Digg founder Kevin Rose might not regret his choices, but he is definitely recognizing them.
Rose admitted at TCDisrupt that he hated his five month foray as company CEO. From what he said, it seems that he’s definitely not a Michael Scott.
“I think of myself as a PM [product manager] and creative director, so it was hard being a cheerleader for 60 some employees — 10 to 15 employees is where I max out. I like to ship product and rollout features and when you can’t do that it’s frustrating.”
He wasn’t even displeased with the decision to turn down a $60 million dollar plus $20 million dollar buyout (Rose admitted that he was all for the buyout payday, but the Digg board turned it down. Looking back at it in light of everything, he isn’t mad at the board’s decision against the buyout.)
Or, the cocky Businessweek cover.
Or even the fact that launched Digg Version 4 way too slowly.
Or, removing the much beloved upcoming feature – which lead to the most popular stories on the Digg homepage being about how much Digg sucked.
Though his silicon valley baby didn’t always make the right decisions, Rose chalked everything up to a learning experience for future entrepreneurs. He said, “I’m trying to help entrepreneurs avoid the mistakes I made, because I made a lot of them.” It’s a nice way to look back on things, but we’re finding it hard to believe that he’d still give a thumbs up to the idea of not taking the $80 million when he had the chance.
