Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit and husband to tennis legend Serena Williams, recently shared the inspiration behind creating the platform. He revealed it stemmed from managing a college forum using phpBB, an open-source software.
Ohanian co-founded Reddit with Steve Huffman in 2005, blending his forum experience with innovations like upvotes and downvotes. These features revolutionized content curation by distinguishing valuable contributions. Reddit, though not entirely original, reimagined foundational web concepts for modern needs.
Emphasizing the importance of improving existing ideas, Ohanian described Reddit as “next-level forum software.” He believes transformative solutions don’t require total originality but must deliver significantly better experiences, as Reddit has demonstrated since its inception.
Beyond Reddit, Ohanian leads Seven Seven Six, a venture capital firm, and co-owns Angel City FC and Los Angeles Golf Club. Despite his busy career, he prioritizes family time, sharing moments with his wife, Serena, and their two daughters.
