Kevin Rose

$25K seed checks into Twitter and Facebook from selling Digg stock

Rose didn't come from money, but when Digg took off, investors bought some of his stock personally, giving him ammo to write small seed checks. He put $25K into Twitter's seed round and more into Facebook.

“And so I sold a little bit of my DIG stock, enough to give me the ammo to go and do small seed checks, you know, and put, you know, $25K into, you know, Twitter's seed round and, and put, you know, $25K in, or it was more into Facebook, but, um, they were a little bit later stage. And, and so it was, it was those little tiny checks that, you know, when they turn into multi-billion dollar businesses, uh, were pretty meaningful.”

Product is more about what you say no to than what you say yes to

Reflecting on Zuckerberg's early focus (real names, simple profiles) versus MySpace's feature sprawl, Rose argues relentless focus is essential and that great product decisions are defined by what you refuse to build.

“But yeah, you're right. That, relentless focus is so essential. And oftentimes it's, it's more what you say no to than what you say yes to on the product side.”

Put early products in maintenance mode and wait for the market to mature

Rose's Zero fasting app sat at tens of thousands of users for 8 months until intermittent fasting went mainstream, then exploded to a million+ MAU. His lesson: if a product is good but the market isn't ready, don't kill it at 6 months, put it in maintenance mode and let it ride.

“So something like that, if you just believe the market is not quite mature enough, I typically put it into a little bit more of a maintenance mode. You know, I got it to that first version where I felt like this is a useful utility for people that are looking to learn more and get into fasting. Now let's just let it kind of organically build from here.”

Steal thisIf your product is good but the market is early, don't kill it, drop it into maintenance mode and wait for the trend to catch up.

A viral spike with no depth is a feature, not a product

Rose's photo app Tiny got hundreds of thousands of downloads in week one then died completely. The lesson he draws: it caught fire as a novelty but had no depth, so it was a feature, not a real product, and he shut it down fast.

“And that one we shut down pretty quickly after that because it was clear that it was a fun little thing, but, but there was no depth to it. It was a, it was a feature, uh, not, not a real product.”

Watchville to Hodinkee: a $2M blog merged into a $100M+ commerce machine

Kevin Rose built Watchville, a mobile aggregator for watch content, then merged his 3-4 person team with Ben Clymer's Hodinkee (then doing $1.5-2M/year). He became CEO, turned on e-commerce as authorized dealer for big watch brands, and grew it to over $100M revenue.

“He was doing, uh, maybe $1.5 million to $2 million a year in revenue. Um, so just enough to kind of do payroll and, um, we grew it from there and then turned on e-commerce and then started selling, uh, and creating partnerships with the big watch brands. And now You know, as authorized dealers represent, you know, several dozen of the big watch brands that are out there.”

Steal thisAggregate the audience for a passion niche first, then merge with the trusted editorial brand and bolt commerce onto the trust.

Hodinkee is over $100M/year in revenue

Kevin Rose confirms the watch blog and e-commerce business Hodinkee now does over $100 million in annual revenue, up from $1.5-2M when he merged in.

“Yeah. Yeah. We're over a hundred million in revenue now, man.”

Earn deep trust with hardcore editorial, then extend into commerce

Rose's repeatable playbook from Hodinkee and now Proof: hire a stellar editorial team that goes technically deep (not just announcements), which builds reader trust, and only then layer commerce on top so readers will buy a $20K-$50K item on your recommendation.

“And so it was a real geek's blog. And with that technical, hardcore writing developed trust. And so you— and once you have the trust of your readers, um, then you're able to extend commerce in a meaningful way. And it's not asking them to buy, you know, uh, a microwave or some like inexpensive or a throw pillow. It's, it's, it's saying, we have your trust. This is, uh, what we believe to be a very important watch or collectible.”

Steal thisBuild editorial trust with genuinely expert content before you ask the audience to buy anything; trust is what lets you sell high-ticket items.

Hire for domain obsession, fix the writing with an editorial layer

For niche publications, Rose hires people with a natural built-in love for the subject even if they're only B+ writers, gets their technical knowledge out in draft form, then applies a copy-editing layer on top. Domain knowledge is harder to teach than writing.

“And they may have been just like B+ writers where you get them, but they had the technical knowledge in their brain. And that's a lot easier to fix because you get them to put that, that technical information out, uh, in draft form. And then you just apply an editorial layer over the top of it where you have copy editors that come in and help, you know, stitch together a better, more cohesive story before you actually publish it out to the world.”

