KEVIN ROSE shot to prominence in the early naughties after founding an internet start-up.
But what is the story behind his career as he shifted from internet entrepreneur to NFT investor? And what is his net worth?
Who is Kevin Rose?
Kevin Rose was born on February 21, 1977 in California, US.
His family moved to Las Vegas, Nevada while he was young with Rose spending the rest of his childhood there. He even stayed in the state to study computer science at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, but dropped out before he completed his degree.
In 2004 Rose formed an internet start-up company called Digg alongside three colleagues. Digg was aimed at “democratising the news”, according to Rose and acted as a news website aggregator.
Seen as an immediate success, News Crop offered to buy Digg for $60million in 2006, but the offer was turned down. In the years that followed, Rose became bored with Digg and started focusing on other projects. The company was eventually sold in 2012 for just $0.5million.
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In June 2007 Rose launched a file-sharing application called Pownce, which he sold just 18 months later for an unknown fee
In 2009 he also started working on a Twitter directory called WeFollow, which later sold for $6million.
Rose used the money he had made to invest in a number of start-up firms, including Twitter, Facebook, OMGPOP and Foursquare.
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Kevin Rose’s NFT project
In December 2021 Kevin Rose co-founded an NFT project called the Proof Collective. It aimed to give members access to a private Discord, early access to the PROOF podcast, and in-person events.
Other co-founders of the project included NFT artist Beeple and entrepreneur Gary Vee.
“We are well aware that the world doesn’t need another token for speculation,” Rose said of the project as he explained the desire for the Proof Collective to be different from other NFT projects.
“So when we do something, it should be uniquely our own with real utility, and something that we believe pushes what’s possible in new and exciting directions.
“Otherwise, why would we be doing it? There’s just no reason at all.”
Proof raised $50million in Series A funding from firms including VC giant Andreessen Horowitz.
Proof has released projects including Moonbirds, Oddities, Grails, and Emotes, raising hundreds of millions of pounds in sales.
What is Kevin Rose’s net worth?
Kevin Rose is thought to have a net worth of $30million. He made his fortune from a combination of ventures over the years, including the Proof Collective.
His high net worth comes despite losing $1million worth of NFTs earlier this year. A phishing scam saw Rose lose 40 tokens in total, including an Autoglyphs NFT worth almost $500,000.