AllTop – Persistence Pays Off

When one-time Apple evangelist turned entrepreneur Guy Kawasaki launched AllTop a year ago, I remember reading some pretty bad press. Headlines like Guy Kawasaki Launches AllTop. Wow, it’s Bad. and AllTop – A gimmick site with marketing flair aren’t exactly what one hopes to launch to.

When I myself visited the site I had the impression that it wasn’t as bad as some of the tech press made out, but it didn’t appear to be anything to write home about. If asked I would have summed up the site as a so-so idea with a decent execution and a famous founder. So I expected AllTop would go the way Guy’s other venture Trumors went – that is to a small but relatively successful end in a quiet acquisition.

In the intervening months however, I’ve been impressed to see the site growing and improving rather consistently. To this day AllTop is still not a site I personally use, nonetheless there does seem to be an audience for it, and Guy and his team have been doing a really good job of persistently pushing the site in the right direction. (more…)