# Steve Huffman
**Steve Huffman** (Steven Huffman) is an American software engineer and entrepreneur who co-founded the social media platform Reddit in 2005 with his [University of Virginia](https://www.edgepedia.org/university-of-virginia) roommate [Alexis Ohanian](https://www.edgepedia.org/alexis-ohanian), and who has served as Reddit's chief executive officer, president, and a member of its board of directors since July 2015.[1](https://investor.redditinc.com/governance/board-of-directors/person-details/default.aspx?ItemId=ebbc948f-8aa5-4994-bff5-9c004aaab4d0) He led the company through its initial public offering on the [New York Stock Exchange](https://www.edgepedia.org/new-york-stock-exchange) in March 2024 and its first profitable quarters as a public company.[2](https://investor.redditinc.com/news-events/news-releases/news-details/2024/Reddit-Announces-Pricing-of-Initial-Public-Offering/default.aspx) • [3](https://apnews.com/article/5a9e32159a947094ae801ab107c950da)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Full name / role | Steven Huffman, co-founder, CEO, and president of Reddit; board member since July 2015[1](https://investor.redditinc.com/governance/board-of-directors/person-details/default.aspx?ItemId=ebbc948f-8aa5-4994-bff5-9c004aaab4d0) |
| Education | B.S. in Computer Science, University of Virginia, 2005[1](https://investor.redditinc.com/governance/board-of-directors/person-details/default.aspx?ItemId=ebbc948f-8aa5-4994-bff5-9c004aaab4d0) • [4](https://engineering.virginia.edu/news-events/news/reddit-co-founder-steve-huffman-honored-uva-distinguished-alumni-engineering-award) |
| Career record | Reddit co-founder June 2005 to October 2009; Hipmunk co-founder and CTO June 2010 to October 2015; Reddit CEO from July 2015[1](https://investor.redditinc.com/governance/board-of-directors/person-details/default.aspx?ItemId=ebbc948f-8aa5-4994-bff5-9c004aaab4d0) |
| IPO | Reddit priced its IPO at $34 per share on March 21, 2024, trading as RDDT on the NYSE[2](https://investor.redditinc.com/news-events/news-releases/news-details/2024/Reddit-Announces-Pricing-of-Initial-Public-Offering/default.aspx) |
| 2023 controversy | His decision to charge for Reddit's API prompted a 48-hour blackout by about 9,000 subreddits in June 2023[5](https://www.opb.org/article/2023/06/16/reddit-protest-data-charging-plan-ceo-interview/) |
| First public profit | $29.9 million net income on $348.4 million revenue in the quarter ending September 2024[3](https://apnews.com/article/5a9e32159a947094ae801ab107c950da) |
| Other boards | GameChanger Charity (since December 2020) and Bishop Fox, a cybersecurity firm (since July 2019)[1](https://investor.redditinc.com/governance/board-of-directors/person-details/default.aspx?ItemId=ebbc948f-8aa5-4994-bff5-9c004aaab4d0) |
## Education and founding of Reddit
Huffman studied computer science at the University of Virginia, graduating in 2005.[1](https://investor.redditinc.com/governance/board-of-directors/person-details/default.aspx?ItemId=ebbc948f-8aa5-4994-bff5-9c004aaab4d0) He and his college roommate Alexis Ohanian, then undergraduates in Hancock House, launched Reddit the summer after graduation.[6](https://innovates.virginia.edu/why/founded) In Huffman's own account, the two started Reddit in 2005 "as a simple user-powered forum to find news and interesting content," which grew into a community-driven site where millions of people find news, perspectives, and a sense of belonging.[7](https://www.congress.gov/116/meeting/house/110075/documents/HHRG-116-IF16-Transcript-20191016.pdf) The two founders had originally wanted to create a mobile food-ordering service, a plan conceived before the iPhone existed.[8](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2025/04/reddit-culture-community-credibility/681765/)
