How Reddit Went From $12M to $2.2B + Cracked Social Media Monetization

Steve Huffman, Co-Founder and CEO of Reddit, joins Sourcery at Reddit's San Francisco HQ for a deep dive into how Reddit became one of the strongest businesses in social media — and why it may be even more important in the AI era. On its 2-year anniversary as a public company (NYSE: $RDDT), we cover Reddit’s 2024 debut on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), including how the company brought its community along for the ride through one of the largest directed share programs in tech IPO history—allowing Reddit users to buy shares at the IPO price. From $12M in revenue in 2015 to $2.2B in 2025, Reddit has quietly built one of the most durable social platforms on the internet. A core idea from this conversation: Reddit is built on real humans — and as Steve puts it, there needs to be an “ass in seat.” As AI agents, bots, and synthetic content flood the internet, Reddit is doubling down on authenticity, human conversation, and community-driven moderation — while also becoming one of the most valuable data sources powering top AI models. We cover: - Reddit’s NYSE IPO and why Steve recommends going public - Why Reddit’s ad business is working while others struggle - How Reddit became critical training data for companies like OpenAI and Google - The “ass in seat” philosophy and why human presence matters - How Reddit handles bots, agents, and AI-generated content - Why Reddit may have cracked the social media business model - Steve’s contrarian take on IPOs and building long-term companies Reddit by the numbers: - 121M Daily Active Uniques - 471M+ Weekly Active Uniques - 100K+ Active Communities - 24B+ Posts & Comments - $2.2B Annual Revenue (2025) If you want to understand where the internet is heading — and why human communities may matter more than ever — subscribe to Sourcery. Steve Huffman: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shuffman56/ ** Molly O’Shea: https://x.com/MollySOShea Sourcery: ⁠https://x.com/sourceryy 𝐄𝐏𝐈𝐒𝐎𝐃𝐄 𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐊 YouTube: https://youtu.be/iV-nhcDTvdw 𝐒𝐏𝐎𝐍𝐒𝐎𝐑𝐒 • Brex—The modern finance platform, combining the world’s smartest corporate card with integrated expense management, banking, bill pay, & travel. https://brex.com/sourcery • Turing—Turing delivers top-tier talent, data, and tools to help AI labs improve model performance—and enables enterprises to turn those models into powerful, production-ready systems. https://turing.com/sourcery •VCX—VCX is the public ticker for private tech, allowing investors of all sizes to invest in venture capital. View The Portfolio at http://GetVCX.com • Deel—Deel is the global people platform that helps startups hire, manage, pay, and equip anyone, anywhere. Trusted by more than 35,000 fast-growing companies, Deel is the people platform that just works, so teams can scale without the chaos. Visit: https://www.deel.com/sourcery • Public–**Investing platform Public just launched Generated Assets, which lets you turn any idea into an investable index with AI. With Generated Assets, you can build, backtest, refine, and invest in any thesis with AI. Gone are the days of one-size-fits-all ETFs. https://public.com/sourcery Follow Sourcery for the latest updates! https://www.sourcery.vc/ Disclosure Paid Endorsement. Brokerage services by Open to the Public Investing Inc, member FINRA & SIPC. Advisory services by Public Advisors LLC, SEC-registered adviser. Crypto trading provided by Zero Hash LLC, licensed by the NYSDFS. Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool by Public Advisors. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. See disclosures at public.com/disclosures/ga. Matched funds must remain in your account for at least 5 years. Match rate and other terms are subject to change at any time.