Kevin Rose Steps Into Part-Time Role at Google Ventures to Build a New Startup

by _mayo on 8/15/2014, 8:08 PM with 29 comments
  • by aaronbrethorst on 8/15/2014, 8:55 PM

        If the model sounds familiar, that’s because it was
    kind of the idea behind Milk. But the world has
    changed since then, according to Rose. “The biggest
    thing that’s changed in the last three years is that
    back then we spent a lot of time spent building out
    the back end… But the scaling piece is a solved
    problem,” Rose told me.
    They shipped one app, Oink. Oink didn't fail because of the amount of time required to build out the backend. It failed because it was a me-too product in a sea of me-too products, and didn't do anything to differentiate itself or provide meaningful value to its users.

    Edit: On an unrelated note, it looks like Kevin must've been binging on Wes Anderson films recently. The North website looks like one of Anderson's film title cards. Compare http://wesandersontitlecards.tumblr.com and http://www.n-o-r-t-h.com/

    Edit 2: Yep, Futura. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Futura_(typeface)#Usage and check out the CSS on the North website.

  • by dchuk on 8/15/2014, 8:42 PM

    What an absolutely terrible domain name: http://www.n-o-r-t-h.com/

  • by elwell on 8/15/2014, 8:54 PM

    > Nowadays he says, a lean startup can work specifically on product and design, and leave the infrastructure side of things to someone else.

    Probably not true. Anyway, that's not what the plan is:

    > He envisions North as a team that has one product person, one design person, and a full-stack engineer

  • by utnick on 8/15/2014, 9:05 PM

    What does he mean that scaling a mobile backend is a solved problem? What has changed?

  • by mikelbring on 8/15/2014, 8:20 PM

    Link to his new company: http://www.n-o-r-t-h.com/

  • by jason_slack on 8/15/2014, 8:25 PM

    This doesn't surprise me. To me Kevin seems to have a drive to tackle the latest interesting trends in social and always with a new twist. Success or Failure. This is a good quality. Good Luck Kevin.

  • by thetimbanks on 8/15/2014, 9:19 PM

    It's weird to see a shopping cart powered by Squarespace at n-o-r-t-h.com

    http://www.n-o-r-t-h.com/commerce/show-cart

  • by idlewords on 8/15/2014, 8:25 PM

    I admire this guy's talent at failing upwards.

  • by tuneladora on 8/15/2014, 8:42 PM

    interesting domain name n-o-r-t-h.com i wonder if the hyphens could become a trend like "getX.com"

  • by bluthru on 8/15/2014, 8:27 PM

    Kevin seems to be full of ideas. I look forward to seeing what they release.

  • by penland on 8/15/2014, 9:07 PM

    Did anyone else actually laugh out loud at the "Scaling is a solved problem" line?

    Guess I can take off early for the weekend then.

  • by rglover on 8/15/2014, 8:55 PM

    Cool vibe to it. I've always enjoyed how Kevin organizes things. Curious to see what they'll be working on.