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A new team at Reddit

blog.samaltman.com

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Re: A new team at Reddit

#201

Post by codezero »

zzleeper wrote: post #193
sama wrote: post #85

I realize that this sounds non-credible (and it's certainly one of the craziest professional things I've ever been a part of), but it's actually what happened. Yishan wanted to move the office from SF to Daly City. The board pushed back but said we'd agree to it with certain data (we wanted Yishan to figure out how many employees would stay with the company through the move, get a comparison to other market rents, et…

Silly question, but why Daly City?

It's much cheaper to work and live in Daly City than in San Francisco. It's probably a lot easier to expand there as well. If you buy office space in San Francisco, you either buy just enough for your current team with some wiggle room, or you buy as much as you think you need for the entire time you plan to remain there, which may be 2 or 3x the size of your current needs. It costs a lot of money to own property you're not fully utilizing, but companies do it, many sub-lease the space to offset the cost, but for smaller companies, this means they move offices pretty frequently. My company is in their third office in just the past year :P

Re: A new team at Reddit

#202

Post by waterlesscloud »

ryanmerket wrote: post #181
shostack wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just playing devil's advocate here, and please know I mean this with all due respect, but you are a Product Manager who has been there 4 months according to LinkedIn. I do not claim to know the inner workings of Reddit, but can you really be 100% certain that you were privy to all of the meetings, etc. where such signs may have been observed? Again--zero disrespect intended here, but it strikes me as uncommon that a…

The culture at reddit is one of openness. We're also a super small team (about 30 in SF), so any kind of issues/arguments are easily recognized. Through the relocation announcement, the ex-employee issue on reddit, handling of the #celebgate, all employees and the board were supportive of Yishan for the most part. If there was any animosity, it certainly wasn't enough to call for his resignation. What Sam is saying i…

Reading what Sam wrote, the board didn't tell Yishan no. They just wanted him to add up the effects it would have. Which isn't just reasonable, it's a requirement if you're any kind of responsible corporate steward. You don't move on a whim, you have the pluses and minuses all figured out.

And no offense, but I find it hard to believe anyone other than Yishan and the board (and maybe some other investors) is privy to all the conversations they had.

It wouldn't be at all surprising if board members are 'nicer' to a ceo in front of employees than they are in private. It'd be kind of surprising if they weren't.

Re: A new team at Reddit

#203

Post by ryanmerket »

waterlesscloud wrote: post #202
ryanmerket wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The culture at reddit is one of openness. We're also a super small team (about 30 in SF), so any kind of issues/arguments are easily recognized. Through the relocation announcement, the ex-employee issue on reddit, handling of the #celebgate, all employees and the board were supportive of Yishan for the most part. If there was any animosity, it certainly wasn't enough to call for his resignation. What Sam is saying i…

Reading what Sam wrote, the board didn't tell Yishan no. They just wanted him to add up the effects it would have. Which isn't just reasonable, it's a requirement if you're any kind of responsible corporate steward. You don't move on a whim, you have the pluses and minuses all figured out. And no offense, but I find it hard to believe anyone other than Yishan and the board (and maybe some other investors) is privy to…

I never said I was privy to the board conversations. My reasonings had to do with the PR events that some believe may have contributed to the board's feelings for Yishan as a competent CEO.

Re: A new team at Reddit

#204

Post by pchristensen »

karissa wrote: post #168
anon808 wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Daly City is 9.7 miles from the reddit office, for all practical purposes it sounds like Yishan wanted to just move offices in the same city; the Daly City part doesn't seem like it's important. Or am I missing something?

with a highly competitive job market, especially where many of the people in a city with poor public transit do not have cars, 9.7 miles is annoying enough to cause people to choose somewhere else to work.

When I lived in the East Bay, it would be really hard to accept a move to Daly City (from downtown SF), because it's another 20 min each way. And East Bay BART riders wouldn't even have to change trains! For CalTrain riders, it's a doubling of the commute or more.

