Upcoming Live Interview: Digg.com Co-Founder, Owen Byrne

Posted on May 12, 2009 - 7:41 PM PST

According to CrunchBase, Owen Byrne was hired by Digg founder Kevin Rose on Elance to create the PHP code behind the original Digg site for a cost of $200. Digg went on to become one of the most successful site in history.

Now that story has been frustrating startups everywhere. It leaves us wondering, "If Owen and Kevin can build a top site for a few hundred bucks, why are we struggling for so long and spending so much money just getting our site launched?!"

I invited Owen on Mixergy to talk about what really happened when he helped launch Digg, to teach startups what he learned about building a successful startup quickly, and to hear about his work he's done since Digg.

When:

Wednesday, May 13 @ 11 AM Pacific

When:

Right here on Mixergy.com. You can watch and chat from your desk.

Got questions for Owen?

Ask them at the live event or in the comments here.

[Photo by Thomas Hawk.]

frankaye

Very interesting interview, I had no idea who Owen Byrne was until I watched this.

Two key takeaways for me:

- Bootstrap as much as you can, hold off on the VC's.

- Find a flaw in your competition and capitalize on it.

Thanks again for the interviews Andrew!

- Francois

Andrew Warner

You said it.

I was trying to get that bootstrap point into the excerpt video, but
couldn't squeeze in another point.

alexhoule

Short and sweet. Another great interview Andrew!

Andrew Warner

Meant to say this interview was great thanks to your input.

Grateful for the help.

alexhoule

I'm grateful for Mixergy

alexhoule

I'll be even more active once I'm done with this semester.

Andrew Warner

Rock the semester Alex!

Andrew Warner

And I'm grateful for Alex B. Houle.

PaulMagee

Just so I'm clear, we have to click on the "Live" tab above to see the interview, we won't see it on this page, yeh?

Andrew Warner

Thanks.

We're working on this. Because you brought it up, I was at least able to
post a note on the Mixergy homepage.

In the (near) future, we'll have the top images (Seth Godin, etc) replaced
with a clickable message saying we're live.

Will Jessup

A reply to:

"It leaves us wondering, “If Owen and Kevin can build a top site for a few hundred bucks, why are we struggling for so long and spending so much money just getting our site launched?!”"

Poor product manager, product strategy and development prioritization. A great product manager can guide a team of crappy engineers. Great engineers and great product strategy = win. Good engineering only gets you there faster, but product strategy defines what "there" is.

Andrew Warner

Thanks Will. I used this question and credited you.

Mike

Question for Owen "Does Digg really have a future?" "How has the Digg experience changed you?"

Andrew Warner

This was a great question. I asked him. Thanks for this.

Mike Poullas

Well I for one am looking forward to dispelling the myth that Digg was all done by K.Rose and some magic wand/spell/potion..Damn proud that a Canadian helped start it all Ay?

As what its like to be many years older that the typical Web 2.0 coder and how he keeps up with the young whipper snappers...

Cheers...

Andrew Warner

You gave me one of my best questions. Thanks!

KevenDones

You are truly welcome Andrew. You have help me soooo much I really mean that. Keep up the great work.

KevenDones

Can't wait for this one. Great job Andrew.

Andrew Warner

Thanks Keven. Your support means a lot to me buddy!

zacharycollins

This looks very interesting. Can't wait to see it.

Andrew Warner

Thanks!

I can't wait to do it.

When I was building out an invitation site a couple of years ago, I felt
like a big failure because Kevin Rose could hire a developer on elance to
redo his site for almost nothing, while I was struggling with mine.

Now I get to ask how much of that is true. And what can I learn (or copy)
from Digg's success.

Andrew Warner

Thank you @merrick for catching a typo. I fixed it!

Alex Carrillo

Looking forward to it. Thank you for doing this interviews.

Andrew Warner

Thanks!

I'll have a recording of it up on the site for you. But I hope you listen
live so you can ask him questions.