Nineteen years after its founding, on-line discussion board Reddit is going public. However what ought to have been a joyous (and sure remunerative) affair for its two cofounders, Alexis Ohanian and present CEO Steve Huffman, has as an alternative dredged up a lot of the disappointing fallout that led to the tip of their relationship.
The 2 cofounders began Reddit in 2005 once they have been nonetheless in faculty. For some time they have been each enterprise companions and quick buddies, residing collectively and, when not working on their startup, socializing and enjoying video video games. Huffman was a groomsman at Ohanian’s wedding ceremony to legendary tennis participant Serena Williams in 2017. However the relationship between the 2 cofounders soured over variations about the way to deal with offensive feedback on Reddit.
When Reddit publicly filed for its IPO on Thursday it omitted any point out of Ohanian. The submitting, known as an S-1, normally serves to color an image of a company’s finances however it could actually additionally embrace an outline of its historical past and key figures. In a letter included as a part of the submitting, Huffman, the now CEO, referred to the founding of the corporate utilizing plural pronouns however never mentioned Ohanian by title. Many observers and analysts discovered that noteworthy, on condition that Ohanian continues to be a fairly public determine. Huffman additionally mentions his personal return to the corporate in 2015. Even Huffman’s return is now a supply of pressure. On the time Ohanian mentioned he’d pushed for his cofounder to be named CEO once more, whereas Huffman credits Sam Altman, then a Reddit board member, with bringing him again.
When reached for remark by Fortune about his exclusion from Reddit’s S-1 submitting, Ohanian replied with a shrug emoticon: ¯_(ツ)_/¯.
Reddit declined to remark.
On X, Ohanian made point out of the upcoming IPO. “Pretty wild seeing $RDDT going public after all these years,” Ohanian wrote. “Founders, keep going.”
Fairly wild seeing $RDDT going public in spite of everything these years. Founders, hold going.
— Alexis Ohanian 🇦🇲 (@alexisohanian) February 22, 2024
Reddit is understood for its on-line communities, known as subreddits, on all method of matters. The wide range of discussions, starting from funding recommendation (the subreddit R/wallstreet bets was instrumental within the Gamestock meme inventory hubbub) to debates about artwork, made the platform a hub of vigorous on-line debate. Nevertheless, a few of its extra unsavory communities turned breeding grounds for poisonous on-line speech, together with racism, misogyny, and non secular discrimination. In the end disagreements over the way to moderate such content led to a butting of heads between Huffman and Ohanian.
On the time, Ohanian wished to ban Reddit teams that actively supported discrimination, whereas others on the firm, together with Huffman, have been reluctant to take action, citing considerations over free speech. By summer season of 2020, when nationwide Black Lives Matter protests had unfold throughout the nation in response to the killing of George Floyd, the query of hate speech and racism on the platform turned unavoidable. Finally Huffman acquiesced and introduced that he would implement a person coverage that explicitly banned hate speech. Ohanian resigned his board seat in protest of Reddit’s lax pointers about hate speech, asking the board’s remaining members to fill it with a Black particular person. (Reddit picked Y Combinator CEO Michael Seibel to switch Ohanian). By this time, the connection between the 2 was already strained, and Ohanian reportedly didn’t inform Huffman he was planning to resign earlier than doing so publicly.
The 2 have barely spoken since then. Ohanian advised Wired he hadn’t considered Huffman a lot since he departed the board in 2020.
Nonetheless, though Ohanian wasn’t talked about within the submitting, he stands to make some cash from the IPO. In a post on X, Ohanian mentioned he does nonetheless personal some shares from when he served as government chairman in 2014, however since he wasn’t named within the submitting, his stake should be sufficiently small that Reddit wasn’t legally required to reveal it.
The corporate is aiming for a $5 billion valuation, in response to the New York Times. That might imply Huffman’s 3.3% stake within the firm is value about $165 million.
The filings paint Reddit as an organization that’s rising however nonetheless unprofitable, not unusual for tech IPOs. Income grew 21% in 2023 to $804 million, whereas losses have been $90.8 million—an enchancment from the $158 million it misplaced in 2022.
Editor’s word: The daddy of this reporter was a thesis advisor for Ohanian when he attended the College of Virginia as an undergraduate.
