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So, I'm a bit confused. How is Reddit considered a success story by it's founders? Wasn't it sold off really early to Conde Nast? Didn't it only start to blast off into success-o-sphere like right after Digg started dying? Wasn't Conde Nast not providing resources to the team which, forced them to ask for donations (reddit gold) from the community to build more servers/hire? I mean, it all sounds like a big barrel of luck that it even survived.

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It was sold quite early, but for a double digit million dollar pay out. For a while, it was the biggest YC exit. It has been spun back out into an independent subsidiary, which Alexis is involved in again in an executive role (Steve could have been, too, I'm sure, but he's working on Hipmunk).

What do you consider success for fresh out of college 20-somethings, if having a few million bucks in the bank, and having built one of the biggest sites on the Internet, isn't success?

I guess I was saying that a lot of things happened that were indicators that the site may have not been what it is today. I don't know how much money they have in their bank accounts but I'll bet all mine it's not millions from the reddit sale. I just get annoyed by the hype of a vision and someone be responsible for something that can't really be explained. If it really was that for them, as jay-z put it, they could create another one.

That would be a foolish bet. The value of the acquisition is known to have been in the low double digit millions. Probably 12-15. There were two founders, plus a third member of the team at the time of acquisition, and very little dilution from investment...the math is pretty easy.

Reddit gold is a freemium model, not donations. Are Conde Nast meant to continually bankroll something that doesn't generate profit?

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