
Digg Founder Kevin Rose Launches Private Newsletter Called Foundation - davidedicillo
http://techcrunch.com/2011/01/03/digg-founder-kevin-rose-launches-private-newsletter-called-foundation/
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ryanwaggoner
I know there's not a lot of love for Kevin on HN, but I think this is a great
fit for him. For better or worse, Kevin is pretty well-connected in the tech
scene and thanks to Diggnation, has a pretty strong personal brand. Doing
something like this allows him to leverage both his connections and his
personal brand in a way that doesn't require him to also have a great product
sense, which I think is where Digg went off the rails a little.

~~~
ojbyrne
Despite being someone who's probably central to that "not a lot of love", I
have to agree.

Also the "private newsletter" bit is a little misleading, since it seems like
all the podcasts will be available for free, you just have to wait a week.

~~~
tptacek
So you guys are dancing around really the only question in my mind after
reading this story, which is: "what is the deal with Kevin Rose?" I don't pay
any attention to Digg whatsoever. What's HN's take on him? Is he worth paying
attention to?

~~~
ojbyrne
He was a host on the screensavers, and I think that's basically what he's good
at - "light" tech journalism. Don't expect too much depth.

~~~
w1ntermute
He's definitely a good entertainer, as anyone who's watched Diggnation knows.
It's not my cup of tea, but it apparently is for a large number of people,
judging from the show's popularity.

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kmfrk
You really think you've seen all the stupid names and URLs, and then Rose
drops something like <http://foundat.io/n> in your lap.

Aside from that, it sounds like a very interesting project that, as compelling
and simple as it sounds, I don't see a lot of people pulling off but Rose.

~~~
AdamTReineke
It looks like a domain that <http://domai.nr> would spit out.

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ConceptDog
Feels like an attempt to remain relevant after Digg became a case study about
how to destroy a community.

~~~
eatupmartha
I might pay $3.99 to hear him talk about that

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fido
Was I the only one a little disappointed to see Dorsey/Twitter? Since I heard
about the project many months ago, I was really hoping that the content would
be more geared towards smaller upstarts. Small SAAS companies, bootstrapped
companies, single-founder hackers, etc...

I'm tired of hearing from all the "stars". I want to listen to interviews with
normal hackers like myself who are either struggling to find themselves online
or starting to experience a bit of success.

I want to hear from people who are building small online businesses - charging
money. I'm so burnt out on social/advertising/big exit plays.

~~~
geekfactor
If you haven't already checked out Andrew Warner's Mixergy
(<http://mixergy.com>) you should.

He interviews these kinds of people all the time and while the (usually Skype-
based) interviews aren't fancy, the content is fantastic. Andrew is a great
interviewer and he digs deep into the core of whatever the issue at hand is.

~~~
elvirs
Unfortunately his best interviews are premium access only.

~~~
geekfactor
Can you give me an example? Not that I don't believe you, I'm just curious
about what's available with premium.

According to the site the main difference with premium is that you get access
to programs older than two weeks. But there are lots of older programs
available both via the web site and via iTunes.

I kind of assumed the premium program was donationware.

~~~
elvirs
<http://mixergy.com/get-premium/>

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harold
I enjoyed listening to Jack Dorsey. Kudos to Kevin for letting Dorsey tell his
story, mostly uninterrupted.

Kevin though... so many of his questions have the word 'like' in them.

"Like, what was that like?" or "Like, a working prototype?, like you and a
buddy or something like that?"

~~~
igorgue
Similar to the "you know" of new yorkers or the "so..." (or ...so) of pretty
much all of you guys (sfbay area) ;-)

~~~
nickcharlton
That's also something that's come up in the UK, too. Especially with
teenagers. I assume that is because of television shows.

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sayemm
Good for Kevin Rose, seems like it's a good way for him to do what he really
loves doing and that's connecting the tech community, like everyone else here
mentions.

Whenever founders evolve into tech-scenesters though, I think it's a good time
to be bearish on their startups (I'm thinking of a lot of other names here
too).

As Picasso said, "Without great solitude no serious work is possible."

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dotBen
In the TC article Mike Arrington references Dave Morin's use of Letter.ly (a
'premium content' subscription service) as the inspiration for Rose to set up
Foundation.

What's interesting is that 3 months in and only 5 posts later (remember, at
$3.99/month) Dave has most recently published a post simply titled "Apology"
(<http://letter.ly/davemorin>). No idea exactly what it contains because of
course you have to subscribe but one can speculate and it does seem telling.

BTW this isn't a slight at Dave M - he took a chance on this _(I think
Letter.ly founder Sam Lessin and him are good pals)_ and it didn't work out -
esp with the launch of Path. No biggie.

However, I fail to see how this is a good inspiration on Roses part to set up
Foundation.

Finally, producing video is expensive (he probably has a camera man, there's
editing time, hosting, etc) - I can't really see how this pays off either. You
are in that weird position where $3.99 is going to create a chasm for many
folks yet you'd have to sell quite a lot of subs to make it work financially.

~~~
PStamatiou
> I can't really see how this pays off either.

It all ends up on Revision 3 (after the first week) anyhow so it's just more
content for them to monetize like they do their other videos. His cameraman is
also his regular Rev3 guy Graham.
<http://twitter.com/#!/grahamhancock/status/22008135078125568>

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jarin
I was more of a Diggnation fan than I am of this style of show (it reminds me
of Carson Daly's new interview format), but I will say that there were some
good takeaways from this episode. Especially the one about getting a sketch or
prototype made as soon as you have the idea, and then showing it to someone. I
have a "brilliant" (and I use the term _very_ loosely) idea that could be
prototyped in a day probably about once a month, and I usually buy up the
domain name. I usually get started on the code, but I never end up finishing
the prototype because the initial excitement wears off after a few days. In
the few cases where I was able to actually finish a prototype and show it to
someone, I was motivated enough after that to keep improving it.

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RBr
I'm not a huge Rose fan. However, I think that this is a really good idea.

I would much rather pay $4 per month for exclusive content, so I'll likely
wait until it's free.

However, this resurgence of e-mail newsletters (of sorts) is timely and
valuable.

Someone should build a mailchimp clone that makes it easy to distribute and
charge for audio and video in addition to text.

~~~
DanLivesHere
I have an email newsletter (<http://dlewis.net/nik>) and I don't think it's
Mailchimp's (my ESP) fault that there's no audio/video support. (They allow
for a pseudo-embed of YouTube videos.)

The fact is that most email clients wouldn't support it, and the user
experience for the recipients would, therefore, suck.

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srehnborg
For those that don't like the choice of the first guest, Kevin has investments
in at least Square, but Crunchbase also says Twitter.

<http://www.crunchbase.com/person/kevin-rose>

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jdx
I wonder how the investors in Digg feel about this and other diversions Rose
has taken?

~~~
stipes
He isn't CEO anymore...

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cantbecool
This reminds me of Diggnation's paywall a few years back.

