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This article is more than 1 year old

Did you know ... Stephen Fry has founded a tech startup?

It's a fact. For real. It's true

Did you know Stephen Fry has just founded a tech startup called Pindex? It’s a “Pinterest for Learning” that he wants teachers to use. That’s a fact.

Did you know Stephen Fry wants to restore our faith in “an online world that seems to centre around trolling, bullying, hating, trivialising and belittling”? He does. It says so in a press release from Pindex's PR company. Fact.

Did you know Stephen Fry’s first tech investment was a browser plug-in called Pushnote? At the time, the thesp boasted that Pushnote “makes the web one big democratic comment platform.” TechCrunch said it was “woefully lacking in execution”. They did. It’s true.

Did you know Pushnote wanted publishers to adopt its commenting plug-in, but because (at the time it was released) publishers were exposed to liability for comments on their sites, and because they couldn’t remove Pushnote notes, they wouldn’t touch it with a bargepole? That’s a fact.

Did you know Pushnote went titsup after 18 months? You do now.

Did you know Fry then invested in another tech startup called Playback Rewards? He did, you know. And here he is talking about it. For real.

Did you know Playback Rewards intercepted TV broadcasts, time-shifted them, and then injected Playback’s advertisements into them? It’s hard to believe! But yes, it did.

Did you know Playback Rewards offered to pay people to watch those advertisements too? The very advertisements injected into other people’s TV content. That’s a fact.

Did you know Playback Rewards closed after it failed after being shunned by VCs, who were dubious about its legality and compliance with Ofcom broadcast regulations? True, dat.

Do you think Stephen Fry has done any more due diligence before founding Pindex than he did before he invested in Pushnote or Playback Rewards?

That’s not a fact.

It’s a question.

One we hope you can answer in the comments, below. ®

Bonus FACTS

Did you know that in a Los Angeles hotel room, hours after being bitten by an insect, Fry posted an audio message on the internet in which he called The Register “cruel and vicious”, “frankly evil” and opined that the site “exists merely to be nasty." Yes, he did. It’s a fact.

Did you know that Fry followed up his outburst with another, declaring pride in his “voiceover work” and boasting that he had more Twitter followers than your correspondent (who he called “Orlowsky”). It’s true, Fry has millions more Twitter followers. And that’s just a fact.

You can’t argue with the facts!

 

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