Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Las Vegas marketing firm to take over Downtown Project co-working space

Work in Progress, the downtown co-working space that housed companies from small local startups to big names like Uber, had been losing money when it announced last week it would close in March.

Then, over the weekend, its management reached an agreement with Let’s Rally, a Las Vegas-based digital marketing agency, to take over the business and run it for the foreseeable future. In the coming months, Let’s Rally’s product development arm, 5895 Labs, will take over Work in Progress.

Both parties expect to release more details on the agreement in the coming weeks.

Work in Progress, which opened in 2013, had been supported by the Downtown Project, Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh’s $350 million investment in the area. Using the co-working space required membership dues, which ranged from $49 to $299 per month. Several local startups worked out of the building. It also attracted national sharing economy companies, such as Uber and PostMates, which had set up local offices in the space. Work in Progress also offered mentor office hours, workshops and events.

In an email to Work in Progress tenants, its director George Moncrief wrote that 5895 Labs would maintain the focus on supporting entrepreneurs. Tenants, he said, would receive more information soon, but that membership billing will start again in March.

“We would not have agreed to the idea if we didn’t feel it was the right thing for the (Work in Progress) community,” he wrote, adding that Work in Progress had been actively looking for a partner for months.

The agreement was announced on Monday.

Hartej Singh Sawhney, who runs his startup Zuldi out of Work in Progress, said he was relieved when he heard that the co-working space would not be shutting its doors.

"Work in Progress is the last home base that the downtown Vegas tech scene has,” he said. "It’s the last place remaining that enables community gathering. When you have a co-working space that is effective, it enables any entrepreneur — young or old — at the early stage to behave like a real company.”

With conference rooms for meetings or interviews, he said that co-working spaces offer benefits for early-stage companies that other alternatives, such as coffee shops, do not.

According to the email, 5895 Labs is involved with other local projects, including entitywagering.com, Revalytics and MyRewards.vegas. “We believe in trying new things, supporting ideas and fostering relationships,” 5895 Labs said in a message appended below Moncrief’s email. “Work in Progress is the place for these shared beliefs, not just downtown, but in the larger Las Vegas community.”

One of the earliest tenants at the co-working space was Rolltech, a mobile app company for bowling, that has since moved into a larger office downtown.

Rolltech's CEO, Rich Belsky, described Work in Progress as "a really vibrant work environment.” "For us, it was perfect,” he said. "It helped us control costs. And we got the benefits of all the energy."

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