Kevin Rose, an important player in the venture capital world, is one of Silicon Valley’s best-known investors. He’s still a general partner today at True Ventures. Since joining the firm in 2017, he has made significant investments in companies like Peloton, Ring, and Fitbit, showcasing his keen eye for innovative technology. Rose is the co-founder of the social news platform Digg. Before heading over to True Ventures, he spent time developing his apprenticeship and diligence on entrepreneurship and investment at Google Ventures.
Rose is quick to point out that the old obstacles entrepreneurs faced are disappearing, with barriers to entry shrinking daily. This evolution is key for the next, new founders who are living in a world shaped more and more by technology. Rose has no doubt that venture capitalists with high emotional intelligence will be the most important. They will engage deeply and humbly as long-term partners with founders. He states, “As an investor, you kind of have to not only say, okay, cool tech, sure, but emotionally, how does it make me feel? And how does it make others feel around me?”
His views are informed by what he learned as a parent of young children. So this personal experience and insight greatly influences Ron’s investment philosophy to be focused on technology that improves the lives of families and individuals.
Recently, Rose has shifted his focus onto another developing breed of tech — artificial intelligence, specifically AI hardware. To help navigate this emerging field, he’s come up with a simple rule of thumb for judging potential investments. If it makes you want to sock someone in the jaw for putting one on, take a seat champ. Then you should be extremely wary of investing in it. As provocative and controversial as this approach is, it really goes to show his skepticism toward the current generation of AI wearables and their true applications.
With the explosion of generative AI technologies, Rose cautions against the hallucinatory thrill to integrate AI into everything product. He warns that humanity will someday glorify the age in which we allowed today’s trend to happen. In five years we’ll look back and say, ‘Man, that was wild!’ We just threw AI on everything and thought this was awesome, he explains. He is concerned that a lot of AI tools and machines have no real use case. In fact, they’re likely doing more harm than good to the user experience.
Rose shares an entertaining personal story that illustrates the shortcomings of AI gadgets. That was the last time I wore that thing. Don’t make your AI pin logs the centerpiece of your winning litigation battle. Center your efforts on the strategies that will move you the farthest and fastest! It doesn’t cut it,” he says, pointing to his frustration with solutions that add complexity to basic tasks.
He further criticizes the idea of “always-on” devices that are always listening for commands. When I return home after a day of marveling among the robots, I sometimes feel like all is lost in the AI world. It’s ubiquitous, always on, always listening, always attempting to be the smartest guy in the room. It’s just not healthy,” he says. And perhaps most importantly, he believes deeply in the art of balance. Technology must not get in the way of the human experience, it must facilitate it.
Rose’s investment philosophy is strongly rooted in the motivational lessons he learned from tech titan Larry Page. He recalls Page’s advice: “A healthy disregard for the impossible is what’s important to look for.” This principle encourages him to seek out founders who are not merely refining existing ideas but are willing to pursue ambitious visions despite doubts from others.
We’re looking for founders past the idea stage and not just shining up their ideas. We’re looking for the people who take big risks and go for broke on audacious concepts, when everyone else thinks those ideas are awful. This impact transcends generations,” Rose explains. His commitment to supporting visionary entrepreneurs speaks to his understanding of the challenges they encounter and the risks they take.
Despite the current alarmist rhetoric, Rose is hopeful about AI’s long-term impact on venture capital, especially on the early-stage side. “I think that’s really going to change the world of VC, and I think for the better,” he states confidently. His insights serve as a reminder of the importance of thoughtful investment and the need for technology to align with human values.
