Reddit hit 1M users in 1 year. The key was listening to users—& not doing what they said. | Reddit CTO & Founding Engineer Chris Slowe

A Product Market Fit Show | Startups & Founders

We interview Chris Slow the CTO and Founding Engineer at Reddit. Reddit is now a ~$10B company, with nearly $1B in revenue. Their 1B+ monthly active users are so powerful they can move markets. This is the story of how it all began.
On this episode, we interview Chris Slowe, Reddit's current CTO and Founding Engineer. Chris was in YC's first-ever batch with Steve and Alexis. He was their roommate. When Chris's own startup failed, he moved over and joined them to build Reddit. This was almost 20 years ago, in 2005.
It only took them a year to hit 1 million monthly active users. But it took them well over 5 years to hit $1M in revenue. Here's the story of how they hit product-market fit and built the world's most powerful online community.

Why you should listen:
- Learn how Reddit got started in 2005 and why it took them many years to monetize
- See how word of mouth & organic growth are the key to building a community like Reddit
- Hear Chris's perspective on scaling teams and organizations, preserving culture, and signs of clear product-market fit
- Why applying lessons from your first startup to your second one is not as easy as you think it might be
Keywords
Reddit, Y Combinator, growth, startups, founders, acquisition, Conde Nast, community-driven platform, culture, word of mouth, Google, organic growth, Hipmunk, monetization, product-market fit, scaling, startup advice
Timestamps:
(00:00:00) Intro
(00:01:55) The Start of Reddit
(00:07:13) Joining Reddit
(00:12:56) Building Communities
(00:20:37) The First Year of Reddit
(00:22:56) The Acquisition
(00:26:50) Staying Lean
(00:28:58) Leaving Reddit to do Hipmunk
(00:37:14) Hiring for Hipmunk
(00:41:08) Coming Back to Reddit
(00:45:05) Making the Mobile App
(00:47:13) Monetization
(00:50:05) Finding True Product Market Fit
(00:50:41) One Piece of Advice

Send me a message to let me know what you think!

Chapters

1. Reddit hit 1M users in 1 year. The key was listening to users—& not doing what they said. | Reddit CTO & Founding Engineer Chris Slowe (00:00:00)

2. The Start of Reddit (00:01:55)

3. Joining Reddit (00:07:13)

4. Building Communities (00:12:56)

5. The First Year of Reddit (00:20:37)

6. The Acquisition (00:22:56)

7. Staying Lean (00:26:50)

8. Leaving Reddit to do Hipmunk (00:28:58)

9. Hiring for Hipmunk (00:37:14)

10. Coming Back to Reddit (00:41:08)

11. Making the Mobile App (00:45:05)

12. Monetization (00:47:13)

13. Finding True Product Market Fit (00:50:05)

14. One Piece of Advice (00:50:41)