I mean no lack of respect for Kevin Rose but I've got to sit and reflect on the differences between Digg and Reddit now that we know who won. I remember one of the Reddit founders saying once not to focus on your competitors but to just put your shoulder down and go.
To this early 2005 interview with the founders of Reddit. They were so humble (it wasn't even our idea) and how they lived and breathed the site, even waking up every two hours to check it:
The reddit founders did the damn thing. I remember looking at the site after pg announced them in the 1st yc class, and thinking "this site looks like shit compared to digg. Bad fonts, low budget icon, they'll never compete". But they focused on what mattered and buried digg. Pun unintended but apropos nonetheless.
That seems somewhat unfair. First of all, 2006 was different than 2005 in the web 2.0 world, and the breathless tone adopted by a business magazine isn't really Kevin's fault.
So I have to contrast this Business Week cover:
http://valleywag.com/assets/resources/2006/08/kevin-cover-bu...
To this early 2005 interview with the founders of Reddit. They were so humble (it wasn't even our idea) and how they lived and breathed the site, even waking up every two hours to check it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5rZ8f3Bx6Po
Kudos to the Reddit founders but the real lesson is that their sacrifice built a better, stronger community.