Google Ventures investor Kevin Rose builds two new apps using Apple Swift
The venture capitalist, who "bounced" over to Google Ventures from Google+, has been making investments in promising startups on Google's behalf for the last two and a half years but yesterday at Le Web in Paris he revealed that being a VC "feels like sitting on the sidelines".
Rose and a team of developers built the apps through a new technology incubator called North Technologies after raising money from Silicon Valley investors.
Tiny is an app that allows users to create to share little photos and looping videos with friends and followers. Rose said he came up with the idea because there are too many steps involved when it comes to sharing content through apps like Instagram.
Rose, who was labelled a "parasite" by Silicon Valley protestors earlier this year, also developed an app called Watchville. The app is for people who are interested in luxury watches - a community that is passionate and engaged but currently underserved, according to Rose.
Apple's rollout of Swift, a new programming language, has been one of the key factors that has enabled Rose and his team to build apps over such a short time period.
"Lots of stuff is written in Swift now," said Rose. "It replaces Objective C and takes out a lot of time so we can get to market a lot of faster."
The apps are currently only available to download on Apple's iOS platform but Rose said Android versions should be released in a few weeks.
Speaking alongside Rose at Le Web, about.me co-founder Tony Conrad said being an entrepreneur allows you to mix in different circles. Despite what people think, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists in Silicon Valley don't all party together, he said.
Conrad added that he thought Rose's approach to building lots of apps really quickly with few resources was amazing.
"He's taking a lot of shots on goal really quickly," he said. "That's a big change."