I did get hit one time by but I don't want to talk about that but I did get hit one time by. That's not fun. This is the moment to be building and anyone can do it.
What's an insight that you keep coming back to?
I can probably come up with three for you.
Only one really? I've got three short ones that are amazing.
If you can truly do that
you can break molds all over the place and come up with new and exciting ways to change the world. When I was a kid one of the hardest things for me to do in class was admit that I
Hi everyone. I'm here talking to Kevin Rose who most of you probably know as the founder of Dig. What is your show about and in particular who should listen?
Yeah, I mean historically one of the things that I've loved to do is just be on that forefront of all things technology. So I've been a technologist for my entire career and I have some gray hairs now so that's been quite some time. I've been through all the different bubbles and bursts and booms and all that and one of the things I love is finding that next thing before it pops off. So finding that thing that we'll all be talking about two three years from now and exposing my audience to it as early as possible. And thankfully through the years I've had a pretty good track record of having guests on that are talking about their next big thing. And that to me is a way to kind of stay ahead in the game of life. I mean things are evolving so quickly with AI and everything that's going on. I want to make sure to cover that and bring all of my listeners up to speed so that they can live you know a healthy productive life and as this kind of world rapidly evolves.
Is it correct to assume that it's mostly about tech?
Yeah, the main thing that I'm thinking about these days is how can you know AI is a very scary topic. It's going to disrupt a ton of jobs but it's also that help us out in terms of productivity, new things that we may want to dip our toes into for the very first time and meets us where we're at knowledge-wise. And so there's both the kind of, you know, fearful side of things, but also if we embrace this early and we get involved in it and we think of it as a tool to make us more efficient and allow us to explore new ideas and new ventures, then we can really benefit from this swing in that direction. So, the next, I would say at least the next few years are going to be focused on how can I bring everyone along for that ride and show them in the world of AI, in the world of technology, what they should be paying attention to so they get ahead of that curve and really thrive. Now,
I got to know you, I think, like a year ago or something like that.
Yeah, a year and a half, something like that. Yeah.
[laughter]
Like I got to know you at the as this extremely positive person who wants to help people and is just gets excited about things.
Oh, I get very excited about [laughter] things.
Can you like tell our listeners or all of the Snip users, like who are you? Like what drives you? You know, you've done so many things. You've been an entrepreneur, you've been a VC, been a podcaster. What drives you and like what gives you this motivation to, besides all of these projects, now start this podcast again?
Yeah, I mean, it is such a magical time right now where, and part of the reason, so I was a venture capitalist for the last like decade or so. And so I started my investing career at Google Ventures, where it had a $300 million fund every year that we had to go out and deploy. And then I went to True Ventures, where it managed a little over $3 billion in capital, investing in, you know, great companies like Fitbit and Peloton and all that. And I would I finally realized this is the moment to be building and anyone can do it. And that is it's democratizing the idea that we can all be builders in the technology space. And so, you know, 5 years ago, you'd have a buddy come up to you and say like, 'Hey, I got an idea for an app. Who's going to do this for me?' And you're like, 'Oh, yeah, here we go again. It's going to cost you 75 grand. You go talk to this person. I don't think it's a good idea.' And now that can literally be done in less than a half a day just by knowing how to work with the technology in the right way. So, for me, I get really excited about this moment in time and what it's going to unlock for everyone. And I realize, you know, in my podcast on the Kevin Rose Show, I've had, you know, Elon Musk on the show. I've had Jack Dorsey, the founder of Twitter. I've had, you know, many a handful of Fortune 500 CEOs on the show at this point. And one of the things that I realize is that they were all tinkerers. They all played. They didn't know what they were onto something until much later. So, they just had a random idea that they wanted to try. And they all failed so many times. And failure is just truly admitting that you've learned something new. And I think the more that we can show people, these are the tools to use, here's how to fail, here's how not to beat yourself up about it, and get back on the horse and ride again and try again. And you can have multiple shots on goal for pennies now when it used to cost you tens of thousands of dollars to get anything off the ground. Like, that is the show that I want to create that really kind of brings on the creatives and the people like yourself. I just had you on the episode to talk about their journey, how they got here, how they're building, how they're like in your podcast that we just recorded, it's a wonderful thing that you're only three people. That's amazing. And now I would say that you're probably punching at like a 15 or 20 person team because of AI, right? And that probably wasn't the case just a couple years ago. And so, that's just so amazing of a story to tell and an ongoing story that needs to be told. And so, that's the reason for the podcast. I also started an incubator called Basic Intelligence that is all about, you know, kind of eating our own dog food and that we're going off and we're building all these little apps and ideas. They're all wildly different and crazy and creative and fun. You know, 75% of them will fail and that's okay, but this is the time to go out there and be building and be in the trenches with everyone else and that's what the podcast is going to bring to the table.
Cool. That sounds very interesting. And in general, I also believe that this whole story that's happening with tech and AI, it needs more storytellers.
Because I realize there is a lot of potential negatives happening with AI or in the future. And I sort of feel like right now we're in this phase where that dominates the story, at least the mainstream story. But there's this other side to it, this positive side to it and I find I feel like the builders in the space, they're so optimistic and they see a very bright, positive future that we can build as a society. Not just for the 1% but like that makes the world better for everyone. So I'm really happy about hearing more people trying to tell that side of the story.
Yeah, I think there's two sides of this. One is it's really insanely disruptive and that there I can't think of an industry that doesn't get touched by AI in some way that will trim and make it more efficient and will trim jobs and ultimately create job loss. But at the same time, those same exact tools that are creating that loss can enable us to pursue new passions and new ideas and new projects in ways that we never could have before. So, you know, a couple examples of this for me personally is I actually have used AI and its video capabilities to make turn me into an electrician. And so I went and rewired my entire house and showed it and it was pointing out correctly which wires to touch and not touch and how to turn things off and I have paid someone, you know, $1,000 to go do that, and I was able to solve that by myself. And it also explains
And I survived. I did get hit one time by but I don't want to talk about that, but I did get hit one time by the current that I did not turn off. That's not fun. But it can also bring you up to speed on things and teach you new crafts as well. So, you know, I don't know about you, but when I was a kid, one of the hardest things for me to do in class was admit that I didn't know something and raise my hand and look silly cause you'd be sitting there and you'd be in a classroom like, 'I don't quite understand this piece of the math, or I don't understand the subject matter, and I don't want to raise my hand cause then I'm the one that looks like I'm' And I can go in now and have these conversations with the AI, and it could be something as serious as explain quantum computing to me like I'm a ninth grader, or it could be something as fun as, 'Hey, I'm looking to get into pottery for the first time. Where can I get started?' You know, and that's the beauty of it is it'll meet you where you're at and unlock new doors for you to open up and have fun with.