Steal thisHire the obsessive expert over the polished writer, then layer copy editors on top to fix the prose.

Funding a rapamycin dog-longevity study with Jack Dorsey and Brian Armstrong

Rose, Jack Dorsey, Brian Armstrong of Coinbase and others funded University of Washington studies on rapamycin to extend lifespan in dogs, adding about $1M to properly power the study to detect up to a 10% lifespan increase. Rose put his own 12-year-old dog on a cycle.

“And so we wanted to make sure it was powered enough to detect, um, I believe up to a 10% lifespan increase. And so to power it was to add another million dollars or so into the study to make sure that they could bring on the additional canines required to make that happen. And, you know, I put my dog on it as well, and he's 12 now and he still runs around like a pup.”

AI will destroy the low end of the creative market and make Fiverr nonexistent

Rose predicts that within 5 years AI will change everything in creative work, destroying the low end of the creative market first and working up the chain, and that Fiverr as a company will be nonexistent.

“Um, I believe, and it's very, very clear now that AI in, in the next 5 years is gonna change everything. Um, we're seeing OpenAI and a lot of the projects they put out there recently, um, whether it be creative writing or I believe Fiverr as a company, it will just be nonexistent. It's gonna destroy the low end of the creative market initially and then work its way up the chain.”

What geeks play with on weekends becomes mainstream years later

Rose cites the Chris Dixon line as a trend-spotting heuristic: watch what hobbyist geeks tinker with on weekends, because that's what everyone will be using several years later. Sam uses it to scout Facebook groups and niche Twitter accounts early.

“It says what the geeks who are playing with on the weekends will become like what we're all using like several years later. It's something, some version of that.”

Steal thisTo spot the next mainstream trend, go watch what obsessive hobbyists are tinkering with on weekends right now.

Rolex makes over a million watches a year but hides the number to fake scarcity

Rose says Rolex produces over a million watches annually but conceals it. The empty display spots in boutiques and the months-long waitlist are theater: the phone call always comes and the watch always arrives because they're making a million a year.

“it was something you may not know about Rolex is they make over a million Rolexes per year. And so Rolex hides that number. And the reason they hide that number is because if they didn't have a sense of scarcity around it, and they, they do this specifically when you go in their stores, there'll always be a— next time you walk by an actual true Rolex boutique, Notice how there's like some missing spots. And when you go inside and that's all play, it's play because they're like, oh, they're sold out.”

Rolex makes over a million watches a year but hides the number to fake scarcity

Rose says Rolex produces over a million watches annually but conceals it. The empty display spots in boutiques and the months-long waitlist are theater: the phone call always comes and the watch always arrives because they're making a million a year.

“it was something you may not know about Rolex is they make over a million Rolexes per year. And so Rolex hides that number. And the reason they hide that number is because if they didn't have a sense of scarcity around it, and they, they do this specifically when you go in their stores, there'll always be a— next time you walk by an actual true Rolex boutique, Notice how there's like some missing spots. And when you go inside and that's all play, it's play because they're like, oh, they're sold out.”

NFT-backed wine: own a bottle that stays in perfect storage and trade it without touching it

Rose is working with a culty high-end winery to issue NFTs each representing one physical bottle. Owners never take possession, letting it age in proven storage and appreciate; they can gift or sell the NFT, and the buyer redeems it with two button presses to have the bottle shipped, eliminating forgery and storage risk.

“So one thing that is happening in the next 4 months will be the issuance of NFTs to people. That is going to be from a major well-known winery where it will represent one physical bottle of wine. There's a couple advantages here. One, you don't have to take possession of it right away. You can let it sit in its proven perfect storage conditions and age for decades to come.”

Steal thisTokenize a high-end physical collectible so it can be stored, authenticated, and traded without ever moving the object.

Ladder into I-Bonds earning over 9% as a no-brainer cash move

Rose calls I-Bonds the most no-brainer scenario for listeners with idle cash: over 9% backed by the full faith of the US government, $10,000 per person plus $10,000 for a spouse, with only about a week left at that rate. His liquid money otherwise sits in low-cost Vanguard index funds, laddering into short-term bills paying 4%+.

“Anyone out there that has $10,000 that's sitting around that doesn't go buy an IBILL right now that's earning over 9% is just insane. That's the most no-brainer scenario for someone that's listening to this podcast. By the way, there's like one week left of that, right? Yeah, that's right. Obviously not investment advice, but you are getting the full faith of the US government as the backer and it's over 9% and you could do $10,000 for yourself and $10,000 for your spouse, which is amazing.”