Why I Changed My Mind On Klout (And Invested)
Klout has been one of my go to punchlines for some time now. For example - in May I wrote a post titled “My Detailed Thoughts On Klout” that contained a single word in the post itself: “Why?” — The problem I had with Klout …
Context & Ripple Effects
Jason Calacanis built a running bit out of mocking Klout — his May post on the company was literally one word, 'Why?' — and the broader press had spent 2011-2012 doing the same, from the 'Klouchebag' takedown in April to commentary arguing nobody cared about Klout scores anymore. The company's answer was product, not argument: an iPhone app in May, a Cathay Pacific partnership putting high scorers in the SFO lounge, and an August 14 scoring update that factors real-world influence rather than just Twitter activity.
His reversal and investment matters because Klout's core problem was always credibility among exactly this crowd — the analysts who set the tech conversation. It echoes Scobleizer's earlier public mea culpa on Quora, another case of a prominent skeptic re-rating a much-mocked service.
First-order effects
- Calacanis moves from public critic to shareholder, converting his mockery audience into a rebuttal platform and giving Klout both angel capital and a credibility signal with the skeptics who mattered most.
- Klout's August 14 scoring update — weighting real-world influence alongside online metrics — gets its highest-profile validation yet, since the change is what flipped its most visible detractor.
Second-order effects
- Perk partners like Cathay Pacific gain a proof point that influencer scores can drive premium-customer targeting, encouraging more brands to treat Klout data as a marketing channel rather than a gimmick.
- Other angels and early-stage funds now face a live test of whether influence-scoring is an investable category, with a former punchline suddenly carrying a valuation and named backers.
Third-order effects
- If critic-turned-investor reversals keep landing, influence scoring hardens into infrastructure — embedded in airline lounges, marketing budgets, and venture portfolios — even as the underlying debate about what the scores actually measure stays unresolved.
The trend: Social-influence scoring is shifting from industry punchline to funded platform, as scores get attached to real-world perks and win over the skeptics who once defined the backlash.