Reddit is a success, but not sure how much of Alexis' advice can be extrapolated and used in other startups. Reddit took a long time before the advertising business was vastly profitable, and depended on an acquisition to make the investment worth it.
FWIW, reddit raised $82,000. Total. So I think 'depended on an acquisition' is a bit extreme. Hopefully lessons from breadpig and hipmunk are also useful! Though it's still too early to tell. Ultimately, all advice is only going to be so useful -- there's no recipe or guidebook for success. So much of it just going to be luck, but that'd be a really short e-book.
$82,000 was the acquisition price or the seed funding? If not, how much was Reddit bought for by Conde Nast, if you don't mind me asking?
Has Reddit been truely profitable? It gets massive traffic... but does not look like it is monetized very well. And it must get some of the worst demographics for mass consumer advertisers to sell to.
FYI from the PBS video watchable on Alexis's new book sales page:
"According to Google Double click ad Planner'a estimate THE MEDIAN U.S. REDDIT USER IS MALE (72%), 25-34 YEARS OF AGE, HAS SOME COLLEGE EDUCATION, AND IS IN THE LOWEST INCOME BRACKET OF US$0-$24,999"
reddit raised $82,000 -- that's investment. You can google around for the sale price, the Internet has the range pretty much figured out, but reddit is indeed profitable today (and not at the expense of users!) thanks primarily to self-serve ad platform.
Savvy advertisers have done a great job using the tool, which admittedly needs work, but it's making us money. http://www.reddit.com/ad_inq/
