The power of a dormitory cannot be understated; a whole building populated with young, driven men and women, all pursuing higher education is a recipe for innovation. At least this was the case for Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian, two young dorm mates at the University of Virginia. Steve was studying computer science and Alexis was studying history. Both students decided to submit and idea to Y Combinator, a startup investment company. Their first idea was denied but that did not stop them. They submitted the idea to create “the front page of the internet.” It is funny to think that even now, over half of the things you can look up will provide you with a reddit thread. Y Combinator granted their request for $12,00 of startup money and they got to work. Steve got the site coded within 20 days while Alexis, have a certain business acumen, handled the logistics of the business.
In 2006 Reddit was acquired by Conde Nast. 6 years later after Alexis and Huffman had both stepped away from the company, Yishan Wong, member of the PayPal Mafia, became the CEO of the company and sky rocketed it’s success. In 2015 Huffman rejoined the company and became the CEO and Alexis stepped up as a board member. In march of 2024, Reddit offered its IPO. Today Huffman remains the CEO of the company, and Alexis married Tennis legend Serena Williams and has had 2 children of his own. Reddit is currently valued at $10 Billion and will only grow since going public.
Both of these men were just young college students with a dream. Coming from different backgrounds and pursuing completely different degrees, both men started one of the most viewed internet sites running today and it all started because they decided to room with each other.
This just shows how beneficial error is and how they learned from rejection. Then the 12k they won is also amazing and shows how giving some people the resources they need can truly help them show and develop their innovation. I think this story is also powerful as he is still the CEO, and he never sold out or jumped shipped which is hard and truly shows his characteristics of dedication and trust in his product.
Your first sentence really caught my attention because I couldn’t agree more. When I was looking at NC State, I visited the dorm workspaces they have in all the residential buildings, one for each “village” – which are just students who can choose to live in a grouping based on common interests like women in STEM or eco-sustainability. Think the Zone in HAL, but it’s a default hangout spot. These spaces are just innovation Petri dishes and have turned out grant-winning research ideas and Forbes 30 Under 30 entrepreneurs. Also, my entrepreneur this week was also a dude named Alexis!
I know it is so cool. It is awesome having people constantly talking to me about company ideas and shooting my own ideas down but also providing another perspective. It is a serious liquid network.
I love this story! It would have been so easy to give up when they were originally denied, but this is a great example of why it is important to keep going when you believe in the product/service you’re bringing to the market! I definitely have learned a lot from the Reddit threads that pop up when I search something, and honestly they have been way more helpful than Google or YouTube! I’m thankful for this innovation! 🙂 Great post!
Ok the craziest thing in this post is that a founder of Reddit married Serena Williams. What in the world. But seriously, great post. Very interesting to see the beginning of something I see almost every time I search google for something. They definitely achieved their goal to be the front page of the web, and it is incredible to see how they got that idea in the first place.