Re: A new team at Reddit

#205

Post by jfker8 »

So removed one ching-chong and bringing another. What's the difference ?

Also, are people stupid enough to believe that he is quitting over location dispute.

Its bigger , way bigger. Women in tech. My ass !

Welcome to preparation of 2016 !!

Re: A new team at Reddit

#206

Post by sanskritabelt »

humanrebar wrote: post #80
toomuchtodo wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having a PR drone respond on Reddit would be like throwing yourself into a river full of piranhas. The response was appropriate based on the culture of the community (i.e. "no bullshit").

> ...based on the culture of the community (i.e. "no bullshit"). I didn't realize Reddit has the same culture as Bill O'Reilly. In all seriousness, the Reddit culture is "only my bullshit", just like any "no spin", "no bias", "no B.S.", "straight talk", etc. community/person out there.

Aren't the reddit demographics, like O'Reilly, 'richer, whiter, older'? (also kinda racist and sexist, so that's more points of convergence).

Re: A new team at Reddit

#207

Post by ig1 »

skizm wrote: post #59
billmalarky wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

5x growth is great, but Reddit definitely has a "if it isn't broke don't fix it" mentality (probably a fear of "digging"). I struggle to attribute that growth to one CEO's decisions, when it really seems more like inevitable growth due to the success of the product and community that was defined long before he took the helm. Arguably, by Alexis (community) & Steve (product).

> if it isn't broke don't fix it This is the kind of mentality more companies need. It is why craigslist is still running a site that looks like it is from 1999. The opposite thinking is why digg when down in flames.

Craigslist used to be...

...the largest real estate site in the world.

...the largest dating site in the world.

...one of the largest job sites in the world.

It's now an also ran in everyone of those categories. They lost every single major market they were the dominant player in. This isn't Craiglist winning, it's Craiglist losing.

Re: A new team at Reddit

#208

Post by chentsen »

sama wrote: post #85

I realize that this sounds non-credible (and it's certainly one of the craziest professional things I've ever been a part of), but it's actually what happened. Yishan wanted to move the office from SF to Daly City. The board pushed back but said we'd agree to it with certain data (we wanted Yishan to figure out how many employees would stay with the company through the move, get a comparison to other market rents, et…

It's super interesting anyways. I wonder if it has anything to do with trust? Maybe Yishan felt like this was a decision that was up to the CEO, and got annoyed when the Board asked Yishan to do due diligence. Did Yishan see this as the last straw in a string of challenges by the board -- or maybe that it was indicative of how the Board would challenge his decisions going forward?

Re: A new team at Reddit

#209

Post by waterlesscloud »

hiou wrote: post #120
sama wrote: post #85

I realize that this sounds non-credible (and it's certainly one of the craziest professional things I've ever been a part of), but it's actually what happened. Yishan wanted to move the office from SF to Daly City. The board pushed back but said we'd agree to it with certain data (we wanted Yishan to figure out how many employees would stay with the company through the move, get a comparison to other market rents, et…

I don't want it to sound like you are being dishonest about this, and it's possible there were things going on in Yishan's head that you were not aware of, but "a new team at reddit" in 8 days makes it a bit hard to believe this came completely out of nowhere.

It's not really a 'new' team, though, it's people who were already very close to Reddit.

Re: A new team at Reddit

#210

Post by encoderer »

codezero wrote: post #201
zzleeper wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Silly question, but why Daly City?

It's much cheaper to work and live in Daly City than in San Francisco. It's probably a lot easier to expand there as well. If you buy office space in San Francisco, you either buy just enough for your current team with some wiggle room, or you buy as much as you think you need for the entire time you plan to remain there, which may be 2 or 3x the size of your current needs. It costs a lot of money to own property you…

Actually, there are regulations in SF about leasing space you don't actually need. I don't know all the details, but my employer just moved to a new Soma office and we were prohibited from having a huge meeting space, and instead had to partition it and use some as workspace.
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