The high-profile Downtown Project in Las Vegas, led by Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh, made the wrong kind of news this week.
"Tony Hsieh, Zappos CEO and founder of the ambitious startup-city development Downtown Project in Las Vegas, stepped down as leader of the project a few weeks ago," reports Nellie Bowles.
"Hsieh’s move comes as the project has laid off about 30 percent of its staff, or 30 people, which does not include the community of entrepreneurs funded by the project," adds Bowles.
Joe Schoenmann first reported the layoffs for KNPR News.
Bowles cites sources claiming that many of the businesses associated with the Downtown project were bleeding money and that project was poorly managed. David Gould, who left a teaching position at the University of Iowa earlier this year to take a job with the Downtown project, penned an open letter to Hsieh, published in the Las Vegas Weekly, describing the venture's failures as "a collage of decadence, greed, and missing leadership."
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