Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh’s Downtown Las Vegas Condo

Last night I was invited over to Tony Hsieh’s condo in downtown Las Vegas.  It is right at the downtown end of the strip with amazing views.  It is 2 or 3 three bedroom units turned into one large unit.  There is room for guests to stay, meeting room and huge bean bags in a theater.  It was great to see a birds eye view of what Tony has planned for the downtown project and his condo is right in the center of it all.

The view

Zappos Insights Tour

I flew into Las Vegas for a couple meetings this week.  One was with Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh.  Tony was gracious to meet up with me for a drink on Wednesday night.  We met at a bar downtown Las Vegas that his “Downtown Project” team works from during the day.  It was great to chat with Tony and learn more about what he was up to with downtown Las Vegas.  He has some huge ideas and I’m confident that he is the right guy to see them through.  While we were chatting, Tony suggested that I take the Zappos tour the next day if I had some time.  I said I did, and within a few minutes of him pulling out his phone, one of his team walked into the bar to arrange everything.

Out at Zappos the tour was amazing.  It was great to see first hand how Tony has grown an amazing culture.  Here are a couple pictures I snapped from my phone.  As you can see their office has “stuff” everywhere.  Employees (or Friends as our guide referred to them) are encouraged to bring in whatever they want that showcases their personality.  Plus, great to see, Tony and the management team are in cubicles right along side everyone else.

Founders Dinner: Vancouver, BC

I have been attending a “Founders Drinks” event every 5 or 6 weeks in San Francisco at Thumbtack.com co-founder Jonathan Swanson’s condo for the since the start of 2012.  It is a get together of some of San Francisco’s movers and shakers in the technology industry.

I have enjoyed the events so much that I decided to bring the concept to Vancouver as a way to bring together some of Vancouver’s technology leaders.  The other night was our second dinner where we did a catered meal at BuildDirect’s swanky new offices downtown Vancouver.

This months guest list included…

James Mazur co-founder of AfterMyDeal.com
Matt Friesen co-founder of Wantering.com
Nick Molnar co-founder of Wantering.com
Olivier Vincent founder of CanPages.ca
Andrea Shillington founder of BrandsForThePeople.com
Christian Cotichini co-founder of Make Technologies
Jeff Booth co-founder of BuildDirect.com
Tony Wind co-founder of Crystal Reports
Jason Billingsley co-founder of Elastic Path
Chris Breikss co-founder of 6SMarketing.com
John Blown co-founder of 6SMarketing.com
Harry Yeh co-founder of Comet Computing
Basil Peters M&A Advisor
Kris Krug Photographer
Stephen Jagger co-founder of PayrollHero.com
Rob Banks co-founder of BuildDirect
Michael Stephenson co-founder of PayrollHero.com