SOF Digital Discussion: Reddit: 15 Years of Building Online Community
On Wednesday, May 6 from 2:30 – 3:15 p.m. EDT Steve Huffman, CEO and co-founder of Reddit, will join us in conversation with Christine Lagorio-Chafkin, senior writer at Inc.com and Inc. magazine, about the community and the platform Huffman built 15 years ago. He will shed insight into why the Reddit community-based model is differentiated from other companies in the space, reflect on Reddit’s history and also the company’s vision for the next 15 years, and delve into a myriad of issues such as privacy, navigating tech giants and the complexities of humans talking about politics online.
**If you are not currently a Society of Fellows member, but wish to join, please contact the SOF team at sof@aspeninstitute.org or 970-544-7980.
Presenters:
Steve Huffman is the co-founder and CEO of Reddit, the “front page of the internet” and fourth most visited site in the U.S. He is also the co-founder and former CEO of Hipmunk, the popular online travel company. Raised in northern Virginia, Huffman pursued his passion for programming from an early age and followed it through a computer science degree at the University of Virginia. In 2005, he and his college roommate Alexis Ohanian pitched their first start-up to then-new incubator Y Combinator. While the pair’s initial idea for a food-ordering mobile app called My Mobile Menu was rejected, Y Combinator founder Paul Graham invited them to build a new startup, which soon led to their creation of Reddit. After selling the company in 2006, Huffman launched Hipmunk and was named to Inc. Magazine’s “30 Under 30” list in 2011 and the Forbes “30 Under 30” list in 2012. A few years later, Huffman returned as CEO of Reddit, where he has led the company’s development of native image and video hosting, a new mobile app, and a full site redesign while growing the Reddit community to over 430 million monthly users. In addition to his work at Reddit, Huffman is a mentor at Hackbright Academy, a San Francisco-based coding school for women. In his free time, he enjoys skiing, dancing, and browsing r/WholesomeMemes.
Christine Lagorio-Chafkin is senior writer at Inc.com and Inc. magazine, where she covers America’s largest private companies. She served as co-host of the award-winning Inc. Uncensored podcast, and is launching a new, interview-based podcast called What I Know. During her tenure, Inc. has won National Magazine Awards for General Excellence and several Eppys.
Her work has appeared in the New York Times, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Washington Post, New York, Vanity Fair, and other publications. Prior to joining Inc., she was a writer and producer for CBS News. She began her career in New York interning for The Village Voice’s legendary investigative reporter Wayne Barrett.
Her book about Reddit and Internet culture, “We Are the Nerds: The Birth and Tumultuous Life of Reddit, the Internet’s Culture Laboratory,” was published by Hachette Books on October 2, 2018.
Lagorio-Chafkin grew up on a sheep farm and is a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She lives in New York City with her husband, three kids, and two cats.