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Always had mixed feelings about kevin; i liked digg, back in the day, before they mucked it up. And thebroken was pretty cool too, i definitely enjoyed that. Ot

Always had mixed feelings about kevin; i liked digg, back in the day, before they mucked it up. And thebroken was pretty cool too, i definitely enjoyed that. Otherwise... not much worthwhile. He always came off more as a personality than as a actual entrepreneur. But it's easy for me to judge up here on my mighty throne. He's doing what he wants to do, making money doing it, and overall seems to be doing well. I could learn a thing or two.

mladenkovacevic 11y ago
Most people would be lucky to be involved in creating a single thing that a large user-base enjoys and supports. You just listed 2 things. Depending on how instrumental he was in the projects he's been involved with, I'd say his track record is ok. Creating a brand around your personality and then cashing in on that brand by investing in other cool projects is just an added bonus.
baldfat 11y ago
Kevin Rose is a god when you look at the products he was an early investor in. https://angel.co/kevin https://angel.co/kevin SimpleGeo, Facebook, Gowalla, Formspring, Yobongo, BufferBox, LE TOTE, Cluster, Wealthfront, Foodzie, The Social+Capital Partnership, Buttercoin, AngelList, Greylock Partners, SV Angel, FOBO, Clever, Fab.com, Tasty Labs, Cozy, Dailybooth, Foursquare, Digg, Nextdoor, Treehouse, 19 more...
- tlrobinson 11y ago
  Not sure I'd include Fab or Digg (among others) on that list...
  - mikeryan 11y ago
    If he was an angel in Fab he might have easily gotten a pretty good multiple on his investment if he took money off the table in early VC rounds. I have no inside knowledge on this but I'd assume Digg is where he got the funds to make all these investments.
    - baldfat 11y ago
      Rumor was he sold his shares in the last round. (https://gigaom.com/2008/09/24/digg-raises-28-million-in-series-c-funding/ https://gigaom.com/2008/09/24/digg-raises-28-million-in-seri...)
  - rubiquity 11y ago
    Or Le Tote... Lol
- ryanSrich 11y ago
  > a god Jesus. He's a Silicon Valley personality, not a god. He was able to be at the right place at the right time. Anyone in that situation would have made the same exact investments. There was no magic to what he did.
  - jays 11y ago
    while I agree he certainly is not a god, making good investment choices in the startup world is not easy. easy to judge with hindsight on your side
austenallred 11y ago
I think you'd be surprised at how many "famous" entrepreneurs are basically that. Just normal trying to do cool things; sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. If one takes off and becomes famous enough that people can discuss it by name, your name suddenly carries a lot more weight, but you're still just a normal guy (or girl) trying to build/do cool stuff that people like.
- tonystubblebine 11y ago
  Amen.
mikeryan 11y ago
I also have mixed feelings about Kevin but he also had Pownce (which to this day I still think had some legs) and Revision3 which he helped start. I think its fair to consider him an entrepreneur he's actively helped get more companies off the ground then almost anyone else I can think of. He always came off more as a personality To his credit he did start as a TV personality... ;-)
- johnchristopher 11y ago
  > I also have mixed feelings about Kevin but he also had Pownce (which to this day I still think had some legs) Ah, I wish Pownce had taken off as well ! The idea and the execution was really cool and it had features that WhatApp and the likes are still missing (agenda, file sharing on the top of my mind). I don't know why it didn't take off. Adobe Air ?
  - bantunes 11y ago
    "There is a lesson here for ambitious system architects: the most dangerous enemy of a better solution is an existing codebase that is just good enough." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_9_from_Bell_Labs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_9_from_Bell_Labs
throwaway34093 11y ago
As you allude to I think it's unfair to call him a personality. He has experience in most of he skills important when starting companies or other projects. Organisational skills in terms of starting, scaling and selling companies. Social skills of running a popular podcast and being an angel investor. And business skills from being a venture capitalist. I don't particularly like the values of Silicon Valley nor the, although less importantly and to some extent perceived, values of Kevin Rose. But I even more dislike how those values seem to change arbitrarily. In my book experience counts. I think he, or really his career, is a way better role model for entrepreneurs than today's ivy league graduated, accelerator backed, acqui-hired one. By far the deciding factor in doing things you like seem to be if you at one point had or took the opportunity to get out of your comfort zone enough to acquire the skills necessary for it. I think those kind of skills are worthwhile to value. Even if it's only simple versions of them like organizing an event, talking on camera or writing contracts.
jack-r-abbit 11y ago
Kevin Rose irked me when he was appearing on and hosting The Screen Savers. Maybe he just wasn't coming through accurately on TV but he always struck me as kind of a dick. I've never really changed my opinion of him since then.

