. Guess that's why I don't work there.

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.

As a practicing urban designer, this strikes me as a great piece of investing if done right. These plans will take years or even decades to come to fruition (a big horizon for most tech people), but I am sure he will end up a real estate tycoon at the end of it. Commit a significantly run down area to a vision, and there is huge money to be made, as well as (potential) benefits for the general public....

$200 million of it will go towards land purchase and residential development.<p>Since when did real estate speculation become a "startup?"<p>And he wants to develop more residential areas in the city with the highest foreclosure rate in the US? And among the cities with the most empty houses.<p>I hate to be critical, but...this seems like a bad idea. $350 million is also probably not enough money to create significant impact - to do anything on the scale of a neighborhood or borough, you are talking a multibillion dollar project.

Interesting. Building a community of tech startups is probably key to feeding more talent to zappos longterm too. He can also fund companies that solve some of zappos key problems and have them close at hand.<p>I'd be very excited to see a follow up to this every 6 months to see how things are coming along. Rebuilding a city is tough

I wonder how many startups will actually get work done that close to the Strip? Seems like a major source of distractions.

Have they acquired all the surrounding lands yet? If not, announcing this expansion plan might push up the price.

It will be exciting to see how this works out. Hsieh seems to really understand people and their motivations. He's the perfect person to try an pull something like this off.

If you build it, they will come? I hope so. This seems like a very risky venture.

seems like 350 million is a drop in the bucket for something like that

Didn't click the link, but I hope it doesn't have anything to do with Internet security (zing!).