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StevehUffmaN

Steve Hufman (ME ’03, ’05) is oten asked or advice rom U.Va. Engineering students onbecoming an entrepreneur. His primary advice can be boiled down to three simple words: Bevery annoyed.

“Ideas are easy to come by,” said Hufman, who has rocketed to prominence based on aew o his own. “Think about a time in the day when someone else’s product annoyed you.I guarantee it happens to engineers all the time. Then it comes down to asking two simplequestions. ‘Do I have an idea o how to do this better?’ and ‘What am I going to do about it?’Entrepreneurs have the ideas to solve the problem, the passion to create the solution and thecommitment to execute it.

“And then I ask one more thing: ‘What are you waiting or?’”Hufman walks the walk. Soon ater graduation, he worked with his U.Va. roommate Alexis

Ohanian (Comm ’05) to create the groundbreaking social news site Reddit. As news and user-generated content were rapidly prolierating online, Reddit created a solution to customizethe news-gathering experience. By utilizing simple “thumbs-up” or “thumbs-down” votes,content aggregation became a personal experience and in the process created communitieso users united by their preerences.

Hufman and Ohanian sold Reddit to media giant Condé Nast in October 2006, andHufman remained with the company or an additional three years beore leaving to undertakenew entrepreneurial challenges.

Looking back, Human credits his U.Va. engineering training or helping to launch his career,

as evidenced by his philanthropic gits to the School and toward the construction o Rice Hall.

He also sees great value in the Engineering Business Minor program, which enables those who

may ollow in his ootsteps to avoid some o the pitalls he and Ohanian experienced.

“I think the biggest barrier keeping students rom starting companies when they graduate

is the lack o knowledge that they can actually do so,” Human said. “To be honest with you, a

lot o it we learned on the fy while doing Reddit. And that was part o the challenge. I eel i we

had known more going in, we would have been able to accomplish even greater things with the

company, because we learned a lot through trial and error. It was a really good process, but it was

also a very expensive process. There were a lot o mistakes we probably could have avoided.”

Today, Hufman is using his body o experience and ideas to address another annoyancein lie. He recently launched Hipmunk to alleviate the aggravation o booking travel online.

Entrepreneurs have the ideas to 

solve the problem, the passion to 

create the solution and the 

commitment to execute it.

eNGINeerING leaDerS

mIllIONGrant awarded by NASA and

the U.S. Air Force to und the

National Center or Hypersonic

Combined Cycle Propulsion,

led by proessor o mechanical

and aerospace engineering

James McDaniel. The center’s

research involves the complex

engines required or the

potential uses o hypersonic

fight.

NEWS & NOTES

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reDefINING ONlINe eXperIeNceS aND

reapING Great reWarDS

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