https://nasacademy.com/blog/article/alexis-ohanian-net-worth-how-reddits-co-founder-became-a-multi-millionaire
Co-founding one of the biggest discussion boards online is bound to make you millions. But how many millions? Here’s how much Alexis Ohanian’s net worth has grown over the years.
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Alexis is a serial entrepreneur and investor who was born in Brooklyn, New York. He’s married to the famous tennis player, Serena Williams, and is also the co-founder of one of the most popular discussion boards and social news conglomerates: Reddit. Reddit has grown to a multi-billion-dollar valuation, and it’s the place to go for inquiries and community access.
Reddit was established in 2005 by Ohanian and his co-founders, Steve Huffman and Aaron Swartz. Its main focus: building community.
Alexis grew up in Baltimore, Maryland. And his first career plan was actually to go into law and politics.
But that didn’t last long. In fact, he was about to take an LSAT in junior year…and he just walked out to get some waffles instead. It was then that he realized he wanted to build something of his own to make a difference in the world.
He wanted to build a business.
When Alexis got out of college, he started pitching business ideas with his friend that he met at University of Virginia, Huffman. Little did he know, Huffman would later become his co-founder at Reddit. They ended up pitching one of their other ideas first – a food delivery service.
Even though they immediately got rejected…the two entrepreneurs ended up getting accepted into an accelerator program to build out a different idea. Here, they ended up working with Paul Graham.
In this accelerator, they developed a platform called Reddit.
The company was built in a total of 3 weeks. Now, it’s total valuation is over $10 billion.
Along with a passion for entrepreneurship, Alexis also had a deep interest in building communities and bringing people together online. This is clearly woven into the foundations of Reddit as a social platform, but he didn’t stop there. He’s also been very active in speaking out against anything he sees happening in the government that could get in the way of building community.
For example, he stood up at the House of Commons to argue against SOBA (Stop Online Piracy Act), a bill that they were trying to pass where websites would be in charge of policing copyrighted content better. But Alexis believed this would be too much to handle for small businesses, and it would also censor content and break down communities – especially the ones on Reddit.
In response, Alexis and his team decided to protest. They shut down Reddit completely in Washington DC and LA to show the politicians behind the bill what it would be like without the freedom and community of a massive platform like Reddit. Soon enough, it turned into an entire blackout where users went on strike – and millions signed a petition to revoke the bill.
This made the House reconsider. Because of his advocacy and huge role in the community building business, Alexis was even named The Mayor of the Internet by Forbes in 2012.
Alexis ended up selling Reddit back in 2006 (although he came back as a chairman in 2014). But once the platform blew up around the world, he definitely had his regrets for leaving so soon.
After all, staying at the company could have bumped Alexis Ohanian’s net worth into the billions considering where Reddit is today.
Alexis still acted as an executive chair for years after Reddit’s success. Until 2020 when the brutal killing of George Floyd rippled across the country. When this happened, Alexis wanted to do what he could to help build a better future for people of color like his wife and daughter. So, he decided to step down as chairman at Reddit, and give his seat at the table to someone of color instead.
Since then, he’s continued his investment efforts into other businesses and startups.
Alexis has invested in 26 different Unicorns from Coinbase to Hubpsot, to Opensea. He’s also invested in over 50 startups like Zeus, Instacart and Patreon. He arguably has found so much success because he always knows how to spot quality businesses. He finds companies that have the power to change the world for the better – and then gives them what they need to make it happen.
From the beginning, Alexis’ main focus behind Reddit and everything he’s done since has been community.
And that’s how Alexis Ohanian’s net worth has grown to where it is today. He found a cause that he cared about and that he knew would benefit the world, and he stuck to this mission no matter what. He’s also built his own business, 776, which is a VC investment company.
One of the ways Alexis is following through on his community-building mission is through investing in crypto. In fact, 40% of his VC firm’s investment portfolio is within the crypto industry.
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