Condé Nast Publications bought Reddit in October 2006, and in 2011 it became an independent subsidiary of [Condé Nast](https://www.edgepedia.org/conde-nast)'s parent company, Advance Publications.[9](https://cincodias.elpais.com/mercados-financieros/2024-02-23/la-red-social-reddit-sale-a-bolsa-y-ofrece-a-sus-propios-usuarios-invertir-en-la-opv.html) Huffman remained at the company from June 2005 to October 2009 in a variety of leadership roles.[1](https://investor.redditinc.com/governance/board-of-directors/person-details/default.aspx?ItemId=ebbc948f-8aa5-4994-bff5-9c004aaab4d0)
## Hipmunk and the years away from Reddit
After leaving Reddit in 2009, Huffman spent several months backpacking in [Costa Rica](https://www.edgepedia.org/costa-rica) and then co-founded Hipmunk, an online commercial travel search company, in 2010.[10](https://www.thedailybeast.com/reddit-ceo-steve-huffman-my-staff-were-not-working-hard-enough/) Hipmunk went through the [Y Combinator](https://www.edgepedia.org/y-combinator) program in the summer 2010 batch and launched in August 2010 with Huffman and Ohanian as its only co-founders.[11](https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/hipmunk-yc-s10-raises-15m-series-b-from-ivp-a/) Huffman served as Hipmunk's co-founder and chief technology officer from June 2010 until October 2015.[1](https://investor.redditinc.com/governance/board-of-directors/person-details/default.aspx?ItemId=ebbc948f-8aa5-4994-bff5-9c004aaab4d0) In 2012, Forbes named him to its 30 Under 30 list.[12](https://www.congress.gov/116/meeting/house/110075/witnesses/HHRG-116-IF16-Bio-HuffmanS-20191016.pdf)
## Return as CEO, 2015
In October 2019 he testified before a U.S. House committee that [Section 230](https://www.edgepedia.org/section-230) of the [Communications Decency Act](https://www.edgepedia.org/communications-decency-act) was critical to Reddit and the open internet, arguing that changes to the law would pose an existential threat to Reddit and to thousands of American startups.[7](https://www.congress.gov/116/meeting/house/110075/documents/HHRG-116-IF16-Transcript-20191016.pdf)
## The 2023 API pricing controversy
In April 2023, Reddit announced that it would move to a paid model for third-party access to its API, the interface through which outside software reads and writes Reddit data, without initially publishing prices.[13](https://techcrunch.com/2023/06/16/reddit-ceo-lashes-out-on-protests-moderators-and-third-party-apps/?activate-overlay=true) Christian Selig, developer of the popular Apollo Reddit client, calculated that the new pricing would cost his app $20 million annually.[14](https://www.axios.com/2023/06/12/reddit-communities-protest) Starting June 12, 2023, thousands of subreddits went dark in protest, causing a brief outage of the site.[13](https://techcrunch.com/2023/06/16/reddit-ceo-lashes-out-on-protests-moderators-and-third-party-apps/?activate-overlay=true) About 9,000 subreddits joined a 48-hour boycott.[5](https://www.opb.org/article/2023/06/16/reddit-protest-data-charging-plan-ceo-interview/)
Huffman defended the pricing in interviews and did not change the plan. "It's a small group that's very upset, and there's no way around that. We made a business decision that upset them," he told NPR, adding that he believed "the greater Reddit community just wants to participate with their fellow community members."[5](https://www.opb.org/article/2023/06/16/reddit-protest-data-charging-plan-ceo-interview/) He framed the change as Reddit charging for access to valuable data, telling The New York Times in April 2023 that "the Reddit corpus of data is really valuable."[14](https://www.axios.com/2023/06/12/reddit-communities-protest) Four of the most popular third-party mobile Reddit apps, including Apollo, announced they would shut down because of the new fees.[5](https://www.opb.org/article/2023/06/16/reddit-protest-data-charging-plan-ceo-interview/)
