Kevin Rose Will Join Google • Hacker News Board

Re: Kevin Rose Will Join Google

#41

Post by kenrikm » Thu, Mar 15, 2012, 5:35 PM UTC

k-mcgrady wrote: post #21

kenrikm wrote: post #11

Wow, if Google did not acquire Milk outright I wonder what type of deal was worked out with the investors? There would have to be some type of upside for them otherwise KR's reputation would be seriously tarnished. "Sorry guys, remember that money you gave me to start a company?. Well no more company and I'm off to bigger and better things, K tnx Bye"

I would guess that they just paid off the investors. It was only $1.7m and Google Ventures was one of the investors anyway.

Well they would still need to have seen the returns they expected (or were happy with) since the money did not come out of the funds just to get "Put back" without any upside. Speculation: 3-4 million payoff Google "we don't need the company just shut it down and come to work"

Re: Kevin Rose Will Join Google

#42

Post by JeremyBanks » Thu, Mar 15, 2012, 5:36 PM UTC

shareme wrote: post #39

xpose2000 wrote: post #16

Sorry if this sounds harsh, and I know he has a lot of fans out there. But this guy struck gold 5 years ago with Digg. Sure, he deserves props for this. However, he's not a developer. He's an "ideas guy" as far as I can tell. As a developer, I hate these kinds of people because more often than not their ideas suck. In any case, what I am saying is that it seems like people in the industry get by based on one previous…

Obviously you forgot Kevin Rose's background..are you aware that in fact he is a developer? Look up his CS degree dude.. At least know about the effing subject before you open your effing mouth

I guess your post is sarcasm, intended to make me look this up?

He then attended the University of Nevada Las Vegas, majoring in computer science but dropped out in 1998.

Re: Kevin Rose Will Join Google

#43

Post by gavanwoolery » Thu, Mar 15, 2012, 5:37 PM UTC

Anybody remember when google tried to acq-hire Path for 100 million? Hopefully this offer was not as ridiculous.

Re: Kevin Rose Will Join Google

#44

Post by vijayanands » Thu, Mar 15, 2012, 5:37 PM UTC

I wonder if they are bringing him in, to setup an internal incubator of sorts, now that labs is shut down, perhaps they think its time to do it in some structured form. I know that there was talk of it, sometime back inside the company.

Re: Kevin Rose Will Join Google

#45

Post by reidmain » Thu, Mar 15, 2012, 5:38 PM UTC

untog wrote: post #22

samstave wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, you don't understand. He is going to "work on others' ideas" -- i.e. Ideas that are not his own. --- What will be really commical, is if he is going to join google with the intent to work on Google+ -- as if he were some success in the "social" play. Remember, digg failed because it alienated the users, attempted to wrap too much UI around the content; limiting the consumption rate, and pandering to media channel…

Remember, digg failed because it alienated the users, attempted to wrap too much UI around the content; limiting the consumption rate, and pandering to media channels. To be fair, I think that was after Kevin left his role as CEO.

He was the CEO when Digg v4 was released and was one of the driving forces behind it.

Digg v4 was the dagger that killed Digg.

Re: Kevin Rose Will Join Google

#46

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Mar 15, 2012, 5:38 PM UTC

harold wrote: post #33

ot wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you elaborate?

Apparently Google thinks Kevin Rose is "The Fonz" and intends to have him jump a tank with a shark in it. At the last minute, Rose decides to found a new company called "Soda" instead. Leaves Google scratching head and previous investors still wondering where their money went. Crowd unhappy because they wanted to see their hero/villain successful/eaten.

[deleted]

Re: Kevin Rose Will Join Google

#47

Post by pfisters » Thu, Mar 15, 2012, 5:38 PM UTC

My one hope here is that he uses his 20% time to bring back The Broken."

Re: Kevin Rose Will Join Google

#48

Post by patrickod » Thu, Mar 15, 2012, 5:40 PM UTC

This feels like a stunt on the part of Google. They have the money to throw around at ideas at the moment; KR seems to be a beneficiary of this. They get to hire a trendy name and hope that they can turn around G+ and other services.

Re: Kevin Rose Will Join Google

#49

Post by spindritf » Thu, Mar 15, 2012, 5:42 PM UTC

xpose2000 wrote: post #16

Sorry if this sounds harsh, and I know he has a lot of fans out there. But this guy struck gold 5 years ago with Digg. Sure, he deserves props for this. However, he's not a developer. He's an "ideas guy" as far as I can tell. As a developer, I hate these kinds of people because more often than not their ideas suck. In any case, what I am saying is that it seems like people in the industry get by based on one previous…

> Once they have that reputation as being awesome it will stick around no matter how badly they perform after their initial success.

Proof of ability trumps everything else.

Re: Kevin Rose Will Join Google

#50

Post by Timothee » Thu, Mar 15, 2012, 5:42 PM UTC

xpose2000 wrote: post #16

Sorry if this sounds harsh, and I know he has a lot of fans out there. But this guy struck gold 5 years ago with Digg. Sure, he deserves props for this. However, he's not a developer. He's an "ideas guy" as far as I can tell. As a developer, I hate these kinds of people because more often than not their ideas suck. In any case, what I am saying is that it seems like people in the industry get by based on one previous…

There's a distinction to be made between "idea guys" and "product people". You're criticizing "idea guys", while it seems that Kevin Rose might be more of a product person.

The "idea guy" is the guy who comes to a developer and start with "I've got this great idea for an app…", thinks it's genius but never dives down to all the details of said-app.

A product person might or might not know how to code but s/he will(/should) be able to articulate exactly what the product should do or not, how things should work together, etc. It's common for developers to think they don't need anybody to make a good product but a great product person will make a difference.

It doesn't matter if they understand how to code or not.

Indeed. That's not their role. Understanding how to code does not a good product make. There are tons of examples of that.

However, you have a point about the industry giving a pass to people with previous successful project(s). But probably with good reason: overall there aren't that many very successful projects, so if you had one, it's still much better than a lot of people.