Top VC: Tumblr's CEO Is Worth $200 Million Because He Ignored My Advice

Blogging platform Tumblr has grown to become the 9th most-visited site in the U.S.

That's largely in part due to its founder and CEO David Karp, who has followed and executed his vision for the product from day one.

Union Square Ventures partner Fred Wilson says he used to bug Karp about adding a comments feature to Tumblr. Wilson wanted readers to be able to comment on Tumblr blogs, but Karp wouldn't budge.

"He wanted Tumblr to be a positive place on the Internet," Wilson writes. "The entire design of the service was with that in mind."

That's why there are only upvotes and no downvotes on the platform. Wilson says he was pretty persistent, but he eventually gave up and let Karp do his thing.

Today, Tumblr has more than 106 million blogs on the platform, with roughly 50 billion posts collectively. Meanwhile, Karp's net worth now exceeds $200 million.

"In hindsight, I think David was right and I was wrong," Wilson writes. "I wanted him to build something that felt more like Wordpress or Typepad (where I blog). He had something different in mind. And to David's credit, he had the courage of his convictions to follow his own instincts."