mladenkovacevic 11y ago

Most people would be lucky to be involved in creating a single thing that a large user-base enjoys and supports. You just listed 2 things. Depending on how instrumental he was in the projects he's been involved with, I'd say his track record is ok. Creating a brand around your personality and then cashing in on that brand by investing in other cool projects is just an added bonus.

baldfat 11y ago

Kevin Rose is a god when you look at the products he was an early investor in. https://angel.co/kevin https://angel.co/kevin SimpleGeo, Facebook, Gowalla, Formspring, Yobongo, BufferBox, LE TOTE, Cluster, Wealthfront, Foodzie, The Social+Capital Partnership, Buttercoin, AngelList, Greylock Partners, SV Angel, FOBO, Clever, Fab.com, Tasty Labs, Cozy, Dailybooth, Foursquare, Digg, Nextdoor, Treehouse, 19 more...

tlrobinson 11y ago
Not sure I'd include Fab or Digg (among others) on that list...
- mikeryan 11y ago
  If he was an angel in Fab he might have easily gotten a pretty good multiple on his investment if he took money off the table in early VC rounds. I have no inside knowledge on this but I'd assume Digg is where he got the funds to make all these investments.
  - baldfat 11y ago
    Rumor was he sold his shares in the last round. (https://gigaom.com/2008/09/24/digg-raises-28-million-in-series-c-funding/ https://gigaom.com/2008/09/24/digg-raises-28-million-in-seri...)
- rubiquity 11y ago
  Or Le Tote... Lol
ryanSrich 11y ago
> a god Jesus. He's a Silicon Valley personality, not a god. He was able to be at the right place at the right time. Anyone in that situation would have made the same exact investments. There was no magic to what he did.
- jays 11y ago
  while I agree he certainly is not a god, making good investment choices in the startup world is not easy. easy to judge with hindsight on your side

austenallred 11y ago

I think you'd be surprised at how many "famous" entrepreneurs are basically that. Just normal trying to do cool things; sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. If one takes off and becomes famous enough that people can discuss it by name, your name suddenly carries a lot more weight, but you're still just a normal guy (or girl) trying to build/do cool stuff that people like.

tonystubblebine 11y ago
Amen.

mikeryan 11y ago

I also have mixed feelings about Kevin but he also had Pownce (which to this day I still think had some legs) and Revision3 which he helped start. I think its fair to consider him an entrepreneur he's actively helped get more companies off the ground then almost anyone else I can think of. He always came off more as a personality To his credit he did start as a TV personality... ;-)

johnchristopher 11y ago
> I also have mixed feelings about Kevin but he also had Pownce (which to this day I still think had some legs) Ah, I wish Pownce had taken off as well ! The idea and the execution was really cool and it had features that WhatApp and the likes are still missing (agenda, file sharing on the top of my mind). I don't know why it didn't take off. Adobe Air ?
- bantunes 11y ago
  "There is a lesson here for ambitious system architects: the most dangerous enemy of a better solution is an existing codebase that is just good enough." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_9_from_Bell_Labs https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plan_9_from_Bell_Labs

throwaway34093 11y ago

As you allude to I think it's unfair to call him a personality. He has experience in most of he skills important when starting companies or other projects. Organisational skills in terms of starting, scaling and selling companies. Social skills of running a popular podcast and being an angel investor. And business skills from being a venture capitalist. I don't particularly like the values of Silicon Valley nor the, although less importantly and to some extent perceived, values of Kevin Rose. But I even more dislike how those values seem to change arbitrarily. In my book experience counts. I think he, or really his career, is a way better role model for entrepreneurs than today's ivy league graduated, accelerator backed, acqui-hired one. By far the deciding factor in doing things you like seem to be if you at one point had or took the opportunity to get out of your comfort zone enough to acquire the skills necessary for it. I think those kind of skills are worthwhile to value. Even if it's only simple versions of them like organizing an event, talking on camera or writing contracts.

jack-r-abbit 11y ago

Kevin Rose irked me when he was appearing on and hosting The Screen Savers. Maybe he just wasn't coming through accurately on TV but he always struck me as kind of a dick. I've never really changed my opinion of him since then.