Kevin Rose is an American

Internet entrepreneur An Internet entrepreneur is an owner, founder or manager of an Internet-based business. This list includes Internet company founders and people brought on to companies for their general business or accounting acumen, as is the case with some Chie ...

who co-founded

Revision3 Revision3 was a San Francisco-based multi-channel television network that created, produced and distributed streaming television shows on niche topics. Founded in 2005, it operated as a subsidiary of Discovery Digital Networks since 2012. The ...

Digg Digg, stylized in lowercase as digg, is an American news aggregator with a curated front page, aiming to select stories specifically for the Internet audience such as science, trending political issues, and viral Internet issues. It was launch ...

Pownce Pownce was a free social networking and micro-blogging site started by Internet entrepreneurs Kevin Rose, Leah Culver, and Daniel Burka. Pownce was centered on sharing messages, files, events, and links with friends. The site launched on June 27, ...

, and Milk. He also served as production assistant and co-host at

TechTV TechTV is a defunct 24-hour cable and satellite channel based in San Francisco featuring news and shows about computers, technology, and the Internet. In 2004, it merged with the G4 gaming channel which ultimately dissolved TechTV programming. ...

's ''

The Screen Savers ''The Screen Savers'' is an American TV show that aired on TechTV from 1998 to 2005.Fost, Dan (17 May 1999)A Day in the Life of ZDTV's `The Screen Savers' ''San Francisco Chronicle'' The show launched concurrently with the channel ZDTV (later k ...

''. From 2012 to 2015, he was a venture partner at GV.

Early life and education

Rose was born in

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

and lived in Oregon before his family moved to

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

, where he spent most of his childhood. He became an

Eagle Scout Eagle Scout is the highest achievement or rank attainable in the Scouts BSA program of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA). Since its inception in 1911, only four percent of Scouts have earned this rank after a lengthy review process. The Eagle Sc ...

with the

Boy Scouts of America The Boy Scouts of America (BSA, colloquially the Boy Scouts) is one of the largest scouting organizations and one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with about 1.2 million youth participants. The BSA was founded i ...

. Rose transferred to

Southeast Career Technical Academy The Southeast Career Technical Academy (SECTA or Southeast Tech) is a magnet public high school in Las Vegas, Nevada. Opened as the Southern Nevada Vocational Technical Center in 1966, it was the first public educational institution of its kind la ...

for high school (formerly known as Vo-Tech High School) in Las Vegas in 1992. He then attended the

University of Nevada Las Vegas The University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) is a public land-grant research university in Paradise, Nevada. The campus is about east of the Las Vegas Strip. It was formerly part of the University of Nevada from 1957 to 1969. It includes the ...

, majored in

computer science Computer science is the study of computation, automation, and information. Computer science spans theoretical disciplines (such as algorithms, theory of computation, information theory, and automation) to Applied science, practical discipli ...

but dropped out in 1998.

Career

Rose worked for two dot-com startups through

CMGI Steel Connect, Inc. is an American company that provides supply chain management services to software companies. During the dot-com bubble, the company, which was then known as CMGI, Inc., had a market capitalization of $41 billion and owned the n ...

Television

Rose was hired as a

production assistant A production assistant, also known as a PA, is a member of the film crew and is a job title used in filmmaking and television for a person responsible for various aspects of a production. The job of a PA can vary greatly depending on the budget ...

for ''The Screen Savers''. He began appearing on-air in the "Dark Tip" segments and on ''Unscrewed with Martin Sargent'', where he provided information on developing computing activities. He became a regular co-host when

Leo Laporte Leo Laporte (; born November 29, 1956) is the host of ''The Tech Guy'' weekly radio show and a host on TWiT.tv, an Internet podcast network focusing on technology. He is also a former TechTV technology host (1998–2008) and a technology author. O ...

left TechTV on March 31, 2004. On March 25, 2004,

Comcast Comcast Corporation (formerly known as American Cable Systems and Comcast Holdings),Before the AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corpora ...

's G4 gaming channel announced a merger with TechTV, which resulted in a round of layoffs. Rose moved to Los Angeles to stay with G4. On May 22, 2005, Rose reached an agreement with G4 that released him from his contract and went on to create Systm and later,

, where he co-hosted

Diggnation ''Diggnation'' was a weekly humor video podcast hosted by Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht. Broadcast on Revision3, the first episode aired on July 1, 2005 and the last episode on December 30, 2011. Producer David Prager suggested naming the ''Dig ...

alongside

Alex Albrecht Alexander Jennings Albrecht (born August 14, 1976) is an American television personality, actor and podcaster. He is known for co-hosting the former G4techTV television program ''The Screen Savers'', an hour-long computer and technology variety ...

for 6 years.

