Chris Messina: Inventing the Hashtag & Changing Social Media Forever

👉🏼 Description:
Tune in as Chris unpacks the invention of the hashtag, how it was rejected for being too nerdy, how AI is changing product building, and more!

👉🏼 About the Guest:

Chris Messina (Uber, Google, Republic, Molly (YC S18)) has spent a decade working on social technologies, designing products and experiences, working with startups, and changing the world by giving away many of his creations, including the hashtag. 

He helped organize the movement that took Mozilla Firefox to its first 100M downloads, popularized the unconference event model to 350+ cities around the world, opened the first dedicated coworking space in San Francisco, and brought the idea of the hashtag to Twitter, changing social media forever and galvanizing social revolutions across the globe.

👉🏼 About the Host:

Shriya Nevatia (50K+ followers on LI and X) has been building community for 12+ years for founders, investors, and builders around the world. She launched the On Deck Catalyst community for elite global young leaders, helped hundreds of women start angel investing at The Council Capital, and founded The Violet Society, a pre-accelerator for female & non-binary startup founders.

 

👉🏼 Timestamps:

• 00:00: Episode Highlight
• 01:05: Intro to Taste & Tactics
• 01:25: Intro to Chris Messina, founder of the hashtag
• 02:17: 18 years after the birth of the hashtag: what is Chris Messina up to?
• 05:27: How AI slop is impacting product building
• 06:31: The initial concept of the hashtag
• 09:34: Identity expression vs curation on digital media
• 10:47: How hashtags reached the wider public
• 15:25: Why Twitter finally gave in and embraced the hashtag
• 18:34: Why hashtags are extra valuable on Instagram
• 20:15: How hashtags represent communities
• 23:50: How hashtags express our individuality
• 25:50: How hashtags took over the world, outside of Chris' control
• 30:56: What's the future of the hashtag in an AI world?
• 36:07: Privacy protection vs community building, in an age of AI
• 40:53: What is the definition of taste?
• 46:27:  Learnings and takeaways from the episode
• 48:41: Outro

👉🏼  Resources:

• Product Hunt: https://www.producthunt.com/
• SXSW: https://www.sxsw.com/
• Outside Lands: https://sfoutsidelands.com/
• The Three-Body Problem: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three-Body_Problem_(novel)

👉🏼 Where to find Chris:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/factoryjoe/
• Threads: https://threads.net/@chris
• Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/chrismessina.me
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/user/factoryjoe
• Raycast: https://www.raycast.com/chrismessina
• Medium: https://blog.chrismessina.me/
• Website: https://chrismessina.me/
• Github: ⁠https://github.com/chrismessina⁠
• ProductHunt: ⁠https://www.producthunt.com/@chrismessina⁠

👉🏼 Where to find Shriya:

• Twitter: https://x.com/shriyanevatia
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shriyanevatia/
• Taste & Tactics Twitter: https://x.com/tasteandtactics
• Taste & Tactics Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tasteandtactics/
• Taste & Tactics TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tasteandtactics
• Taste & Tactics LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/taste-and-tactics
• Taste & Tactics YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tasteandtactics 
• Taste & Tactics Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/72Xgo0svsNOKkCdWQnaggM
  
  

What is Taste & Tactics?

Taste & Tactics breaks down the real playbooks behind iconic products, told by the people who built them.

Each episode goes deep on one bold launch: what sparked the idea, how it reached the right audience, and the moves that made it stick.

Hosted by Shriya Nevatia, the show is made for founders, marketers, and brand builders who are sick of vague advice and want practical frameworks.