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Kevin Rose Will Join Google

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Re: Kevin Rose Will Join Google

#71

Post by jbigelow76 »

untog wrote: post #5

Huh. It was just yesterday that they shut down Oink to "work on other ideas"- so that was a total lie? Heaven forbid they should just be straightforward about what's going on. As someone who'd love some VC money, it's a little disheartening to see $1.7 million of it thrown around and wasted based on one person's name.

Don't expect the trend to stop, just the other day were several HN threads regarding Y Combinator accepting people without ideas. You don't even need a track record anymore, if you can create a viral video on techcrunch to show what a hustler you are somebody will probably throw some money at you.

It's like VCs watched the movie Moneyball (or read the book) and are applying what they saw to the VC world... but in reverse.

Re: Kevin Rose Will Join Google

#72

Post by ChuckMcM »

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…

Heh. Developer angst. Very common.

Specific comments on your rant:

1) "Ideas" types do well at Google, they reward people for starting new things, not so much finishing things.

2) "it seems like people in the industry get by based on one previous successful project." - works both ways, people also get tarred with one unsuccessful project. And like success depending on how hard the fail was it can be an influence on the rest of your career.

3) "What could he possibly be bringing to the table with Google?" - this guy has 'model googler' written all over him. Seriously. Lots of ideas, lots of ways to use existing technology tied together in fun ways. If the guy can convince two or three developers at Google to help him bring an idea to fruition he'll do well.

Re: Kevin Rose Will Join Google

#73

Post by theorique »

marcamillion wrote: post #51

This is interesting news...I wonder if he will explain it. In other news, does Kevin really own a piece of the Packers? http://twitter.com/#!/kevinrose/status/173532999881732096 Was that a joke or is that legit? Never knew his angel/digg/rev3 money was that large. What did I miss?

The Green Bay Packers are community-owned. Anyone can buy a piece of the Packers - you don't have to be a {m,b}illionaire.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Bay_Packers#Public_compa...

Re: Kevin Rose Will Join Google

#74

Post by samstave »

untog wrote: post #26
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…

I don't want to be some sort of Kevin Rose defender in this thread, but I don't think it's fair to say that he just "had an idea". He had an idea and spent years working on it, iterating and improving until Digg finally hit the big time. I think he deserves credit for that. As a developer, I agree that some "ideas guys" suck. But some of them are fantastic, and have a huge talent in taking a core concept and fleshing…

>He had an idea and spent years working on it, iterating and improving until Digg finally hit the big time. I think he deserves credit for that.

I don't think anyone has argued against this. He does deserve credit for this.

The problem is that he has been given too much credit. I.E. that there were far more ideas of the same caliber. I am sure this must have been tough on him, to fail at producing again like the early digg iteration.

I see the evolution of the social content site to be:

Slashdot --> Digg --> Reddit.

Each a stepping stone for the next. And I do not think this is about THE CONTENT -- I think this is about the UX you provide the users, and the control over that UX you leave to the users.

Digg evolved /.'s model. Reddit evolved Digg's.

Reddit has provided a UX which allows for a VERY fluid and quick experience with the content, given FULL control to the users on what content they see, how it is categorized, modded etc.

Kevin took money from ivestors for his own little think tank - that money was largely given to him by charismatic reputation alone.

Now, after a very short period, he isn't even pivoting, or "shooting this idea in the head to work on others" -- he is abandoning the whole freaking endeavor and taking (unknown) position in struggling social company, Google.

This doesn't leave a good taste in anyone's mouth (Sour Milk? (Sorry)) because being given $1.7MM which he gets to walk away from is a slap in the face to the people who work their asses off on good ideas and don't get any of the valley coddling as Kevin.

Re: Kevin Rose Will Join Google

#75

Post by wavephorm »

revorad wrote: post #66

Hardly anyone knows the details, but the amount of jealousy and hatred that comes out on HN on these stories is shocking.

If it's jealousy and hatred, then it's not because of being jealous of success. A lot of developers work really, really hard on their startups for years bootstrapping, just scraping by, and being ignored by investors because they're not famous. And Kevin Rose comes along with a half-baked idea of posting pictures of the food you're eating to the Internet, and his "startup" that he's "really dedicated to" get's almost a couple million just dropped in his lap for no reason and year later just whimsically quits and gets a job at Google with no real engineering skills or anything tangible to bring to the company other than stories of what actual developers produced at Digg.

Re: Kevin Rose Will Join Google

#76

Post by coryl »

Timothee wrote: post #50
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(/s…

For the record, and this is just a matter of semantics and word play, but some people use the titles "idea guy" and "product guy" interchangeably. Some very good product visionary types even label themselves "idea guy".

Re: Kevin Rose Will Join Google

#77

Post by mikeryan »

untog wrote: post #26
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…

I don't want to be some sort of Kevin Rose defender in this thread, but I don't think it's fair to say that he just "had an idea". He had an idea and spent years working on it, iterating and improving until Digg finally hit the big time. I think he deserves credit for that. As a developer, I agree that some "ideas guys" suck. But some of them are fantastic, and have a huge talent in taking a core concept and fleshing…

He had an idea and spent years working on it, iterating and improving until Digg finally hit the big time

Um he had an idea, paid someone to build it (ojbyrne on HN). Promoted it on air in his role at TechTV and had it take off.

Its not like he toiled in his basement for years slaving over it. (Though he did seem to spend a lot of time on it once it became his day job, I don't want to discredit that)

You can also say that the Digg 4.0 was his "idea" and its what effectively buried Digg and started the mass exodus to Reddit (which is now very true to the original digg).

Re: Kevin Rose Will Join Google

#78

Post by javery »

kacy wrote: post #52

It makes sense the more that I think about it. Rose has said on his podcast and in other interviews that he regrets that Digg raised so much money. They had to focus on revenue instead of building the product. I'm sure he's a little disappointed at Milk's success thus far too. I guess he's possibly thinking that this will give him the opportunity build a huge product that he's always wanted without having to focus on…

Google doesn't have a good success based on this model though - look at Google Wave which was built under a similar premise.

Re: Kevin Rose Will Join Google

#79

Post by speg »

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"

TechCrunch says $15-$30 million.

Re: Kevin Rose Will Join Google

#80

Post by veguss »

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…

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