Guest appearances

Kevin Rose appeared on the first episode of R&D TV alongside ''

'' co-host

. On November 14, 2007, he was a contestant on a

game show A game show is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment (radio, television, internet, stage or other) where contestants compete for a reward. These programs can either be participatory or Let's Play, demonstrative and are typically directed b ...

Gigaom Gigaom is a technology focused analyst firm and media company. The company evolved from a blog which offered news, analysis, and opinions on startup companies, emerging technologies, and other technology related topics. It was started by Om Malik ...

's NewTeeVee Live. On March 11, 2009, April 16, 2010, and November 28, 2011, Rose was a guest on ''

Late Night with Jimmy Fallon ''Late Night with Jimmy Fallon'' is an American late-night talk show hosted by comedian Jimmy Fallon. About pag ...

'', along with fellow ''Diggnation'' host Alex Albrecht.

Podcasting

Rose began his career in web video (or IPTV) on July 24, 2003, with the release of the first episode of ''thebroken'' while he was still working on ''

'' at TechTV. Rose founded Revision3 in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

with

Jay Adelson Jay Adelson (born Jay Steven Adelson, September 7, 1970) is an American Internet entrepreneur. In 2014 Adelson co-founded Center Electric with Andy Smith. In 2013 he founded Opsmatic, a technology company that improves productivity on operations ...

and

David Prager David Lawrence Prager (born January 17, 1977) is one of the co-founders and Vice President of Special Projects for Revision3. He has also worked for ZDTV, TechTV, and G4. Early life Prager graduated from Trinity University in San Antonio, Tex ...

in April 2005. On July 1, 2005, Rose and

started the weekly podcast, ''

'', which summarizes top stories submitted by Digg users. On October 3, 2011, Alex and Kevin announced that they would be retiring the weekly Diggnation show at the end of the year. The final show was taped on December 30, 2011 at The Music Box in Los Angeles, California. Starting in 2009, Rose started an intermittent podcast called The Random Show with friend

Tim Ferriss Timothy Ferriss (born July 20, 1977) is an American entrepreneur, investor, author, podcaster, and lifestyle guru. He became well-known through his ''4-Hour'' self-help book series—including ''The 4-Hour Work Week'', ''The 4-Hour Body'', and '' ...

Startups

In 2004, Rose, Owen Byrne, Ron Gorodetzky, and

formed

, a technology link

website A website (also written as a web site) is a collection of web pages and related content that is identified by a common domain name and published on at least one web server. Examples of notable websites are Google Search, Google, Facebook, Amaz ...

. The website was publicly launched on December 5, 2004. In 2007, he was named to the

MIT Technology Review ''MIT Technology Review'' is a bimonthly magazine wholly owned by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and editorially independent of the university. It was founded in 1899 as ''The Technology Review'', and was re-launched without "The" in ...

TR35 The Innovators Under 35 is a peer-reviewed annual award and listicle published by ''MIT Technology Review'' magazine, naming the world's top 35 innovators under the age of 35. at ''Technology Review'' with lists of winners at technologyreview.com ...

as one of the top 35 innovators in the world under the age of 35. In 2006, Fox InteractiveMedia Group offered $60 million (equivalent to $ million in ) for Digg, which the Digg board turned down given how quickly the brand was continuing to grow. Over the next four years, CEO Rose lost interest in helping the site continue its growth, focusing on a series of non-Digg outside projects; the board eventually replaced him as CEO, on September 1, 2010. Rose continued on at Digg until March 18, 2011, when he resigned from all operational activities, only keeping a presence on the board of directors; Digg was acquired by

Betaworks Betaworks is an American startup studio and seed stage venture capital company based in New York City that invests in network-focused, consumer-facing media businesses. Its hybrid investor/builder model has led to both investments in fast-growi ...

, in 2012, for $0.5 million (equivalent to $ million in ). On June 27, 2007, Rose launched a

micro-blogging Microblogging is a form of social network that permits only short posts. They "allow users to exchange small elements of content such as short sentences, individual images, or video links",. Retrieved June 5, 2014 which may be the major reason for ...

site called

, which was acquired on December 1, 2008 and shut down on December 15, 2008 by blogging company

Six Apart Six Apart Ltd., sometimes abbreviated 6A, is a software company known for creating the Movable Type blogware, TypePad blog hosting service, and Vox (the blogging platform). The company also is the former owner of LiveJournal. Six Apart is hea ...

