• tal@lemmy.today
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    7 months ago

    On the other hand, he already cashed out once and was wrong, so…

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Huffman

    The site’s audience grew rapidly in its first few months, and by August 2005, Huffman noticed their habitual user-base had grown so large that he no longer needed to fill the front page with content himself.[11][14][15] Huffman and Ohanian sold Reddit to Condé Nast on October 31, 2006, for a reported $10 million to $20 million.[3][16] Huffman remained with Reddit until 2009, when he left his role as acting CEO.[17]

    Huffman spent several months backpacking in Costa Rica[18] before co-creating the travel website Hipmunk with Adam Goldstein, an author and software developer, in 2010. Funded by Y Combinator,[19][20] Hipmunk launched in August 2010[21] with Huffman serving as CTO.[22] In 2011, Inc. named Huffman to its 30 under 30 list.[22]

    In 2014, Huffman said that his decision to sell Reddit had been a mistake, and that the site’s growth had exceeded his expectations.[23] On July 10, 2015, Reddit hired Huffman as CEO following the resignation of Ellen Pao[24] and during a particularly difficult time for the company.[25] Upon rejoining the company, Huffman’s top goals included launching Reddit’s iOS and Android apps, fixing Reddit’s mobile website, and creating A/B testing infrastructure.[3]

    Since returning to Reddit, Huffman instituted a number of technological changes including an updated mobile site and stronger infrastructure, as well as new content guidelines.

    I don’t think that he’s had a whole lot of faith in Reddit as a business since early-on.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Huffman’s top goals included launching Reddit’s iOS and Android apps

      Mission accomplished! Those undeniably shitty apps definitely were launched.

      • tal@lemmy.today
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        7 months ago

        I’ve never used them, but IIRC they acquired some third-party client and then just modified them. “Blue Alien” or something like that?

        googles

        “Alien Blue”, at least for the official iOS app.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_Blue

        I dunno what the history of the Android app is.

        That being said, they’re responsible for what they acquire, just saying that a lot of that might not be developed in-house.

        • poppy@lemm.ee
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          7 months ago

          They acquired Alien Blue, but what they put out under “Reddit” was not Alien Blue in the least bit. They basically bought it to kill it. I had Alien Blue. :(