Kevin Rose has lived the dream of many aspiring Internet entrepreneurs. His businesses have been prescient and successful, and as an angel investor he has bet on major players before they were big: Square, Twitter and Uber, to name a few. But Kevin’s successes as the founder of Digg and Revision 3 weren’t due to shrewd calculation alone– they were built on a foundation of habits that anyone can duplicate and use as their own foundation.
In this episode, we’ll look under the hood at how Kevin derives joy and excitement from the unknown, and how to get started on scaling your own ideas.
Enjoy!
If you’re not able to give your 100% to something, you’re going to do a half-ass job. Focus on one or maybe two things MAX and say no to everything else.
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Some Questions I Ask:
- What is Hodinkee? [1:58]
- How is New York now that you’ve moved from Silicon Valley? [4:57]
- How have you ended up here in business? Do you pursue your interests? [7:00]
- Is it fair to say that you have to take care of your basic needs before throwing everything you have at making it on your first venture? [10:53]
- What was your idea for Revision3? [15:13]
- Did you ever see yourself as a venture capitalist? [17:03]
- What are some common falls that you see entrepreneurs routinely making? [19:55]
- What’s the barrier for so many that prevents them from taking the first step? [24:12]
- How does intuition play into your life and how does it affect living your dream? [27:30]
- What helps people play through fear? [34:00]
- Tell us about the coffee investments you’ve made. [40:10]
- Do you back ideas or people? [43:18]
- What do you feel like is your biggest strength as a founder and investor? [44:05]
- Is there anything peculiar that you do that you attribute to your successes? [47:31]
- Do you have any habits that you’re excited about? [55:04]
- How do we subscribe to your newsletter? [57:24]
- Why should we be saying no? [59:40]
- What’s the best way to say no? [1:01:22]
- What’s something that bothers you? [1:05:17]
- Are you a meditator? [1:08:52]
- Any other hacks you want to share? [1:09:50]
- Do you have any advice for people who are stuck? [1:12:06]
- What’s something that I haven’t asked you that you want to share with the world? [1:16:13]
- What is one tea that you’d recommend? [1:17:00]
In This Episode, You Will Learn:
- Kevin’s first foray’s into business with the mantra of “let’s just see what happens.” [8:39]
- Why Kevin was drawn to developing software; do the work once up front and sell as many copies of it as you can. [10:30]
- How to use your nights and weekends. [12:03]
- If you’re wondering if you are passionate about something, you aren’t. [12:53]
- How Digg started posting news stories before traditional media and what that meant for their growth. [13:55]
- What Kevin learned as a venture capitalist to help entrepreneurs dealing with common problems. [19:17]
- Starting a business isn’t as expensive or complicated as you might think it is. [20:35]
- Stop looking for someone to bless your idea. If you believe in it, do it. [21:11]
- The best founders are the ones who see something before anyone else. [22:00]
- The fun is in trying new things, not necessarily success. Failure is fun! [23:19]
- The most successful entrepreneurs that Kevin’s found have an internal drive that their idea must be created [28:28]
- As an angel investor, I only invest in things that I understand and feel that I can help with. [29:40]
- Why you should match your personality up with an appropriate business idea. Play to your strengths. [32:57]
- “In the particular, lies the universal.” – James Victore. If you experience a problem that you feel is commonplace, other people probably have that problem too. [38:00]
- How Kevin got involved with the founder of Blue Bottle Coffee. [41:35]
- Why you should find a cofounder or partner to challenge you. [46:15]
- How Kevin uses a methodology of breathing and ice to increase his energy, focus and mood. [48:02]
- Why I take cold showers. [51:00]
- Why Kevin says no and instead focuses on one or perhaps two things. [55:50]
- How Kevin crafts saying “no”. [1:00:15]
- What intermittent fasting is and how Kevin uses it to feel more refreshed and lose weight. [1:10:25]
- Sometimes taking breaks is the best thing you can do to jumpstart your creativity. Go do something different. [1:14:07]
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