## Data licensing and AI
Under Huffman, Reddit has monetized its archive of user conversation through licensing deals with AI companies. In February 2024 he signed a reportedly $60 million agreement with Google for AI model training, and in May 2024 he forged a partnership with OpenAI allowing ChatGPT to train on Reddit content, with OpenAI becoming a Reddit advertising partner in exchange.[15](https://time.com/7012845/steve-huffman/) In his IPO letter, Huffman described Reddit's archive of human conversation as "an invaluable dataset for a variety of purposes, including search, AI training, and research."[16](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1713445/000162828024010137/reddit-sx1a1.htm) He has also positioned Reddit as a counterweight to AI-generated content, calling it "the not AI platform, the place where you're free from AI, where you talk to humans about human things," while at the same time building AI-powered search over those conversations.[17](https://www.axios.com/2025/06/18/axios-cannes-event-travel-hospitality-ai)
Search has become a central product priority. In 2025 Huffman said Reddit planned an upgraded search experience integrating Reddit Answers, an AI feature that summarizes relevant threads, to answer "subjective hard, [and] interesting questions."[18](https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/12/reddit-hints-at-expanded-ai-powered-search/) By the third quarter of 2025, 75 million people searched weekly on Reddit, with about 20% of search volume handled through AI-powered Answers and the core search box; Huffman said AI chatbots were not a major traffic driver, with Google search and direct access remaining the top sources.[19](https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/31/reddit-ceo-says-chatbots-are-not-a-traffic-driver/)
## The IPO and Reddit as a public company
Reddit priced its initial public offering at $34 per share for 22,000,000 Class A shares, with trading beginning on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker RDDT on March 21, 2024.[2](https://investor.redditinc.com/news-events/news-releases/news-details/2024/Reddit-Announces-Pricing-of-Initial-Public-Offering/default.aspx) Huffman invited users and moderators to buy shares alongside institutional investors, and Reddit reserved about 1% of its common stock for community-related programs.[16](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1713445/000162828024010137/reddit-sx1a1.htm) According to the prospectus, he held 662,447 performance-based restricted stock units for Class B shares that would vest if Reddit attained a $5.0 billion market capitalization after the offering.[16](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1713445/000162828024010137/reddit-sx1a1.htm) [Le Monde](https://www.edgepedia.org/le-monde) reported that he would pocket $17 million from the listing.[20](https://www.lemonde.fr/economie/article/2024/03/22/reddit-en-bourse-le-retour-des-extraterrestres_6223523_3234.html) Some users objected to the offering: TIME reported criticism of Huffman's more than $193 million compensation in 2023, including stock and option awards, while volunteer moderators are unpaid.[21](https://time.com/6835612/reddit-users-ipo/)
The company turned its first profit as a public company in the quarter ending September 2024, reporting net income of $29.9 million on revenue of $348.4 million, with daily users up 47% year-over-year to 97.2 million; Huffman credited AI-powered translation among the growth drivers.[3](https://apnews.com/article/5a9e32159a947094ae801ab107c950da) Growth continued into 2025: in the second quarter Reddit reported revenue of $500 million, up 78% year-over-year, net income of $89 million, and 110.4 million daily active uniques.[22](https://investor.redditinc.com/news-events/news-releases/news-details/2025/Reddit-Announces-Second-Quarter-2025-Results/default.aspx) In the third quarter of 2025 revenue reached $585 million, up 68%, with 116 million daily active uniques and 444 million weekly active uniques.[19](https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/31/reddit-ceo-says-chatbots-are-not-a-traffic-driver/)
## References
1. [Steve Huffman, Co-Founder and CEO, Reddit Investor Relations, Board of Directors](https://investor.redditinc.com/governance/board-of-directors/person-details/default.aspx?ItemId=ebbc948f-8aa5-4994-bff5-9c004aaab4d0)
2. [Reddit Announces Pricing of Initial Public Offering, Reddit Investor Relations (March 2024)](https://investor.redditinc.com/news-events/news-releases/news-details/2024/Reddit-Announces-Pricing-of-Initial-Public-Offering/default.aspx)
