

Yishan Wong comments on "What's the best long con you ever pulled?" - jewbacca
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/3cs78i/whats_the_best_long_con_you_ever_pulled/cszjqg2

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dang
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9871241](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9871241)

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jewbacca
For posterity:

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> Here's one.

> In 2006, reddit was sold to Conde Nast. It was soon obvious to many that the
> sale had been premature, the site was unmanaged and under-resourced under
> the old-media giant who simply didn't understand it and could never realize
> its full potential, so the founders and their allies in Y-Combinator (where
> reddit had been born) hatched an audacious plan to re-extract reddit from
> the clutches of the 100-year-old media conglomerate.

> Together with Sam Altman, they recruited a young up-and-coming technology
> manager with social media credentials. Alexis, who was on the interview
> panel for the new reddit CEO, would reject all other candidates except this
> one. The manager was to insist as a condition of taking the job that Conde
> Nast would have to give up significant ownership of the company, first to
> employees by justifying the need for equity to be able to hire top talent,
> bringing in Silicon Valley insiders to help run the company. After
> continuing to grow the company, he would then further dilute Conde Nast's
> ownership by raising money from a syndicate of Silicon Valley investors led
> by Sam Altman, now the President of Y-Combinator itself, who in the process
> would take a seat on the board.

> Once this was done, he and his team would manufacture a series of otherwise-
> improbable leadership crises, forcing the new board to scramble to find a
> new CEO, allowing Altman to use his position on the board to advocate for
> the re-introduction of the old founders, installing them on the board and as
> CEO, thus returning the company to their control and relegating Conde Nast
> to a position as minority shareholder.

> JUST KIDDING. There's no way that could happen.

/u/yishan (Yishan Wong, former Reddit CEO)

[https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/3cs78i/whats_the...](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/3cs78i/whats_the_best_long_con_you_ever_pulled/cszjqg2)

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> We all had our roles to play.

/u/spez (Steve Huffman, new Reddit CEO)

[https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/3cs78i/whats_the...](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/3cs78i/whats_the_best_long_con_you_ever_pulled/ct00fpb?context=1)

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> Cool story bro.

> Except I could never have predicted the part where you resigned on the spot
> :)

> Other than that, child's play for me.

> Thanks for the help. I mean, thanks for your service as CEO.

/u/samaltman (Sam Altman, President of Y Combinator)

[https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/3cs78i/whats_the...](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/3cs78i/whats_the_best_long_con_you_ever_pulled/cszwpgq?context=1)

