
Kevin Rose: Start Up During A Recession - Anon84
http://www.sproutly.com/2008/10/26/kevin-rose-start-up-during-a-recession/
======
tom_giles
I couldn't agree more, Paul Graham's article really was, as Kevin Rose put it,
"spot on." Scrappy startups based off honest, truly valuable ideas benefit
from the lack of competition and otherwise overwhelming noise that the masses
of companies forming during economically favorable times produce. It's
definitely harder to start a company during a recession, but struggling and
working through hardship builds strength.

~~~
nostrademons
I agree too, but it only becomes true when people stop believing it. Until
then, you're still going to see lots of startups fragmenting the early-adopter
market. You need to wait until everyone's so depressed by the real economy
that they can't even _think_ of starting a startup, and _then_ it's a good
time to start one.

So everybody - it's a _terrible_ time to start a startup. Go home and get
jobs, or failing that, move into your mom's basement and play video games.
You'll never see another boom like 1995-2000, or 2004-2007. Become a corporate
whore and don't launch new things. It's just not worth it. ;-)

------
aneesh
He made a lot of sense, except for one point. He said, "if you're not a
developer, go out and find one on Elance for $15-20/hr."

Sure, this _could_ work out, but the chances of an arrangement leading to a
successful startup are pretty low. He got very lucky.

~~~
ojbyrne
I wouldn't say lucky. I'd say dishonest.

~~~
aneesh
Well, you know best ;)

~~~
ojbyrne
Well, you know - I liked Kevin. We were friends and collaborators and I think
in the first half of 2005 we did great stuff. If I had to say who built digg
into what it is, it was really a collaboration between Kevin, Daniel Burka and
me, with valuable support from Ron Gorodetsky. By the time of the series A we
had huge, huge momentum.

It was in a way sort of like the Beatles, just the right people put together
mostly by accident and we worked magic. Then Yoko (Jay Adelson) came along,
and the ego stroking began. Kevin was a genius, I was just a "contract
programmer."

And I'd say the results speak for themselves. Digg is stagnant and boring.
Almost every feature on there was actually created in that early 2005
timeframe, though obviously greatly refined since then.

I'm trying to move on, involved in a great project again, with great people,
and I regret saying nasty stuff or sounding bitter, but sometimes I'm reminded
how much fun it was, and how easily it was turned to not-fun.

~~~
dhbradshaw
"I'm trying to move on, involved in a great project again" What's next?

~~~
ojbyrne
Launch in Jan or early Feb. Can't really talk about. Except its for a BigCo,
we have a really small (and kickass!) group, but working with bureaucracy is
challenging sometimes.

Hired Engineer no. 2 from digg too ;-)

------
startingup
As with a lot of such things, it is only true if a lot of people _don't_
believe it is true. The very reason Flickr etc succeeded in 2003-4 was because
dotcom became such a dirty word by then. I have to admit even I was very
skeptical at that time so I played my microscopic part in helping them
succeed, by reducing the amount of noise they had to contend with!

So if hundreds of start-ups hang on with grim determination that times will
get better, times won't get better, the start-ups will just prolong their
agony. The very reason some survive to emerge stronger is because others made
way for them.

Be honest: isn't it harder today to get attention than it was in 2003? What
does that indicate for the average start-up, however good it may be?

------
dmix
It is so much easier to put everything in perspective in retrospect. I agree
with Kevin Rose 100% on the startup environment during the web 2.0 "boom".
Market saturation was a killer.

------
jmtame
I can digg it!

