Transforming user passion into business momentum

Cindy Au is a global community and technology executive with over 16 years of experience scaling high-growth, consumer-facing businesses. She specializes in building community-driven products, leading complex global organizations, and translating user insight into strategy that drives adoption, engagement, and sustainable growth.

Cindy currently leads Global Community Success at Reddit, where she oversees Partnerships, Programs & Engagement, Community Policy, and Community Support. Together, her teams collaborate with Reddit’s most passionate users to empower communities and bring connection and belonging to people around the world.

Prior to Reddit, Cindy was Senior Director of Global Community & Engagement at Brainly, where she oversaw Community Product, Community Growth, and Trust & Safety for one of the world’s largest peer-to-peer learning platforms. She led a global team spanning the U.S., Europe, LATAM, and APAC, scaling community operations during a year of unprecedented growth from 150 million to 350 million monthly users. Her work included launching global recognition programs, building Brainly’s first Community Hub, leading the community go-to-market for Brainly’s Virtual Tutoring product, and establishing the first community team in India.

Cindy began her technology career at Kickstarter, joining as employee #9 and ultimately serving as the company’s first VP of Community. She built Kickstarter’s original community organization and helped scale the platform from 50,000 users to more than 10 million. As an executive team member, she led Community Engagement, Customer Support, and Trust & Safety teams, guided the go-to-market strategy for Kickstarter’s first international launches, and served as the company’s public spokesperson. Her leadership helped Kickstarter grow from a niche creative platform into a global cultural force, supporting hundreds of thousands of creators and launching some of the most iconic creative projects of the decade.

Cindy holds a PhD in Literature, a background that continues to inform her belief in the power of community, participation, and learning to shape better products—and better companies.