Tweets with Tony bring her business downtown

It's a true 21st century tale.

Amy Jo Martin met Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh on Twitter. Martin, in 2008 the director of digital media for the Phoenix Suns basketball team, sent Hsieh a direct message asking about Zappos' social media policy.

Hsieh responded a few weeks later: "Be real and use your best judgment."

From Twitter, a friendship was born.

Martin in 2009 launched her own marketing company, Digital Royalty, in Los Angeles and regularly turned to Hsieh for advice. When Martin was seeking funding to take Digital Royalty to the next level, she again turned to Hsieh, who as part of the Downtown Project this year launched a $50 million fund for tech startups willing to base their operations in the center of Las Vegas.

That's how Martin wound up at The Beat coffee shop on Fremont Street on a sunny June day, preparing to meet Realtors and scout downtown office space.

Digital Royalty is one of seven startups in the Downtown Project's Vegas Tech Fund portfolio.

"Our goal is to invest in creating a diverse ecosystem of amazing technology companies," said Zappos' Zach Ware, who oversees the fund. "In one sense, we're investing in companies that are solving really big problems that are highly technical. In the other sense, we're investing in companies that are creative."

The fund in recent weeks has announced investments in event-ticketing website Ticket Cake, fan experience provider Fandeavor, email-based advertising network LaunchBit, short-range electrical vehicle maker Local Motion, publishing company Not Safe for Work Corp., smartphone robot engineer Romotive and Digital Royalty. Not Safe for Work and Romotive were originally investments by Hsieh himself that have been folded into the fund.

"(The fund) acts as a catalyst," said David Williams, a University of Nevada, Las Vegas entrepreneurship instructor. "It's important for the valley to establish some funded startups to make a record of funding startups."

There are angel investors and venture capitalists around town, but funding sources have been "fragmented," Williams said. Until now.

Ware declined to disclose how much each company received, but said the total is less than 10 percent of the overall pool.

Martin also declined to say how much she received as part of a round that included separate investments from Hsieh and New York Knicks point guard Baron Davis, who also will be the company's summer intern.

The funds will go toward Digital Royalty's expansion from 12 employees to about 25, and also allow the company, which works with major brands to develop effective social media campaigns, to grow its Digital Royalty University in-person and webinar social media training curriculum.

Like Martin, the team behind Ticket Cake settled in downtown to be part of the fund. Ticket Cake, formerly based in Salt Lake City, works with event organizers and venues to sell tickets online, but as part of the 16 percent service fee it tacks on to the base ticket price the startup provides business intelligence and analytics to help organizers sell more tickets.

Ticket Cake has 16,000 users and has processed $1 million in ticket sales since its launch.

"We are a traditional business, which is different from a lot of tech companies here. They're building new technology. Nothing we're doing is super new," said Ticket Cake Chief Operating Officer Jacqueline Jensen. "We're an old business model, but we're rethinking the way that it's done."

Ticket Cake moved fast. The company, which launched at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2011, ventured out to Vegas after a few (you guessed it) Twitter conversations in February for its first round of meetings with the Downtown Project crew. They signed a lease on a space at the Ogden high-rise on May 1.

Contact reporter Caitlin McGarry at cmcgarry@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5273.