Kevin Rose, the founding CEO of Digg and a prominent early-stage investor, is scheduled to speak at TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, marking his return to the event more than a decade after his last appearance. The conference is set to take place from October 27-29 at San Francisco's Moscone West. Rose is slated to discuss the relaunch of Digg alongside Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, and to share perspectives gained from navigating product development, community engagement, and periods of market turbulence.
Rose's previous engagement at Disrupt in 2012 centered on Digg's strategic pivot, a widely observed event within the technology industry at the time. Since then, his involvement in the technology sector has expanded significantly, positioning him as an active early-stage investor in Silicon Valley. As a partner at True Ventures, Rose leverages both his extensive experience as a founder and his investment expertise to support new ventures across consumer tech and other categories.
His entrepreneurial track record includes founding Digg, where he now serves as board chair, investor, and advisor for its latest iteration. Additional past ventures and leadership roles include Revision3, Zero, Oak, PROOF, and serving as CEO of Hodinkee. Rose also held a position as a general partner at Google Ventures, contributing to early investments in companies such as Uber, Slack, and Nextdoor, according to his professional profile.
Beyond his institutional roles, Rose's angel investment portfolio includes stakes in companies like Twitter, Facebook, Solana, OpenAI, and Magic Spoon. His sustained contributions to technology and media have led to recognition by Bloomberg as a top angel investor and features in publications such as Forbes, Time, and MIT, highlighting his influence in the startup ecosystem.
TechCrunch Disrupt 2025, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary, is expected to convene over 10,000 founders, investors, and operators. The event agenda lists more than 200 sessions led by over 250 speakers from various technology and venture capital firms, including representatives from Netflix, Box, A16Z, ElevenLabs, Wayve, Sequoia Capital, and Elad Gil. Rose's session, structured as a fireside chat, is anticipated to cover his methodologies for evaluating founders, identifying emergent market opportunities, and applying lessons from his entrepreneurial background to his current investment strategies, particularly concerning pivots under pressure and market conviction.
