KEVIN ROSE: 20 FUN FACTS

1) Founder of Digg.com that was launched in December 2005, Kevin Rose is an esteemed and respected entrepreneur, who is known for his relentless efforts in establishing Digg as the primary source of online news for all internet users. Being extremely tech savvy, Kevin has worked his way to success by working as an employee for several dotcom companies and gathering invaluable experience and insight.

2) Born in 1977 in California, Kevin had the love for technology in him as a child. His father bought him his first computer at the age of 8 and soon he was finishing out ways to make other kids download software for him. No doubt, his later success in the IT industry was owing to his passion for technology in the early years.

3) For Rose, his first computer was more than just equipment, it was his friend. He was diagnosed with dyslexia and attention deficit disorder at a young age and his aliments meant it was hard for him to concentrate on schoolwork.

4) After completing his high school education, he enrolled in the University of Nevada but left midway to satisfy his urge for pursuing a career in the IT industry. A mere college dropout at the time, all Kevin needed was time to convince the world of his gifted talent with technology. Even though the IT boom collapsed a number of times, Kevin was not discouraged. He began working for TV show that kept him at close quarters with people from the IT sector.

5) Did you know that when Kevin started coding software, he launched Digg with a budget of only $1200 that he drew from his savings account! In just a few years, Digg became famous and Kevin started investing his money into social websites such as Foursquare, Facebook and Twitter.

6) The journey that led him to Digg is an interesting one. While working as an interviewer for The Screen Savers, Digg got to know Silicon Valley big shots such as Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple Inc. His stories about the early days of Apple’s launch made Kevin ponder on how these stories hardly ever make it to the general public. This idea stayed a second longer in his mind and became the entire essence of Digg.

7) The first ever capital that Digg raised was a family friend, Chris Hoar for $50,000. What started as a mere sum of money has today doubled and tripled to sum to a total of $40 million that has been invested by capitalists owing to the immense success of Digg.

8) Even though Kevin had big aspirations of Digg, all he wanted the website to do was pay his rent and give him peace of mind. Little did he know it would become one of the most visited websites on the internet with monthly traffic jumping to 200,000 users and $2.8million from venture capitalists in just a few months.

9) No doubt, Kevin’s many small jobs as a university dropout paid off. His efforts for Digg have made it the number one social news channel today. Currently, Digg attracts more than 2.8 million users every month and 3 million editors for maintaining the heavy influx of web content.

10) In 2007, when Digg had hit the highs, Kevin Rose was mentioned in the MIT Technology Review TR35 as one of the Top 35 innovators in the world who were under the age of 35. This title was an honor and a well-deserved accreditation for this young technology enthusiast.

11) Because of its unwavering popularity, the social news website, Digg has its own syndrome named after it. The Digg Effect is what happens to websites that lose all of their internet traffic to Digg because of the interesting tools it offers its users.

12) In its initial days, Digg only got about 150 stories a day. Even though this was a respectable amount, it was far from the success Kevin had in mind for Digg. With more and more user traffic moving across the website, not only did the number of stores increased to 200,000 per day, these stories are featured from some of the most reliable and trusted sources such as the New York Times.

13) In 2007, a controversy arose over a story that was posted with a code encrypted in it. Because this was a violation of piracy laws, the Digg Team deleted this comment only to face a huge protest in its response. This event resulted in the most ‘digged’ story of history with 50,000 diggs and positive word of mouth that was invaluable.

14) Such popularity in the Tech World comes with its awards. Kevin has been named among the Top 25 Angel Investors by Bloomberg, Top 25 celebrities by Forbes and Top 25 Most Influential People on the Web by Time and Business Week Magazines. These accolades have increased fame and respect for him and have made his journey to the foundation of Digg a sought-after one.

15) Unlike other millionaires, Kevin likes to donate his time, energy and resources for the underprivileged. He is part of the Tony Hawk Foundation that helps in social welfare and uplift and The Well, Charity: Water that strives to establish clean water projects. Both these organizations work in varying capacities to help people fight for a better quality of life.

16) At present, Kevin is a General Partner at Google Ventures. He is part of the investment team and advises the portfolio companies on which investments to make and which to avoid. His invaluable experience as a Venture Capitalist helps him be an asset to Google.

17) Podcasting news worked well for Kevin Rose. Diggnation was one of the best projects started by him. The aim for Diggnation was to summarize the weekly dug stories on the website and make a list of the most popular ones. This project worked in sync with Digg, making it reap millions in profits.

18) According to statistics, Diggnation, which was started as a small online video, started attracting a quarter of a million viewers per week and was one of the main reasons users visited Digg.com repeatedly.

19) If you are a Kevin Rose fan, his feature in the cover of Business Week would have been a heartthrob for you. Famed like a rock star, Kevin’s face was put up on the magazine with a tag line to die for that said, “How this kid made $60 million in 18 months.”

20) According to fan gossip, Kevin is usually seen hanging out with friends at tea parties and lunches most of the time. When does he work then. For a smart entrepreneur and investor like Kevin, tea parties are a good way to mingle with the right people and tap into the most brilliant start up ideas.