"If you start restricting free speech, in gray areas you silence minorities that need their point to be heard."Īs for the high-profile photo leak, Altman said, "Honestly, in that specific case, I disagreed with how they handled it. They're both really important," said Altman. "There are sort of these dual competing values that most people, including people who work at Reddit, have: free speech and basic human decency. It's a way to keep people feeling invested even as Reddit becomes a company that venture capitalists value at hundreds of millions of dollars (at least five of them, sources said). You could see giving stock to users as a continuation of that deference. Read More Digital-currency experiment: mixed martial arts edition Eventually, Reddit did ban the forums, awkwardly justifying its actions in a series of blog posts and comments by Wong and other employees. In very recent memory, the company took a week to formulate a stance on whether to ban forums that were aggressively posting links to a trove of private nude photos stolen from the iPhones of actresses like Jennifer Lawrence. It has changed its design very little over the years, and made only modest attempts to bring in money. "It seems to me, speaking as a purely selfish investor, that this is the long-term interest of the health of the company," he said.Īfter seeing social media sites come and go at the mercy of users who feel they own the place (exhibit A: Reddit's original competitor Digg), Reddit has been largely deferential to its community. Where venture investors might have a fiduciary duty to ask for more control and not give shares away, Altman has no such concerns about his own money. Read More Big Brother is watching-make that trolling-you Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian now also works at Y Combinator and is a board member of Reddit.) (There are a lot of recurring names involved here. Having attended the first Y Combinator class himself along with the founders of Reddit, Altman said he was one of the first users of the site and has used it every day for the past nine years. Wong said the funding would be used to add to Reddit's staff of more than 60 for areas such as product development, community management, moderation tools, mobile tools, ad and gifts products and paying infrastructure costs. Meanwhile, Altman said he is relinquishing any votes associated with his shares to the Reddit management team. It also still owns more than half the company, said a source. Snoop Dogg) and CEO Yishan Wong.Ĭonde Nast parent company Advance, which previously bought Reddit and spun it off, retains a board seat. Other individuals include Peter Thiel, Ron Conway, Paul Buchheit, Jared Leto, Jessica Livingston, Kevin and Julia Hartz, Mariam Naficy, Josh Kushner, Calvin Broadus Jr. Other investors include Andreessen Horowitz and Sequoia. Though Altman is not providing the majority of the $50 million, he is leading the round and setting its terms. How exactly that's going to be managed hasn't yet been figured out (or, more importantly, approved by bankers and lawyers), but Altman said Reddit may dole out shares using a distributed accounting system, a la the bitcoin block chain. More from Re/code: Microsoft skips Windows 9, heads straight to Windows 10 Digital health startups raised $700 million during Q3 Swarm drones take flight on Indiegogo What's new and interesting is that the round was led by an individual - Y Combinator president Sam Altman - and that he, along with the other investors, plans to allocate 10 percent of the equity they are buying to Reddit users. Personal Loans for 670 Credit Score or Lower Personal Loans for 580 Credit Score or Lower Best Debt Consolidation Loans for Bad Credit
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |