4 ms·

2 months after a $50 million round of financing and the lead investor of said round steps in as temporary CEO. You would have to be very, very naive to believe

by hiou 12y ago

2 months after a $50 million round of financing and the lead investor of said round steps in as temporary CEO. You would have to be very, very naive to believe that this was solely a dispute on the cost and location of a new office. It seems fairly obvious that with the new round of investment Wong saw his control of reddit significantly reduced and his decision making second guessed and overturned finally culminating in his resignation. He likely already knew his days as the CEO of reddit were numbered. This is purely speculation, but it's definitely not just a dispute about the office.

ryanmerket 12y ago
reddit employee here. there were no signs to justify your speculative argument.
- raulinus 12y ago
  You are mixing the point here, the speculation is true.
  - sillysaurus3 12y ago
    Actually, maybe we should listen to someone with an inside perspective, rather than speculate?
  - anonbanker 12y ago
    and you created an account to say this?
- shostack 12y ago
  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 recent PM hire would be involved in all of the board meetings, hallway conversations, etc. where some of this power struggle may have occurred.
  - ryanmerket 12y ago
    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 is truth. Yishan wanted the new HQ closer to the peninsula because he believed it was the best thing for the company (cost savings, south bay commuters, etc), and probably less so, for his family. The board disagreed, and there were a number of employees who disagreed. Yishan may have felt that he wasn't given enough trust and reins he needed to execute the company the way he thought it should be if he was CEO. This was the sole reason for Yishan's resignation, as I know it.
    - teacup50 12y ago
      This is a hopelessly naive position to hold, and it's also a one likely to be dangerous to your career — believing in openness so blindly is how you're going to be blind-sided. An "open" culture is open unless the folks who actually are in charge have a good reason for it not to be. As someone who has been behind the closed doors, I guarantee that you have no idea what occurred behind them.
      - ryanmerket 12y ago
        Openness isn't the only reason. I'm also pretty close with Yishan (pre-reddit) and Ellen is my direct supervisor and sits across from me. Sure there might have been other small issues, but office location was a large point of contention internally. So this being the underlying part of Yishan's resignation makes sense.
        teacup50 12y ago
        Nobody (sane) resigns solely over office location planning. They would, however, resign over the politics that drove their proposal being dismissed.
    - 12y ago
alttab 12y ago
I can't imagine anyone walking away from the position of CEO of Reddit over something like that.
dkfmn 12y ago
Rare for an investor to put money into a company with the expectation of replacing the CEO. The speculation you propose is extra unjustified given that there was no change in control with this investment. I know it's popular for HN to take the side of a persecuted CEO but in this case there's no evidence, or even pattern matching, to support this perspective.

by hiou 12y ago

ryanmerket 12y ago

reddit employee here. there were no signs to justify your speculative argument.

raulinus 12y ago
You are mixing the point here, the speculation is true.
- sillysaurus3 12y ago
  Actually, maybe we should listen to someone with an inside perspective, rather than speculate?
- anonbanker 12y ago
  and you created an account to say this?
shostack 12y ago
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 recent PM hire would be involved in all of the board meetings, hallway conversations, etc. where some of this power struggle may have occurred.
- ryanmerket 12y ago
  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 is truth. Yishan wanted the new HQ closer to the peninsula because he believed it was the best thing for the company (cost savings, south bay commuters, etc), and probably less so, for his family. The board disagreed, and there were a number of employees who disagreed. Yishan may have felt that he wasn't given enough trust and reins he needed to execute the company the way he thought it should be if he was CEO. This was the sole reason for Yishan's resignation, as I know it.
  - teacup50 12y ago
    This is a hopelessly naive position to hold, and it's also a one likely to be dangerous to your career — believing in openness so blindly is how you're going to be blind-sided. An "open" culture is open unless the folks who actually are in charge have a good reason for it not to be. As someone who has been behind the closed doors, I guarantee that you have no idea what occurred behind them.
    - ryanmerket 12y ago
      Openness isn't the only reason. I'm also pretty close with Yishan (pre-reddit) and Ellen is my direct supervisor and sits across from me. Sure there might have been other small issues, but office location was a large point of contention internally. So this being the underlying part of Yishan's resignation makes sense.
      - teacup50 12y ago
        Nobody (sane) resigns solely over office location planning. They would, however, resign over the politics that drove their proposal being dismissed.
  - 12y ago

alttab 12y ago

I can't imagine anyone walking away from the position of CEO of Reddit over something like that.

dkfmn 12y ago

Rare for an investor to put money into a company with the expectation of replacing the CEO. The speculation you propose is extra unjustified given that there was no change in control with this investment. I know it's popular for HN to take the side of a persecuted CEO but in this case there's no evidence, or even pattern matching, to support this perspective.