5 ms·

Do you not consider reddit a win for YC?

sage_joch 14y ago
I think Reddit might have been more of a PR win than a major investment win. You might argue that it could have been the latter if the team had turned down the Conde Naste acquisition offer, but that might be the point. Without strong revenues it might not have been easy to turn down such an offer. I'm just speculating so please correct me if any of this is incorrect.
- mikepmalai 14y ago
  Agree. While it probably wasn't a big financial win, I think Reddit was a big win for the YC brand and highlighted what the program was all about.
benologist 14y ago
They sold six years ago when they were relatively tiny compared to today. There's no way they would have been a "major" win up there with the 4 huge exits webwright mentioned: "We couldn't get them to tell us the acquisition price, but they did tell us that the company has raised just $100k (all in summer 2005) and currently has an average of 70,000 daily unique visitors and 700,000 or so page views." http://techcrunch.com/2006/10/31/breaking-news-conde-nastwired-acquires-reddit/ http://techcrunch.com/2006/10/31/breaking-news-conde-nastwir...
- AznHisoka 14y ago
  Not to mention, it's arguably still not a win for Conde Nast - I know the founder of Reddit is seen as a success, sure, but the truth is it's hard to monetize their user base.
- tvladeck 14y ago
  While AirBNB & Dropbox are successful enough now to consider them "exits" - they haven't actually sold or ipo'd.
  - webwright 14y ago
    For what it's worth, stock in companies at these stages are often pretty damn liquid-- not quite as much as an IPO'd company, but still plenty liquid. YC could sell their stock in either company at or near their recent valuations on SecondMarket. For all we know, they could've partially cashed out in any of the rounds (though I'd bet they haven't).
webwright 14y ago
Reddit was an early PR win. But, if you made a pie chart of returns for YC, Reddit would be a nearly invisible sliver. That said, it established a relationship with Alexis & Steve, one of whom is repping YC in the east and the other came back with Hipmunk, which just raised a huge pile of money in a huge space. So I think it WILL be a huge win for YC... But not from the Reddit exit.

I think Reddit might have been more of a PR win than a major investment win. You might argue that it could have been the latter if the team had turned down the Conde Naste acquisition offer, but that might be the point. Without strong revenues it might not have been easy to turn down such an offer. I'm just speculating so please correct me if any of this is incorrect.

mikepmalai 14y ago
Agree. While it probably wasn't a big financial win, I think Reddit was a big win for the YC brand and highlighted what the program was all about.

benologist 14y ago

They sold six years ago when they were relatively tiny compared to today. There's no way they would have been a "major" win up there with the 4 huge exits webwright mentioned: "We couldn't get them to tell us the acquisition price, but they did tell us that the company has raised just $100k (all in summer 2005) and currently has an average of 70,000 daily unique visitors and 700,000 or so page views." http://techcrunch.com/2006/10/31/breaking-news-conde-nastwired-acquires-reddit/ http://techcrunch.com/2006/10/31/breaking-news-conde-nastwir...

AznHisoka 14y ago
Not to mention, it's arguably still not a win for Conde Nast - I know the founder of Reddit is seen as a success, sure, but the truth is it's hard to monetize their user base.
tvladeck 14y ago
While AirBNB & Dropbox are successful enough now to consider them "exits" - they haven't actually sold or ipo'd.
- webwright 14y ago
  For what it's worth, stock in companies at these stages are often pretty damn liquid-- not quite as much as an IPO'd company, but still plenty liquid. YC could sell their stock in either company at or near their recent valuations on SecondMarket. For all we know, they could've partially cashed out in any of the rounds (though I'd bet they haven't).

webwright 14y ago

Reddit was an early PR win. But, if you made a pie chart of returns for YC, Reddit would be a nearly invisible sliver. That said, it established a relationship with Alexis & Steve, one of whom is repping YC in the east and the other came back with Hipmunk, which just raised a huge pile of money in a huge space. So I think it WILL be a huge win for YC... But not from the Reddit exit.