The character arc of Steve Huffman
A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record
Born on 12 November 1983. Between then and now sit Wakefield School in 2001, a computer science degree at the University of Virginia in 2005, Reddit launched in June 2005, the sale to Conde Nast on 31 October 2006, his departure in 2009, Hipmunk in August 2010, his own verdict on the sale in 2014, the return as chief executive on 10 July 2015, the redesign in April 2018 and the programming interface change of April 2023. The line below draws the story so far, in order.
Tap the line to pluck it. Hover or tap any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of his life; the sources are at the foot of the page.
Who is Steve Huffman?
He said it was a mistake.
He graduated from Wakefield School in The Plains, Virginia in 2001 and studied computer science at the University of Virginia, graduating in 2005. In June of that year he and Alexis Ohanian launched Reddit, funded by Y Combinator. The audience grew quickly, and by August 2005 he noticed that the people who came back every day had grown numerous enough that he no longer had to fill the front page himself, which is the moment a website becomes a place.
They sold it to Conde Nast on 31 October 2006, for a reported ten to twenty million dollars. He was twenty three. He stayed until 2009, left the acting chief executive role, spent several months backpacking in Costa Rica, and then co-created the travel site Hipmunk with Adam Goldstein in 2010, launched in August that year with him as chief technology officer. Hipmunk was shut down in 2020.
In 2014 he said plainly that selling Reddit had been a mistake and that the site's growth had gone beyond what he expected. On 10 July 2015 Reddit hired him back as chief executive, at a difficult moment for the company. He led a redesign from 2017 that took more than a year and launched in April 2018, the first major visual change in a decade. In April 2023 the company announced changes to its programming interface rules, which led to thousands of communities closing themselves to the public for forty eight hours from 12 June 2023 in protest. Reddit was the seventh most visited website in the world as of July 2025.
The moments
Steve Huffman's timeline.
The 2000s
Wakefield School
Milestone. A small school in rural Virginia.
Computer science at Virginia
Milestone, and it changed his direction. He built the website the same summer he finished the degree.
Reddit launched
Milestone, and it changed everything. Two people, one summer, and a website with nothing on it.
He stopped filling it
Milestone, and it changed his direction. The moment a website stops being yours and becomes a place.
Sold to Conde Nast
Milestone, and it changed everything. Twenty three years old, and the website was somebody else's.
He left
Setback, and it changed his direction. Out of the company he had built, and several months in Costa Rica.
The 2010s
Hipmunk
Milestone, and it changed his direction. A second company, in a business nobody enjoys using.
He called it a mistake
Milestone, and it changed everything. Said out loud, about the biggest decision he had made.
Go back and run it
Crossroads, decided.
The paths laid out: take the job back, taken, or stay at Hipmunk. He led the redesign that launched in April 2018, and Reddit was the seventh most visited website in the world as of July 2025.
Asked back as chief executive
Milestone, and it changed everything. Back through the same door, nine years after selling the place.
The redesign
Milestone, and it changed his direction. More than a year of work, on a site people are famously attached to.
The 2020s
The communities closed
Setback, and it changed everything. Several thousand communities shut their own doors for two days.
Seventh in the world
Milestone, and it changed his direction. Seventh in the world, twenty years after two people launched it.
The line reaches today still adding to itself, which is why it is drawn now rather than at the end. What it has set moving is an unusual second act: he said out loud that he had got the biggest decision of his life wrong, and then was handed the chance to do it differently.
Your turn
Every line draws a unique story.
His sold the thing he built at twenty three and spent nine years getting back to it. Yours is already further along than you think, and drawing it takes about five minutes.
Steve Huffman: frequently asked questions
What people ask about his line.
What is Steve Huffman's character arc?
When did Steve Huffman found Reddit?
Why did Steve Huffman sell Reddit?
When did Steve Huffman return to Reddit?
What did Steve Huffman do between leaving and returning to Reddit?
What happened with Steve Huffman and the Reddit API in 2023?
How big is Steve Huffman's Reddit now?
Where does this timeline of Steve Huffman's life come from?
More character arcs
Lives that rhyme with his.
Sources
- Steve Huffman, English Wikipedia biography, filed under living people.
- Conde Nast acquisition of Reddit, 31 October 2006.
- University of Virginia degree record, 2005.