The Underdog Story of Reddit
About This Episode
Shaan Puri and Sam Parr analyze the origin story of Reddit following its IPO, using a Paul Graham essay to extract lessons on high-agency behavior. They discuss how the company's founders pivoted from a bad idea to a massive success and the 'fake it till you make it' tactics used to seed their initial community.
Episode Description
Show Notes
- 0:00Intro
- 1:59If you want to learn, teach.
- 3:45Show up – the ultimate high agency move
- 5:54Trust your gut
- 7:47How to get the best ideas
- 12:30Don’t be precious about the name
- 13:33How Reddit faked early traction
- 16:45Talent filters
- 19:37“The best products are you pushed out”
- 23:42We read Chris Saccsa’s early emails
- 26:32Reddit’s exits to Conde Nast, then buys it back
- 29:2019 years later and still not profitable
Check Out Shaan's Stuff
Check Out Sam's Stuff
Key Takeaways
Use teaching or public speaking as a forcing function to sharpen and validate business ideas; if you can't articulate an insightful 45-minute talk, the concept may not be strong enough.
Solve the 'cold start' problem in new communities by manually seeding content and using multiple personas to establish the desired culture and activity level.
Look for 'side features' or popular tabs within existing successful platforms (like the Popular tab on Delicious) that can be isolated and expanded into standalone products.