Steve Huffman Says Reddit Employees Were 'Wrapped Up In Idealism' And 'Not Working Very Hard' Before His 2015 Comeback As CEO

Reddit Inc. RDDT co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman recently shared that, according to him, employees were “not working very hard” when he returned in 2015.

What Happened: Huffman co-founded the company in 2005 with Alexis Ohanian. He then left to pursue other ventures before returning as CEO in 2015. When he came back, he felt the need for a culture haul because employees were “wrapped up in some of that idealism” and “not working very hard,” he said on the Prof G podcast.

He directed the team to refocus, saying, “We have to work really, really hard. We’re in a competitive space.”

Why It Matters: According to Huffman, the culture issue at Reddit was not unique to the company, but prevalent in Silicon Valley as a whole.

“In the Bay Area, broadly, is this — it’s almost an entitlement of, ‘I work at these companies, but I don’t have to work very hard and I’m here for myself,’” he said. As CEO, he had to navigate these challenges to redirect Reddit in a different direction.

Huffman’s reminders about working hard and competing with rivals echo other tech leaders’ messages to their employees. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang shared his belief that his “tough love” approach of making employees work seven days a week and sometimes stay as late as 2 a.m. is what sets the company apart.

After the success of China’s DeepSeek, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella allegedly asked employees to step up their game and focus on creating standout products.

Reddit posted quarterly earnings of 13 cents per share, defying analyst expectations of 2 cents. Revenue stood at $392.36 million, beating forecasts of $370.01 million and seeing a sharp rise from $242.96 million in the same quarter in 2024.

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