Reddit's model for a better internet | Steve Huffman
The internet was created to connect us, yet many people feel more alone than ever. Reddit cofounder and CEO Steve Huffman explores how social media rewards performance over participation — and offers a timely case for an internet built like a city, with thriving online "neighborhoods" that make space for real human connection. Ready to find your community?
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First Time Founders with Ed Elson – The Story of Reddit
Live from YPO’s Global Entrepreneurship Summit, Ed sits down with Reddit co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman. They discuss the company’s IPO journey, his unique approach to investor relations, and how Reddit navigates the complex world of content moderation.
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Reddit’s Steve Huffman: Online platforms ‘can’t just sit on their hands’
Steve Huffman, co-founder and CEO of Reddit, joins host Reid Hoffman to share scale lessons from building one of the internet’s most influential platforms. It took nearly two decades for Reddit to reach its IPO, persevering through ownership changes, swings in popular sentiment, and shifts in the site’s identity. Steve guides Reddit with a deep belief in the power of online communities, and he dives into how he tackles challenges – like AI and misinformation – while staying true to Reddit’s values.
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Reddit CEO Steve Huffman on the IPO
Reddit has been around for 19 years, but today the social media platform goes public and starts a new chapter. Its listing on the New York Stock Exchange also marks the first major social media IPO since 2019. Kara speaks to co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman about money, content moderators and whether the subreddit r/WallStreetBets could make this one a meme stock.
Questions? Comments? Email us at on@voxmedia.com or find us on social media. We’re on Instagram/Threads as @karaswisher and @nayeemaraza
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Reddit CEO Steve Huffman on mod revolt, building a legendary community & more | E1763
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Today’s show:
Reddit CEO and Co-Founder Steve Huffman joins Jason to discuss building a platform that serves Reddit's community (13:33), addresses the situation with third-party apps and moderators (35:00), and much more!
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Time stamps:
(00:00) Reddit CEO Steve Huffman joins Jason
(2:40) The evolution of Reddit and its community
(4:10) The tailwinds powering Reddit and Steve's thoughts on speech mitigation
(12:00) Trovata - Use code TWIST at https://trovata.io/twist for 30% off one year of premium features, like AI forecasting
(13:33) The Reddit "Keep it real" ethos and the importance of allowing open debate
(17:47) Authoritarianism and challenging orthodoxies
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(25:44) Steve's optimism for AI and why this is only the beginning
(35:00) The response to Reddit's API use in various LLMs
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(39:29) Going in-depth on Reddit's situation and API history
(48:03) What it comes down to for third-party apps
(56:20) What changed Steve's opinion on advertising
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Kevin Killed Sydney + Reddit’s C.E.O. Defends Section 230
Bing AI isn’t sentient. But it’s more than glorified autocomplete. How do we talk about — and understand — the power of today’s large language models? Then, Reddit’s C.E.O., Steve Huffman, on Section 230 and why the future of the internet lies with the Supreme Court.
Plus: Meta is charging for blue checks.
On today’s episode:
Steve Huffman is the chief executive of Reddit.
Additional reading:
A Washington Post reporter asked Bing AI its opinion of Kevin Roose. Its response was eerie.
Microsoft made changes to Bing’s chatbot capabilities after the Chatbot’s unsettling behavior with some users. The company is already loosening some of those restrictions.
The Supreme Court heard a case challenging Section 230. Reddit is among many social media companies that have filed “friend of the court” amicus briefs against changes to the law.
Facebook plans to sell “Meta verified” accounts.
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20VC: Reddit CEO Steve Huffman on Scaling Teams; What Works and What Does Not, A CEO's Relationship with Stress and Managing It & How To Structure Internal Decision-Making Effectively
Steve Huffman is the Co-Founder & CEO @ Reddit, home to thousands of communities, endless conversation, and authentic human connection. To date, Reddit has raised over $550m in funding from some of the world's leading investors including Sequoia Capital, Marc Andreesen, Peter Thiel, Ron Conway, Sam Altman, Josh Kushner, Alfred Lin and Tencent, just to name a few. Steve started his career at Y Combinator as one of their first alumni back in 2005. At YC, Steve co-founded Reddit with Alexis Ohanian, which they sold in 2006 to Conde Naste Publications. In 2010, Steve co-founded Hipmunk, making business travel seamless and easy. Then in 2015, Steve re-joined Reddit as their CEO.
In Today's Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Steve made his way into the world of startups and came to be one of the very first ever entrants in the now hailed Y Combinator? How did that lead to the founding of Reddit? Why did Steve return to Reddit, the company he founded, in 2015?
2.) What were Steve's biggest lessons from his journey with Hipmunk when it came to product feedback and iteration? How does Steve assess people's reliance on data today to drive product decisions? Why does he believe 3 criteria must be considered? What are the other two? What time did Steve see the confidence of his own intuition really increase?
3.) How does Steve think about stress management today? What was he like when he was younger in his relationship to stress? What did he actively do to change his relationship to stress? How has Steve seen himself change and develop as a CEO? What have been the inflection points? What has he struggled and also made mistakes in the journey?
4.) What have been Steve's biggest lessons when it comes to hiring truly A* talent at scale? What are the commonalities in the very best hires Steve has made? In the cases of it not working, what does Steve advise founders on the right way to let someone go? How does one do it with efficiency and compassion?
5.) Why does Steve believe that in dense cities, self-driving cars will not be that useful? How does Steve envisage the future of consumer transportation? What does he believe are the alternatives to self-driving cars? How does Steve see the future for the unbundling of social networks? Will they be unbundled into specific communities? How will this look?
Items Mentioned In Today's Show:
Steve's Fave Book: Shogun: The First Novel of the Asian saga: A Novel of Japan
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Recode Decode: Reddit CEO Steve Huffman
Reddit CEO Steve Huffman talks with Recode's Kara Swisher in this live interview recorded at Manny's in San Francisco. Huffman co-founded the company in 2005, left it in 2009, and returned in 2015 after the resignation of Reddit's previous CEO, Ellen Pao.
In this episode:
How Huffman thinks about Reddit today; how the site almost died; how it started and its early experience with backlash; tech leaders that don’t want to make content moderation decisions; why /r/The_Donald was quarantined and how it could clean itself up; the moving line for unacceptable comments online; conservative allegations of “shadowbanning” and tech bias; the gender breakdown of Reddit users; harassment of volunteer moderators; AI that learns from Reddit; the monopolization of tech by negative forces; and the future of /r/The_Donald.
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Kara Swisher (@karaswisher), host
Erica Anderson (@EricaAmerica), executive producer
Eric Johnson (@HeyHeyESJ), producer
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Live Episode! Reddit: Alexis Ohanian & Steve Huffman
With $12,000 and a mascot named Snoo, two former college roommates designed a web site they hoped would become "the front page of the Internet." Today, despite growing pains, personal issues and persistent trolls, Reddit has over 300 million monthly users and is valued at 1.8 billion dollars. Recorded live in San Francisco.
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Recode Decode: Reddit CEO Steve Huffman
Reddit CEO and co-founder Steve Huffman talks with Recode's Kara Swisher about why he covertly edited the posts of some Donald Trump supporters, and why he regrets it now. Huffman acknowledges his editing, which he conceived as a prank but many users saw as censorship, sowed distrust among the Reddit community that the company will have to win back. He also talks about the how Reddit is trying to combat harassment more generally, the role social media played in the election and why he believes Donald Trump would have still beaten Hillary Clinton without any "bigotry [or] nastiness."
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