Neomeme

The New York Times has a fawning article today about Pownce, Kevin Rose’s new startup. Pownce is called, among other things, “the hottest startup in Silicon Valley”, with “coveted” invitations- the author has clearly never heard of a private beta-

Digg was disruptive (though perpetually unprofitable). Google was disruptive. MySpace was disruptive. Pownce is a glorified Twitter clone with file sharing. If it did not have Kevin Rose behind it, it would have faded into obscurity, just like a Digg story that is not dugg by top Digg users. Let me restate that. The exact same “disruptive” and “coveted” technology would have certainly gone completely ignored without this: Read more »

Question: What do Kevin Rose, Jason Calacanis, Guy Kawasaki, and Steve Jobs have in common? “Easy”, you answer. “They are all well-known tech personalities who have developed a cult of personality around themselves.” True. And, more importantly, they have used the sheer force of their personality to build a following for their product, or at the very least, an incredible surge of initial interest. But is personality all it takes to launch a successful startup? Read more »