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Snoop Dogg has done a lot in his career—rapper, actor, weed mogul, and even Twitch streamer — but what you may not know is that he’s also got a golden touch when it comes to investing. It turns out, the Doggfather made a once-in-a-lifetime move by putting money into Reddit way back when most people wouldn’t touch it.
This week, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian took to X (formerly Twitter) to shout out Snoop Dogg for backing the platform during its underdog days. Ohanian shared a heartfelt post, saying:
“Beautiful day in LA. I appreciate this city so much. Got to catch up with a lot of friends. Some of you may know @SnoopDogg was one of our earliest investors at @reddit during our spin-out & turnaround. Very few people wanted to invest in us back then. Snoop did. And ya never for get your Day Ones.”
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Beautiful day in LA. I appreciate this city so much. Got to catch up with a lot of friends. Some of you may know @SnoopDogg was one of our earliest investors at @reddit during our spin-out & turnaround. Very few people wanted to invest in us back then. Snoop did. And ya never for… pic.twitter.com/Sr3aqumag6
— Alexis Ohanian 🗽 (@alexisohanian) May 6, 2024
What Ohanian is saying is that Snoop Dogg was one of Reddit’s “Day Ones.”
Reddit, now valued at a staggering $10 billion, wasn’t always the internet giant we know today. It started out as a side project by Alexis Ohanian and Steve Huffman, two college roommates who built the site “for fun” before securing a tiny $12,000 investment from startup incubator Y Combinator.
Later, they merged with developer Aaron Swartz and began working on what would become the front page of the internet.
Back in 2014, when Reddit was still shaking off its early growing pains, the company raised a $50 million funding round led by Sam Altman — and Snoop Dogg was one of the standout names on the investment list.
Altman told The New York Times at the time:
“He’s like a Reddit superstar. The site loves him… We asked him to invest, and he said yes.”
As to why Snoop was one of those names — aside from being a cultural icon, the West Coast legend had already built up a huge fanbase on Reddit thanks to his iconic AMAs (Ask Me Anything sessions) where fans could grill him on everything from music to munchies.
Snoop later joked about being more than just a celebrity guest: “I worked my way in. You understand me? I didn’t mean to tell everybody, but I’m a part of Reddit too,” he said during the above 2017 episode of GGN News (around the 3:30 mark).
With Reddit now officially public and worth billions, Snoop’s early bet has turned into a massive payday. Not bad for a guy who once said “drop it like it’s hot”, turns out he knows how to drop his money in the right places too.
