The Reddits

Paul Graham’s essay The Reddits tells the origin story of Reddit and its founders.

The Origin

Steve and Alexis were undergraduates at the University of Virginia who traveled to Harvard to hear Graham’s startup talk. Though their initial fast-food ordering app idea wasn’t viable, Graham was so impressed with them that he decided to launch Y Combinator partly to fund founders like them.

The Pivot

When Y Combinator rejected their original idea, Graham suggested an alternative: create a dedicated link-sharing platform inspired by del.icio.us/popular. The Reddits accepted this pivot while traveling home, getting off their train to commit to building what became Reddit.

Founder-Product Alignment

“Reddit has a certain personality—curious, skeptical, ready to be amused” that mirrors Steve’s intellectual curiosity and skepticism toward authority. This alignment made the platform uniquely suited to its founders’ values.

Competitive Advantage

Unlike Slashdot, which used human moderators, Reddit let users submit content directly. This meant Reddit’s content stayed fresher and newer.

Sustainable Success

Reddit proved “almost unkillable” due to its fundamental utility. Despite management struggles after Steve left, traffic continued growing steadily.