
Kevin Rose Moves on from Silicon Valley to Watches - uptown
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/06/11/kevin-rose-moves-on-from-silicon-valley-to-watches/
======
meesterdude
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.

~~~
baldfat
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
Not sure I'd include Fab or Digg (among others) on that list...

~~~
mikeryan
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
Rumor was he sold his shares in the last round.
([https://gigaom.com/2008/09/24/digg-raises-28-million-in-
seri...](https://gigaom.com/2008/09/24/digg-raises-28-million-in-series-c-
funding/))

------
superplussed
At this point I'm sure he's done well enough as an angel investor and with
Google Ventures that he doesn't have to do the whole founder thing any longer.
So I respect that he tries these little projects and then gravitates toward
what users respond to.

It's a nice counterbalance to the obligatory "we must be changing the world"
emptiness that is so often spouted. Some people just want to work on cool
projects with people they like. That's OK.

~~~
pm
I've always felt that Kevin Rose was the Damien Lindelof of Silicon Valley.
Not that I know what it's like to be either, but I feel like everything they
do ends up getting finished by someone else.

------
rehtona
$3.6 million in VC funding for a news site about wrist-watches? I wonder what
that pitch was, it must have been good.

~~~
kriro
""" Hi, I co-founded Digg and I like watches. Money please. """

Should be sufficient.

~~~
jbigelow76
Digg raised 39 MILLION dollars in VC funding and exited with a 500 THOUSAND
dollar sale to Betaworks. I get that SV operates in it's own odd ball reality
of what defines success and that's what makes it annoying to outsiders knowing
that you are probably correct.

~~~
smtddr
Digg was fantastic. It just committed suicide with Digg version 4 -
[http://searchengineland.com/digg-v4-how-to-successfully-
kill...](http://searchengineland.com/digg-v4-how-to-successfully-kill-a-
community-50450)

A bunch of people, including me, just kept commenting _" Roll back!!!"_ But
for some reason that's beyond my understanding, they said they could not
rollback the upgrade. And that was the end.

That said, I actually still use Digg in its current form today because I find
it very useful. I just wish it had the on-site comments, but I understand the
moderation nightmare task they'd be taking on if they enabled comments like
the old Digg.

~~~
frik
Digg almost killed Slashdot. Digg then killed itself with v4 and we were left
with a less polished alternative Reddit. Reddit has been overrun by
4chan/mainstream. For some years, HN is the new /. with the most insightful
comments. Though, I miss the comfort functions of the old /. comment system
like collapsing threads (and tags like funny/insightful/etc).

~~~
fraserharris
For collapsing comment threads & a whole lot more, try Hacker News Enhancement
Suite: [https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hacker-news-
enhanc...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/hacker-news-
enhancement-s/bappiabcodbpphnojdiaddhnilfnjmpm)

------
JustSomeNobody
Kevin Rose seems to be very good at maintaining his "brand" as well as
monetizing short term niches. Most things he's involved in don't seem to last
much longer. Not saying there's anything wrong with that, he's certainly been
successful in that regards. It just seems he doesn't (or doesn't want to) see
further than that.

I certainly admire his seeming willingness/fearlessness to jump into new
things. I imagine if I had that same willingness/fearlessness, I'd be more
successful.

------
Sundog
Kevin has come across publicly as a bit of a brat, but when he asked his
friends to leave their jobs and join Milk, he promised them a certain return,
even if it flopped and had to give them his own money.

I've always respected that.

------
TheDom
Kevin's Medium post regarding that subject:
[https://medium.com/@kevinrose/hodinkee-watchville-join-
force...](https://medium.com/@kevinrose/hodinkee-watchville-join-
forces-131f556f2d42)

------
bluthru
It seems like the Kevin Rose of 5 or so years ago would have been excited to
work on watch apps. The Kevin Rose of today is excited about fetishizing
archaic jewelry.

It makes me sad because he's shown time and time again that he's full of good
ideas, but he got sucked in to an "expensive niché market". Lusting over
watches isn't really a problem that needs solving.

~~~
Shivetya
well its likely that interest in smart watches might lead people to getting
into "archaic" watches as many as much art as function.

it is a problem to those involved in the collecting, selling, and trading, of
watches. the issue here is that you may not see it as worthwhile market but
there those who do and considering the sums involve niche markets like this
could very well be profitable.

the surest way to not succeed is to close doors before you go through them.
there are many areas where small markets exist that are just waiting to be
served. establish a model that works at this size and expand outward.
everyone's first hit cannot be facebook sized and some never will have such a
hit but you can create success and personal satisfaction if you set goals and
reach them, just don't set goals where your comparing yourself to others
achievements.

~~~
bluthru
I'm not questioning its profitability. I'm questioning its societal
usefulness.

Smart watches will help with health, safety, communication, logistics, etc.
Old mechanical watches were innovative feats of craftsmanship and engineering
of their time. We should carry on that tradition instead of staying in the
past.

~~~
k-mcgrady
And Diggnation, Oink, and Tiny were useful to society? Not everything people
in tech do has to help society. In fact, despite what startup founders claim,
very little of what they do will have any lasting impact. He's doing something
he's interested in. Why should it matter if it benefits society?

------
mpg33
Interesting. How easy it to successfully monetize these niche markets? I mean
30 years ago this just would have been the equivalent of a watch magazine. Now
it's an app/news site. But at least the magazine had people paying for copies
and subscribers to keep them afloat. No one on the internet wants to pay
anything.

~~~
k-mcgrady
I think people are fine paying for niche things because otherwise they
wouldn't exist. Plus with niches the people are generally enthusiasts and
spend money in the space anyway so spending an extra few bucks for information
they want and can't reliably get elsewhere isn't a big deal.

------
brento
I kept on checking to see if I was on The Onion or ClickHole while reading
that article.

------
TaylorGood
If Hodinkee is the rising juggernaut of modern horologists, Kevin has one shot
to solidify this as newly appointed CEO. I'm excited for him.

------
dylanjermiah
"1.3 million app sessions"

Does sessions = how many times the app has been opened?

~~~
dawson
Yes.

------
ojbyrne
Does "Hodinkee" strike anyone else as a stupid name?

~~~
k-mcgrady
Q. Where does the name Hodinkee come from?

A. I Googled “wristwatch” in about 25 different languages and picked the
goofiest. Hodinkee is derived from a Czech word, “hodinky,” which means
wristwatch. It’s a silly name, but it works because we’re talking about
incredibly expensive things that could be perceived as highly pretentious. It
really cuts us down to size and says, “It’s just watches.”

Source: [http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/27/fashion/hodinkee-watch-
che...](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/27/fashion/hodinkee-watch-
cheerleader.html)

