The social news aggregation startup co-founded by Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian was Reddit.
The two University of Virginia roommates developed the idea during a brainstorming session connected with Paul Graham and Y Combinator. Their original concept, a text-message food-ordering service called My Mobile Menu, was rejected, but the pair were encouraged to pitch a different idea: a site that could become the “front page of the Internet.”
Huffman programmed the early site, and Reddit launched in June 2005 with Y Combinator funding. Users submit links or posts to topic-based communities, then vote and comment, allowing popular material to rise through the rankings.
Aaron Swartz later joined the company after a merger involving his startup Infogami, which is why some historical accounts also mention him in Reddit’s founding story. Nevertheless, Huffman and Ohanian are the standard pair identified with Reddit’s creation. Slashdot, Digg, and Hacker News are separate discussion or aggregation platforms.