Origins and Early Days (2005-2006)

The Founding Story

In 2005, college roommates Steve Huffman and Alexis Ohanian attended a lecture at Harvard University by programmer and entrepreneur Paul Graham. Following the lecture, Graham invited them to apply to his startup accelerator, Y Combinator. While their initial pitch for a mobile food ordering app called "My Mobile Menu" was rejected, Graham suggested they build "the front page of the internet" instead.