Steve Huffman: Co-founder and CEO of Reddit

Steve Huffman: Co-founder and CEO of Reddit

Business Owner · Internet & Consumer Tech

San Francisco

Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian pitched Y Combinator's Paul Graham after a spring-break drive to Boston and ended up creating Reddit, the 'front page of the Internet'.

About Steve Huffman: Co-founder and CEO of Reddit

Steve Huffman (born November 12, 1983), also known by his Reddit username spez, is an American web developer and entrepreneur, the co-founder and CEO of Reddit, the seventh most-visited website in the world as of July 2025. He also co-founded the airfare search engine Hipmunk, which shut down in 2020. His tenure as Reddit CEO has met with many controversies over changes to the platform. As of November 2025 his estimated net worth was approximately $1.2 billion. Huffman grew up in Warrenton, Virginia, began programming at eight, graduated from Wakefield School in The Plains, Virginia, in 2001, and studied computer science at the University of Virginia, graduating in 2005. During spring break of his senior year he and roommate Alexis Ohanian drove to Boston to hear a lecture by the English programmer-entrepreneur Paul Graham, who invited them to apply to his Y Combinator incubator. Huffman's original idea, My Mobile Menu, which would have let users order food by SMS, was rejected, but Graham asked the pair to return to Boston to pitch another idea, and at that brainstorming session the concept for what Graham called the "front page of the Internet" was born. Sources: English Wikipedia (Steve Huffman, accessed September 2026).

Basic Information

Co-founder and CEO, Reddit; co-founder, Hipmunk

Company Details

Reddit, Inc.

Social Media, Online Communities