"I once hosted a show about tech on TV, parlayed that position to popularize a website I paid someone $300 to make, used my notoriety from that site to make friends in high places and invest in their startups, then spun up a studio with my designer friend to publish various coolio ideas in my head though they didn't get as big as my first hit but Google wanted to acquihire us so I went along with it cause, hey, Google!, but then honestly I was bored working on products so I convinced them to let me invest in more startups, now I'm fascinated with expensive watches Jay-Z raps about and figured it won't be a bad way to live so... money in my hand, please."
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.
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.
At some point those vote-driven-websites are expected to mature and turn into proper publishing businesses.
Anything that's driven by users rather than vetted and sanitised by trusted writers/editors, will scare lucrative brand based advertisers. Just look at Google Adsense's content rules to see how much advertising shapes the web's content.
I think that's what happened with Digg. I speculate that something similar is happening with Reddit but at a much slower rate - like closing undesirable sub-reddits etc.
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).
People forget that Digg was already on the decline when it released v4. v4 was a bold attempt at trying to reinvent the site with the trends of the time. It failed and Reddit stayed the course and became a phenomenon.
Granted, but even at 16 million it wasn't a positive exit. I know, and many others have pointed out, that Rose has a great network and knack for picking who to invest in. So going back to the original post I replied to that said "I co-founded Digg, give me money" is ironically the worst credential he could offer up.
In the show "Silicon Valley" they even made a joke about how Rose had to fail at a bunch of stuff before he could "succeed" with Digg, and then subsequently failed at a bunch of other stuff afterward as well.
It perfectly personifies the idiocy of SV VCs. The kid comes out in a hoodie with the typical college startup story: "changing the world from our dorm room". He has an app called Scan, a barcode scanner, that makes virtually no money and has already garnered almost $10 million in funding. When the Sharks are skeptical, he lays down the most stereotypical tech kid answer ever: "I have some interviews with investors that look at numbers to make a decision and they miss the boat, and then I have investors who look at me to make the decision." This is supposed to sound noble but it just reveals that SV is so full of idiots afraid that they're going to miss the next Facebook that anyone who comes to them and looks like an apathetic college kid and talks about dorm rooms can get $10 million on completely silly business concepts.
The same applies to Rose. The numbers don't matter, it's about having the visage of a trendy tech whiz. This is apparently enough to convince SV investors to part with tens of millions of dollars. I don't know why I'm not out there trying to cash in on that.
That silly business concept you're referring is Scan.me, and it got acquired by Snapchat for $50M. That provided the base for what is now Snapcodes, which are extremely popular by Snapchat users.
Yes, Snapchat surely couldn't have figured out QR codes without that acquisition. If one lumbering, futureless behemoth of the tech industry eats another, what do we end up with? Investors goading other pieces of their portfolio to "acquire" their and/or each others' dying companies is fairly common.
In a serious tone, thanks for letting me know. I didn't know what had happened to them.
I don't know the space, but my first guess is it's a market for people with money to spend on luxury items that hasn't seen "disruption" yet. I can see why someone would take a shot at it.
I've had a few friends who were really into watches, and not like the high end bling bling type either.
They reminded me a lot of people I know who are really passionate about computer hardware. They knew everything about certain brands and their lines, their inner workings, how to fix them, how to get really obscure parts for the them, everything. And they wanted to share their information and talk to other knowledgeable people as well.
It's a pretty vibrant and interesting community. I'm not surprised he chose to get involved in the industry.
I recently got into watches and have been following the company they merged for a the past year or so. It's been an awesome resource for learning about the community and the craftsmanship behind mechanical watches. I recommend them to anyone who has an interest in watches, or just wants to see what the fuss is all about.
You're right about the passion relating to that of computer hardware. The first thing that really intrigued me about watches is the amount of craftsman ship and engineering that goes into making a complicated mechanical watch. As a software engineer, I find similarities in the watch engineering world - so I believe thats why it pulled me in so easily. It truly is an amazing example of human engineering at its best.