Steve Huffman | |
---|---|
![]() Huffman at
Web Summit 2017 | |
Born | November 12, 1983 |
Other names | spez [1] |
Education | Computer Science |
Alma mater | University of Virginia |
Occupations |
|
Employer |
Steve Huffman (born November 12, 1983), also known by his Reddit username spez, is an American web developer and entrepreneur. He is the co-founder and CEO of Reddit, a social news and discussion website, which ranks in the top 10 websites in the world. [2] He also co-founded the airfare search-engine website Hipmunk. [3] [4] [5]
Steve Huffman grew up in Warrenton, Virginia. [6] At age 8, he began programming computers. [6] He graduated in 2001 from Wakefield School in The Plains, Virginia. [7] At the University of Virginia (UVA), he studied computer science, graduating in 2005. [6] [8]
During spring break of his senior year at UVA, Huffman and college roommate Alexis Ohanian [1] drove to Boston, Massachusetts, to attend a lecture [9] delivered by programmer-entrepreneur Paul Graham. [1] [10] Huffman and Ohanian talked with Graham after the lecture and he invited them to apply to his startup incubator Y Combinator. [1] Huffman came up with their original idea, My Mobile Menu, [10] which was intended to allow users to order food by SMS. [1] [10] The idea was rejected, but Graham asked Huffman and Ohanian to meet him in Boston to pitch another idea for a start-up; it was at this brainstorming session that the idea for what Graham called the "front page of the Internet" was created. [1] Huffman and Ohanian were accepted in Y Combinator's first class. [1] [10] Huffman coded the entire site in Lisp. [11] [12] He and Ohanian launched Reddit in June 2005, funded by Y Combinator. [8] [13]
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] At 23, Huffman and Ohanian sold Reddit to Condé Nast on October 31, 2006, for a reported $10 million to $20 million. [1] [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, [3] [4] Hipmunk launched in August 2010 [19] with Huffman serving as CTO. [20] In 2011, Inc. named Huffman to its 30 under 30 list. [20]
In 2014, Huffman said that his decision to sell Reddit had been a mistake, and that the site's growth had exceeded his expectations. [21] On July 10, 2015, Reddit hired Huffman as CEO following the resignation of Ellen Pao [22] and during a particularly difficult time for the company. [23] 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. [1]
Since returning to Reddit, Huffman instituted a number of technological improvements [23] including a better mobile experience and stronger infrastructure, as well as new content guidelines. These included a ban on content that incites violence, quarantining some material users might find offensive, and removing communities "that exist solely to [...] make Reddit worse for everyone else". [1] [23] Shortly after returning, Huffman wrote that "neither Alexis nor I created reddit to be a bastion of free speech, but rather as a place where open and honest discussion can happen." [24] In a 2012 interview, Ohanian had used the same phrase to describe Reddit, as noted by The New Yorker and The Verge. [18] [25]
Huffman also worked to make the site more advertiser-friendly [1] [23] and led efforts to host video and images on site. [26] In late 2016, Huffman was the focus of controversy for altering posts on a subreddit popular with supporters of Donald Trump, /r/The_Donald. Following criticism from Reddit users, he undid the change and issued an apology. [27]
Beginning in 2017, Huffman led the redesign of Reddit's website with its first major visual update in a decade. [28] [29] Huffman said the site had looked like a "dystopian Craigslist" whose outdated look deterred new users. [28] Development of the new site took more than a year, and the redesign launched in April 2018. [28]
Huffman is an advocate for net neutrality rules. [30] [31] In 2017, Huffman told The New York Times that without net neutrality protections, "you give internet service providers the ability to choose winners and losers". [30] On Reddit, Huffman urged redditors to express support for net neutrality and contact their elected representatives in Washington, D.C. [31] Huffman said that the repeal of net neutrality rules stifles competition. He said he and Reddit would continue to advocate for net neutrality. [32]
Huffman lives in San Francisco, California. [33] He mentors aspiring programmers at coding bootcamps including Hackbright Academy. [34] Huffman was an instructor for e-learning courses on web development by Udacity. [35] [36] [37] He is on the board of advisors for the Anti-Defamation League's Center for Technology and Society. [12]
Huffman is a ballroom dancer. [12] [33] At the University of Virginia, Huffman competed in intercollegiate competitions. [12] [33] A report in The New Yorker described Huffman as a survivalist. [33]
Category:1983 births
Category:Living people
Category:Reddit people
Category:American technology company founders
Category:American technology chief executives
Category:American computer businesspeople
Category:American computer programmers
Category:University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni
Category:Web designers
Category:Web developers