3. [Reddit's explosive user growth and AI tools help it soar to its first profit as a public company, AP News (October 2024)](https://apnews.com/article/5a9e32159a947094ae801ab107c950da)
4. [Reddit Co-Founder Steve Huffman Honored With UVA Distinguished Alumni Engineering Award, UVA Engineering](https://engineering.virginia.edu/news-events/news/reddit-co-founder-steve-huffman-honored-uva-distinguished-alumni-engineering-award)
5. [Reddit CEO Steve Huffman: 'It's time we grow up and behave like an adult company', OPB/NPR (June 16, 2023)](https://www.opb.org/article/2023/06/16/reddit-protest-data-charging-plan-ceo-interview/)
6. [Founders from UVA, UVA Innovates](https://innovates.virginia.edu/why/founded)
7. [Statement of Steve Huffman, House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing transcript (October 16, 2019), congress.gov](https://www.congress.gov/116/meeting/house/110075/documents/HHRG-116-IF16-Transcript-20191016.pdf)
8. [The Nicest Swamp on the Internet, The Atlantic (2025)](https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2025/04/reddit-culture-community-credibility/681765/)
9. [La red social Reddit sale a Bolsa, Cinco Días / El País (February 2024)](https://cincodias.elpais.com/mercados-financieros/2024-02-23/la-red-social-reddit-sale-a-bolsa-y-ofrece-a-sus-propios-usuarios-invertir-en-la-opv.html)
10. [Reddit CEO: My Staff Were Not Working Hard Enough, The Daily Beast (May 2025)](https://www.thedailybeast.com/reddit-ceo-steve-huffman-my-staff-were-not-working-hard-enough/)
11. [Hipmunk (YC S10) raises $15M Series B from IVP and Ignition, Y Combinator (2012)](https://www.ycombinator.com/blog/hipmunk-yc-s10-raises-15m-series-b-from-ivp-a/)
12. [Steve Huffman witness biography, House Energy and Commerce Committee, congress.gov](https://www.congress.gov/116/meeting/house/110075/witnesses/HHRG-116-IF16-Bio-HuffmanS-20191016.pdf)
13. [Reddit CEO lashes out on protests, moderators and third-party apps, TechCrunch (June 16, 2023)](https://techcrunch.com/2023/06/16/reddit-ceo-lashes-out-on-protests-moderators-and-third-party-apps/?activate-overlay=true)
14. [Thousands of Reddit communities go dark in protest of API changes, Axios (June 12, 2023)](https://www.axios.com/2023/06/12/reddit-communities-protest)
15. [Steve Huffman, TIME (September 2024)](https://time.com/7012845/steve-huffman/)
16. [Reddit Form S-1/A, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (2024)](https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1713445/000162828024010137/reddit-sx1a1.htm)
17. [Axios Event at Cannes Lions: Digital tools are welcome, but travel depends on people's hospitality, Axios (June 2025)](https://www.axios.com/2025/06/18/axios-cannes-event-travel-hospitality-ai)
18. [Reddit hints at expanded AI-powered search, TechCrunch (February 2025)](https://techcrunch.com/2025/02/12/reddit-hints-at-expanded-ai-powered-search/)
19. [Reddit CEO says chatbots are not a traffic driver, TechCrunch (October 2025)](https://techcrunch.com/2025/10/31/reddit-ceo-says-chatbots-are-not-a-traffic-driver/)
20. [Reddit en Bourse: « Le retour des extraterrestres », Le Monde (March 2024)](https://www.lemonde.fr/economie/article/2024/03/22/reddit-en-bourse-le-retour-des-extraterrestres_6223523_3234.html)
21. [Why Reddit Users Have Turned Against the Company's IPO, TIME (2024)](https://time.com/6835612/reddit-users-ipo/)
22. [Reddit Announces Second Quarter 2025 Results, Reddit Investor Relations (July 2025)](https://investor.redditinc.com/news-events/news-releases/news-details/2025/Reddit-Announces-Second-Quarter-2025-Results/default.aspx)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Technology and the built world › Computing and digital systems › Software and programming › Software people › Technology executives and managers › Consumer internet and social media executives*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 15, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026 · Last review: Oct 15, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license