Huffman and Ohanian leave Reddit

In 2009, three years after selling to Condé Nast, both founders stepped away from Reddit's day-to-day operations. Steve Huffman left his role leading the site and went on to co-found the travel-search startup Hipmunk with Adam Goldstein. Alexis Ohanian also exited around this period, having earlier launched Breadpig, a "geeky merchandise" venture that directed proceeds to charity, and he later spent time as a Kiva microfinance fellow in Yerevan, Armenia. Their departures removed the original founding leadership at a time when Reddit was still a comparatively small operation within a large print-publishing parent.

The exits reflected the cultural strain of running a fast-growing, community-driven website inside Condé Nast, and they left Reddit to be steered largely by remaining staff and administrators during a pivotal growth phase. The founders' absence proved temporary in the long arc of the company: Ohanian returned as a board member and Huffman came back as chief executive in 2015, a reunion that would shape Reddit's path toward its eventual 2024 IPO.