Meet the Founders of Reddit
It’s 2005. Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian meet at the University of Virginia. Young, tech-savvy, up-and-coming entrepreneurs, they come up with an idea for a business and bring it to a startup accelerator called Y Combinator.
Their plan? A mobile app for ordering food called “My Mobile Menu.” The business idea was rejected. But, something about the duo stuck with the higher-ups at Y Combinator who invited the group to work on another project.
Paul Graham and Jessica Livingston wanted the team to create “the front page of the internet.” Also on board were Christopher Slowe and Aaron Swartz.
Who Owns Reddit?
Just like that, Reddit was born. And, just like that, Huffman and Ohanian sold the company.
The founders sold Reddit to Condé Nast for $10M less than a year after launch (in 2006). Ohanian and Huffman stayed on for a few years after the acquisition but, eventually, both went on to start other projects. Neither of them would be gone for long.
So, does Condé Nast own Reddit? Not exactly. Condé Nast owned Reddit until 2011 when Reddit became an “independent subsidiary” of Advance Publications—the company that owns Condé Nast, among others.
Reddit Reunited
In 2014, the CEO of Reddit was Yishan Wong. Wong stepped down and Ohanian stepped up, returning to the company as Executive Chairman. Ohanian would later comment that, while the site’s user base had continued to grow, not much had changed since he left. The company still needed a CEO. And, they knew just who to call.
In 2015, Huffman returned to Reddit as CEO and had a lot of work to do. In his 2017 “State of the Union” blog post, he commented on the implementation of an updated mobile site, mobile apps, and a number of improvements in content moderation and user safety. Reddit’s 2018 brought video sharing and the first-ever major redesign of the desktop site.
Over the last few years, the company has drastically built out its C-suite and has expanded more offices around the globe to reach more users than ever. Like many big social media companies, Reddit has also played a role in national, global, and societal issues.
Reddit in 2022
Today, Huffman is still the CEO of Reddit. Ohanian stepped down in June of 2020, encouraging the company to replace him with a more diverse voice. They went with Michael Seibel, a partner of Y Combinator who had been involved in Reddit’s initial launch in 2005.
According to PR Newswire, Reddit is expected to go public in the near future, at which time the current Reddit parent company Advance Publications is likely to retain a majority of the shares. Advance Publications is the owner now, and is likely to be at least the de facto owner for the foreseeable future.
Reddit Tomorrow
It’s easy to get worked up about who owns what and what they might do next. But, Reddit is one of the most community-focused platforms on the internet. Hopefully, whoever or whatever “owns” Reddit next will continue the trend of thinking of the community first and the company second.