. In April 2011, the technology blog

TechCrunch TechCrunch is an American online newspaper focusing on high tech and startup companies. It was founded in June 2005 by Archimedes Ventures, led by partners Michael Arrington and Keith Teare. In 2010, AOL acquired the company for approximately ...

reported on the founding of "Milk". The company is focused on creating mobile applications. The first application to be released was Oink, a tool for ranking real-world items. In March 2012, Milk, Inc. announced that it would be shutting down its only product, Oink.

Google

On March 16, 2012, Rose announced that he, along with the four others of the Milk team (Daniel Burka, Chris Hutchins and Joshua Lane), were hired by

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...

after shutting down Milk and laying off the remaining members. Kevin Rose started his first day as a senior product manager for

on March 19, 2012. On May 30, AllThingsD reported that Rose had moved off the Google+ team to become a venture partner at GV. In January 2015, Rose announced he would leave GV to focus on his new app development lab - North.

Venture capitalist

Rose invested in

Gowalla Gowalla was a location-based social networking service. It launched in 2007 and closed in 2012. Users were able to check in at "Spots" in their local vicinity, either through a dedicated mobile application or through the mobile website. Checking-i ...

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

Foursquare Four square is a ball game. Four square may also refer to: Internet and entertainment * Foursquare City Guide, a local search and discovery app * ''4 Square'' (game show), a British game show * ''4 Square'' (TV series), a Canadian children's s ...

, Dailybooth, ngmoco, SimpleGeo, 3crowd, OMGPOP,

Square In Euclidean geometry, a square is a regular quadrilateral, which means that it has four equal sides and four equal angles (90-degree angles, π/2 radian angles, or right angles). It can also be defined as a rectangle with two equal-length adj ...

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

, Chomp and

Formspring Spring.me was a social networking service. Until a rebranding in 2013, it was known as Formspring, a question-and-answer-based social network launched in 2009 by Ade Olonoh, the founder of online form builder Formstack. As of August 1, 2015, t ...

Watchville/Hodinkee

After leaving Google, Rose started Watchville, a news aggregation app focused on wristwatches. In July 2015, after Watchville merged with another watch-enthusiast site called Hodinkee, Rose moved to New York City to become the chief executive of Hodinkee. In April 2017, Rose stepped down from his role as Hodinkee CEO to become a partner in a start-up venture firm, True Ventures.

Proof Collective

Rose co-founded the Proof Collective, a group of NFT collectors, alongside Justin Mezzell. Members of the group include artist Mike Winkelmann, known as

Beeple Michael Joseph Winkelmann (born 20 June 1981), known professionally as Beeple, is an American digital artist, graphic designer, and animator known for selling NFTs. In his art, he uses various mediums to create comical, phantasmagoric works that ...

, and investor

Gary Vaynerchuk Gary Vaynerchuk (born Gennady Vaynerchuk; November 14, 1975; , ), commonly known as Gary Vee, is a Soviet-born American entrepreneur, author, speaker, and Internet personality. He is a co-founder of the restaurant reservation software company Re ...

. The collective released a collaboration called Moonbirds, a collection of 10,000 pixelated-bird non-fungible tokens which had $281 million in sales as of April 2022. Rose said Proof would use the proceeds to “build a new media company.”

Other appearances

Rose has a chapter giving advice in

' 2016 book, ''

Tools of Titans ''Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers'' (2016) is a self-help book by Timothy Ferriss, an American writer, educational activist, and entrepreneur. He interviewed more than 100 "wor ...

''.

Personal life

In 2013, he married Darya Pino.

Controversies

Protest at Rose's house

On April 6, 2014, protestors demonstrated in front of Rose's home in San Francisco. The protesters held up a banner calling Rose a "parasite" and distributed a pamphlet accusing Rose of directing "the flow of capital from Google into the tech startup

bubble Bubble, Bubbles or The Bubble may refer to: Common uses * Bubble (physics), a globule of one substance in another, usually gas in a liquid ** Soap bubble * Economic bubble, a situation where asset prices are much higher than underlying fundame ...

that is destroying San Francisco." One banner read "I'ma Snip Snip Yr Ballz," an allusion to Rose's 2008 video podcast on Diggnation in which he joked about cutting off women’s breasts.

Portland home demolition controversy

On February 28, 2014, Rose and his wife Darya Pino purchased an 1892 house at 1627 Northwest 32nd Avenue in the Willamette Heights area of

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

. They removed the historic designation of the 122-year-old home and filed plans to demolish it. On June 24, 2014, it was reported that the Roses had accepted an offer from long-time neighborhood residents to buy the house, with the deal closing for $1.375 million USD.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Rose, Kevin Living people Television personalities from San Francisco American bloggers TechTV people Businesspeople from San Francisco People from the Las Vegas Valley Revision3 American technology company founders Businesspeople in information technology 21st-century American businesspeople People from Redding, California Year of birth missing (living people)