Now this is good work if you can get it. $12m talent acquisition and then he quits in 3 months.
Maybe im just not a valley insider but what exactly has Kevin done that was successful? I'm not trying to be critical here, just don't see what warrants the hype around him.
But mostly I think what Kevin offers is a very 'industry insider' perspective. He's created startups, he's worked with a lot of them, he's funded many more. So, experience and opinions/insight mostly.
He also seems popular from his TechTV days, and then his time on TWiT, and then of course Digg Nation or whatever his video podcast for Digg was called only made him more famous among technology enthusiasts. He seems like a good face and name to have around when you couple the insight with the fame.
In the end doing things count. For all the reasons you'll find in the recurring "Why you should quit school and start a startup in SV". You can't do the kind of investments he's been doing without the experience and network that comes with staying "in the game" for a long time.
I'm in the same boat. He basically made Slashdot for web 2.0. Digg can't be the sole reason why he is considered so valuable and is so highly sought after.
Digg pulled down ridiculously high amounts of user engagement for a long while, which given everyone's ridiculously short attention spans is impressive.
Plus he had one of the most recognised podcasts with actual large sponsors. And a successful investment record. He seems to try engage with the community at large as well.
He does alright essentially, and has a decent reputation amongst start ups.
I'm surprised no one has brought up his ability to generate hype. Other than actually building the product, one of the biggest problems startups face is being able to get users.
Do you remember how much publicity Milk got without a single product and just from having Kevin attached to it?
Digg was pretty successful for a while, and you could consider Pownce successful if you consider that he probably made a bundle when it sold to sixapart (IIRC)
Maybe im just not a valley insider but what exactly has Kevin done that was successful? I'm not trying to be critical here, just don't see what warrants the hype around him.