Steve Huffman | |
---|---|
![]() Huffman at
Web Summit 2017 | |
Born | November 12, 1983 |
Other names | spez [1] |
Education | Computer Science |
Alma mater | University of Virginia |
Occupations |
|
Employer |
Steve Huffman (born November 12, 1983), also known by his Reddit username spez, is an American web developer and entrepreneur. He is the co-founder and CEO of Reddit, a social news and discussion website, which ranks in the top 10 websites in the world. [2] He also co-founded the airfare search-engine website Hipmunk. [3] [4] [5]
Steve Huffman grew up in Warrenton, Virginia. [6] At age 8, he began programming computers. [6] He graduated in 2001 from Wakefield School in The Plains, Virginia. [7] At the University of Virginia (UVA), he studied computer science, graduating in 2005. [6] [8]
During spring break of his senior year at UVA, Huffman and college roommate Alexis Ohanian [1] drove to Boston, Massachusetts, to attend a lecture [9] delivered by programmer-entrepreneur Paul Graham. [1] [10] Huffman and Ohanian talked with Graham after the lecture and he invited them to apply to his startup incubator Y Combinator. [1] Huffman came up with their original idea, My Mobile Menu, [10] which was intended to allow users to order food by SMS. [1] [10] The idea was rejected, but Graham asked Huffman and Ohanian to meet him in Boston to pitch another idea for a start-up; it was at this brainstorming session that the idea for what Graham called the "front page of the Internet" was created. [1] Huffman and Ohanian were accepted in Y Combinator's first class. [1] [10] Huffman coded the entire site in Lisp. [11] [12] He and Ohanian launched Reddit in June 2005, funded by Y Combinator. [8] [13]
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] At 23, Huffman and Ohanian sold Reddit to Condé Nast on October 31, 2006, for a reported $10 million to $20 million. [1] [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, [3] [4] Hipmunk launched in August 2010 [19] with Huffman serving as CTO. [20] In 2011, Inc. named Huffman to its 30 under 30 list. [20]
In 2014, Huffman said that his decision to sell Reddit had been a mistake, and that the site's growth had exceeded his expectations. [21] On July 10, 2015, Reddit hired Huffman as CEO following the resignation of Ellen Pao [22] and during a particularly difficult time for the company. [23] 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. [1]
Since returning to Reddit, Huffman instituted a number of technological improvements [23] including a better mobile experience and stronger infrastructure, as well as new content guidelines. These included a ban on content that incites violence, quarantining some material users might find offensive, and removing communities "that exist solely to [...] make Reddit worse for everyone else". [1] [23] Shortly after returning, Huffman wrote that "neither Alexis nor I created reddit to be a bastion of free speech, but rather as a place where open and honest discussion can happen." [24] In a 2012 interview, Ohanian had used the same phrase to describe Reddit, as noted by The New Yorker and The Verge. [18] [25]
Huffman also worked to make the site more advertiser-friendly [1] [23] and led efforts to host video and images on site. [26] In late 2016, Huffman was the focus of controversy for altering posts on a subreddit popular with supporters of Donald Trump, /r/The_Donald. Following criticism from Reddit users, he undid the change and issued an apology. [27]
Beginning in 2017, Huffman led the redesign of Reddit's website with its first major visual update in a decade. [28] [29] Huffman said the site had looked like a "dystopian Craigslist" whose outdated look deterred new users. [28] Development of the new site took more than a year, and the redesign launched in April 2018. [28]
Huffman is an advocate for net neutrality rules. [30] [31] In 2017, Huffman told The New York Times that without net neutrality protections, "you give internet service providers the ability to choose winners and losers". [30] On Reddit, Huffman urged redditors to express support for net neutrality and contact their elected representatives in Washington, D.C. [31] Huffman said that the repeal of net neutrality rules stifles competition. He said he and Reddit would continue to advocate for net neutrality. [32]
Huffman lives in San Francisco, California. [33] He mentors aspiring programmers at coding bootcamps including Hackbright Academy. [34] Huffman was an instructor for e-learning courses on web development by Udacity. [35] [36] [37] He is on the board of advisors for the Anti-Defamation League's Center for Technology and Society. [12]
Huffman is a ballroom dancer. [12] [33] At the University of Virginia, Huffman competed in intercollegiate competitions. [12] [33] A report in The New Yorker described Huffman as a survivalist. [33]
Category:1983 births
Category:Living people
Category:Reddit people
Category:American technology company founders
Category:American technology chief executives
Category:American computer businesspeople
Category:American computer programmers
Category:University of Virginia School of Engineering and Applied Science alumni
Category:Web designers
Category:Web developers