Reddit grew for practically 20 years earlier than going public in March at round a $6.5 billion valuation. Although the social media discussion board web site now boasts 91 million day by day lively customers, its success was not a certainty. The truth is, Reddit’s co-founders had been rejected by startup accelerator Y Combinator in the beginning of their entrepreneurial journey.
“So, Alexis [Ohanian], my co-founder, faculty roommate on the time, he and I utilized to Y Combinator,” Reddit CEO Steve Huffman informed LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman on Thursday. Their preliminary thought was to create a option to order meals from cell telephones — which wasn’t the norm in 2005.
Y Combinator rejected the concept however requested Ohanian and Huffman, who had been 22 and 21 years outdated on the time, to work on one thing else. They got here up with Reddit, which Y Combinator funded with a $12,000 verify.
The concept for Reddit happened from two web sites: Scrumptious and Slashdot. Scrumptious was an internet site that allow customers retailer and share bookmarks; Yahoo acquired it in 2007. Slashdot.org nonetheless exists as a social information web site overlaying science and tech information; Reddit’s co-founders had been drawn to the group it had however wished to increase past tech.
Reddit “was form of a Scrumptious plus Slashdot, however make each of them higher,” Huffman stated. “Truthfully, I believe that is just about what we constructed. However for 19 years, we have been iterating on this and tweaking it, and form of following our customers and including options.”
Associated: ‘A Large Alternative:’ Reddit CEO Goals to Deliver AI to 1 Billion Reddit Searches
For instance, Huffman identified that Reddit’s “most vital function,” or the ability it offers customers to create their very own communities, was launched three years after launch.
Reddit CEO Steve Huffman. Photograph by Spencer Platt/Getty Photos
Since going public, Reddit has posted earnings that beat expectations for 2 consecutive quarters. The corporate inked AI licensing offers with Google and OpenAI earlier this yr, permitting Google’s Gemini AI and OpenAI’s ChatGPT to make use of Reddit posts of their coaching information.
Huffman stated there’s “an amazing quantity of alternative” with AI.
“I am very proud that Reddit has performed a job within the growth of those applied sciences,” he stated.
Associated: Reddit Site visitors Practically Triples in 8 Months, Posts Rise to the High of Google Search
