[6] His father, a criminal defense lawyer and painter, is of Italian and English descent and his mother (née Cherkin), a schoolteacher, is Jewish.

[7][8] He attended The College Preparatory School in Oakland, followed by the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he graduated with a degree in environmental studies in 1996.

[12] After graduating from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1996, Peretti published an article titled "Capitalism and Schizophrenia"[a] in Negations, a Texas-based journal of critical theory.

[14] The paper compares the text Postmodernism and Consumer Society, by Fredric Jameson, with Deleuze and Guattari's Anti-Oedipus (along with discussing works by Jacques Lacan, Roland Barthes and Jean Laplanche) to demonstrate the "psychological link between one-dimensionality and advertising".

[10] While originally known for its mix of internet memes and listicles, the site was the first to break the news that John McCain would endorse Mitt Romney in the 2012 Republican primary.

[22] In August 2014, the site raised another $50 million from the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, more than doubling its previous rounds of funding.