[Posted on October 24, 2007 - 1:05 PM]
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DiggPainting a full picture of David Karp would be easier if I had Tumblr, the blogging tool he helped invent. That would make it more practical to compose a visually compelling, mixed-media post on Karp. I've spent the morning sampling some of these tumblelogs, as they're called, and I can see the allure for the Silicon Alley investors who recently gave Tumblr $750,000 in seed funding.
Tumblr investor and Union
Square Ventures partner Fred Wilson calls 21-year-old Karp the "almost one-man band behind Tumblr." I haven't been able to unearth anything approaching an official bio for Karp (or even a Wikipedia entry), but according to details culled from the blogosphere he dropped out of high school to start a New York design firm called Davidville Inc. As recently as a year ago, he was consulting for New York new media firm Next New Networks. In February of this year, Davidville released Senduit, a Web-based utility that helps people share large files over the Internet. It became a minor hit in techie circles. Then in March Davidville launched Tumblr, and the rest is blogstory.Perhaps the best way to get to know Karp, besides chatting with him over a beer or watching Wallstrip's Howard Lindzon do that, is to check out David's Log, subtitled "Obsessed with David as much as he is?" It has a decidedly Joycean feel to it. Take this entry, posted in the wee hours Thursday morning: "Prepping for the board meeting tomorrow: This is what I've come up with so far." Beneath the text appears a large photo of a notebook page with the hand-scrawled note, "Bring Donuts!" Scroll down the page, and you'll see a photo of a flower posted a few days ago. The caption says, "November 1 it's ready." Apparently, something new is coming from Tumblr.
Also check out Wilson's tumblelog. You'll learn that on Thursday morning he was drinking coffee to fend off boredom during an audit committee meeting and pondering the fact that his Covestor portfolio is down about 5% in the last month, proving that he's a "terrible public market investor," which doesn't prevent him from being one of the "top followed portfolios on Covestor." Wilson thoughtfully includes a chart showing the less-than-stellar portfolio performance. If I were using Tumblr now, maybe I'd be able to show it to you. - Mary Kathleen Flynn
See Oct. 19 post from Tech Confidential
See Fred Wilson's post on Tumblr
See Fred Wilson's tumblelog
See video interview by Wallstrip's Howard Lindzon
See video interview by Martin Varsavsky
See Oct. 23 post from Tech Confidential
