Note : David Verbustel is covering TheNextWeb event in Amsterdam for Europe 2.0. If you are over there, he will always be happy to discuss with fellow entrepreneurs, with bloggers, investors. Contact him : david.verbustel[at]gmail.com. Other coverage of the conference TechCrunch, TechCrunch UK, and at TheNextWeb.
Kevin Rose is the successful founder of Digg.com, the poster child of user-generated news (that has generated an array of clones in Europe, subject for another post). He also (co-)founded Revision3, a webTV production company (producing his Diggnation show), and Pownce (once announced as a Twitter-killer, but more quiet now).
He went on stage at TheNextWeb to share some of his experience with Digg, interviewed by Scott Rafer (another successful serial entrepreneur of MyBlogLog, Mashery, and Lookery fame). Here are some highlights.
To manage several ventures in parallel requires to have the management and board responsabilities right. Digg is Kevin’s main job, about 60 hours a week, but seems to satisfy him :
“I don’t like to work for a huge company [...] I think this is the best job I can have”
“I’m happy to be doing what we are doing [...] Working on digg, is something I enjoy, I love”
The beginning of Digg we fairly easy, because there were not much trafic, it allowed to devote attention to developing the features. Now is a much more complex endeavor, with thousands of servers, code to be rechecked, etc. Fortunately, there are 55 employee on board to help him with the task.
As far a monetization is concerned, Kevin is not too worried : ads are there, bringing revenue ; they are kept ‘light’, not to bother the users
“We are profitable, we don’t won’t to be more profitable”
“It’s about the consumer experience, not about the money”
Yahoo’s new Buzz does not seem a dangerous competitor to him (”I haven’t told to my self- wow this one make me freak out”). Digg will keep coming with new features, such as a recommendation engine, based on patterns of how other users have voted on stories.
One warning to keep in mind: “Three years ago it was easier to launch a startup. Now there is too much going on.”
So new startups have better distinguish themselves in this crowded market. We’ll see how the ones from the startup competition fare in that respect.
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