There have been rumors that Digg’s Kevin Rose has been working on a new startup for some time, but he wasn’t talking. I spent a good amount of time this last weekend at FOO Camp trying to get some of the details out of him, but all he would say is that he’d be contacting us soon. Today he’s made a bit of a public announcement about the project. It’s called Pownce, and he wrote about it a bit on his tumblr blog. The founding team of the company also includes Leah Culver, Daniel Burka, and Shawn Allen. Pownce looks to be a web based sharing network with an optional desktop client (built on Adobe Air) for advanced features. Without having had the opportunity to test it, it looks to be overlapping with AllPeers and Pando, and possibly others. It also clearly has basic social networking features – see Rose’s profile page for the service here. Right now, there are four basic things you can send: messages, links, files, and events. You might send an event out to a dozen of your friends letting them know you’re hosting a party this Friday. They could easily get the event details you entered, respond with questions or comments and then quickly rsvp. Say you had a great photo you wanted to share with all of your friends. Just add the file and all of your friends will get it right away. They’ll be able to reply and tell you if it’s cool. You could even post songs you recorded in your home studio to share with your friends. It’s in private beta currently, but you can request an invitation on the home page. Kevin’s been on a bit of a roll lately. Digg continues to grow, and his other startup, Revision3, just raised another round of financing. → Read More
Online video site Revision3 has raised an $8 million second round of financing, according to a source close to the deal, bringing the total capital raised to $9 million. Our understanding is that Greylock led the round. Greylock was also the primary investor in Revision3′s $1 million first round of financing. News startup Digg, which shares founders Kevin Rose and Jay Adelson with Revision3, also raised money twice from Greylock. Revision3 now has exclusive rights to ten shows and is continuing to add more talent over time. Diggnation, however, is by far the largest and most popular. Revenue is generated via integrated advertising, where the show hosts discuss the advertised products directly. This rumor has not yet been confirmed by the company, who isn’t responding to our request for comment. Our source also says that CEO Jay Adelson may soon be stepping aside and focusing exclusively on Digg, which he also runs. The company may have already begun a new CEO search. Sample show below from PixelPerfect, another popular show: http://bitcast-a.bitgravity.com/revision3/player/Rev3_320x180_v2.swf → Read More
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