Evan Williams, or Evhead as he is known, is a serial technology entrepreneur with down home values. ValleyWag calls him “a nice Midwestern guy.” Hey Denton, that’s how they grow ’em in Nebraska.
Williams’ recently bought out his investors in Odeo, the podcasting startup he founded after selling Pyra Labs (the maker of Blogger) to Google. Denton, of course finds Williams’ largesse foreign and naive.
Williams is reorganizing his assets and placing them under a new company banner, known as Obvious.
Obvious was born out of twin desires: The desire to create great products that are innovative, beautiful and make a difference to tons of people. And the desire to create an environment for working that is equally innovative in a way that leads to greater success, sustainability, and satisfaction for both the company and its people.
So, Williams is not just nice, he’s an idealist to the last drop. I like people like that. They never seem to run out of fuel, whereas cynics and the selfish always lag. Such is the nature of personal motivation.
I mean absolutely no disrespect to Evan. After all, he made blogging possible for the masses. But to compare the very successful Nick Denton to the questionably successful (post-Blogger) Evan Williams is a bit of a stretch.
If you’re calling Denton a selfless cynic who lags, perhaps you’ve never met the guy or noticed he’s built the most influential blog network out there.
They are both nice guys. No need to hate on one or the other.
Thanks for filling me in on the details, Steve. As you know, I don’t get out much.
For the record, I’m not comparing the two. I’m not hating on anyone. And I’m not calling Denton a laggard. I am simply admiring Evan’s graceful (and old school) business style.