Do What You Love is a new series that showcases the entrepreneurs behind emerging companies. For our second edition, we sat down with Erik Martin, the general manager of Reddit — here’s what he shared:
Out of college I worked in the music industry. From starting a new label to working for a bunch of startups in the first dot com wave. I was also a filmmaker, making documentary films. About the time I moved up to New York, I applied to do a documentary on Y Combinator. While they said no, I wanted to see where it would go. And when Reddit came out I was super hooked — it was this great site where every step you took could be a rabbit hole. [Later] they hired me as community manager for $14 an hour, and I consulted on the side so I could do something I loved — that was 5 years ago.
My dad was sort of a mad scientist / entrepreneur, and when I was a kid we had 7 people working in our living room. I just thought that was normal. They had this company and they were trying to invent this thing that burned wood more efficiently. It was a little like Primer, but in the woods. They had a couple different startups — that wasn’t really what you called it back then.
I had seen behind the curtain, and knew I could never have a “real job” where I was working for a big company. It’s not in my blood. I’ve always been attracted to startups and smaller companies.
When it comes to engineers, developers and other technical people, some of them think they are rational, but nobody’s rational. My dad’s an engineer and he gave me one of the best pieces of advice about working with engineers that I use all the time. We’re all irrational, illogical human beings.
For 99% of companies, the biggest impact on the world you’re going to make is the impact you have on the 5 to 8 people working for you. That’s the way you’re going to make your mark, unless you’re Google. People forget that.
You have a chance to make an impact every day, but it’s on the people in your office, and not always the ether of the world out there that everyone talks about.
Check out Do What You Love #1: Once you’re an entrepreneur, it’s hard to go back