After turning down Yahoo's offer, we decided to focus on connecting more people, which ultimately led to significant growth.

FriendFeed was created to be an awesome place to work, aiming to capture the best parts of the early Google experience.

For two or three years, we were recognized as one of the great places to work in tech, alongside companies like Twitter and Workday, which was a testament to our solid culture.

After the acquisition, Reddit struggled to attract the right talent and resources, leading to my departure to start Hipmunk, while Alexis pursued a career in investing.

Returning to Reddit in 2015 was the hardest decision I've ever made, as I had to leave Hipmunk, but I felt a strong responsibility to help the company I co-founded. Reddit is more important to the world than many realize, and it would be a shame if it didn't live up to its potential.

After getting into Y Combinator, we made early-stage mistakes by hiring without proper culture fit vetting and dreaming too big without focusing on execution.

The Y Combinator experience was invaluable; the community of motivated individuals and guidance from partners like Paul Graham helped us stay on course and saved us years of effort.

After declining the offer, I felt fortunate that my belief in our direction paid off quickly, as we launched Newsfeed shortly after, which became one of the most used products globally.

We learned to do things that don't scale, like personally meeting our users in New York, which helped us build rapport and gather valuable feedback.