20VC: Reddit's Alexis Ohanian on How It All Started With Paul Graham @ YC, The Biggest Surprises About Making The Move Into VC & Why Alexis Believes All The Best Investors Have Operating Experience
The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch
The Twenty Minute VC
4.4 • 637 Ratings
🗓️ 12 December 2016
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Alexis Ohanian is co-founder of Reddit & Initialized Capital. After graduating from UVA in 2005, Alexis and his co-founder Steve Huffman started Reddit, which they sold in 2006 to Conde Nast. In 2015, he returned to a full-time capacity with Steve Huffman as the two returned to the helm of a fully independent Reddit, which is now the 8th largest US website. In 2016, he joined Garry Tan in kicking off the third fund for Initialized Capital, an early stage venture capital firm. He's invested in and advised over two hundred tech startups and was a partner at Y Combinator; Alexis has also written a national best-selling book, Without Their Permission and was named on Forbes 30 Under 30 list two years in a row.
In Today’s Episode You Will Learn:
1.) How Alexis made his way into the world of VC from founding Reddit?
2.) What were the biggest surprises for Alexis about making the move into venture full time? What have been the biggest challenges?
3.) How do Alexis and Garry (Alexis' partner) look to integrate process into their investing with Initialized? What is core to the success of this process? Why should more VCs be doing so?
4.) What does Alexis believe makes the best seed investors? What are the benefits of investors that have been in the trenches? How can they add to their companies in a way those without operating experience cannot?
5.) How does kindness integate into Alexis' role as an investor? Can one win in investing while being kind? How does Alexis look to show his kindness to founders and investors?
Items Mentioned In Today’s Show:
Alexis’ Fave Blog: Reddit
Alexis’ Fave Book: Slaughterhouse 5
Alexis' Most Recent Investment: Workramp
As always you can follow Harry, The Twenty Minute VC and Alexis on Twitter here!
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello and welcome back to the 20 minute VC for another week with your host Harry Stebbings, |
| 0:03.9 | and you can find me on Snapchat at H. Stebbings with 2B, |
| 0:06.9 | or you can find out more on mehitovc.com to hear my thoughts in more detail on the blog. |
| 0:12.0 | However, to the show's day, and what an incredible guest we have joining us. |
| 0:15.1 | I've wanted to have him on the show for a long, long time now, |
| 0:17.6 | so I'm thrilled to welcome Alexis O'Haney into the hot seat. Now, this intro is |
| 0:21.2 | challenging one due to the sheer scale of accomplishments here. But here goes. So Alexis is co-found |
| 0:26.2 | of Reddit and initialised capital. After graduating from UVA in 2005, Alexis and his co-founder |
| 0:32.0 | Steve Huffman started Reddit, which they then sold in 2006 to Conday Nast. And in 2015, Alexis returned in a full-time |
| 0:39.4 | capacity with Steve Huffman as the two returned to the helm of a fully independent Reddit, which is |
| 0:44.3 | now the eighth largest US website. And in 2016, he joined in Gary Tan, who will be joining us on |
| 0:49.6 | the show on Wednesday, in kicking off the third fund for initialised capital, an early stage VC firm |
| 0:54.6 | in SF. |
| 0:55.6 | Alexis has also invested and advised over 200 tech startups and was a partner at the world |
| 1:00.1 | famous Y Combinator. |
| 1:01.5 | If that wasn't enough, Alexis has also written a national best-selling book without their |
| 1:05.5 | permission and was named on Forbes 30 under 30 list two years in a row. |
| 1:09.2 | I also want to say a huge thank you to Judith |
| 1:11.0 | Alsea at Weathergauge Capital for the intro to Alexis today, without which the show would not |
| 1:15.2 | have been possible. But before we meet the man himself, what if accounting could be easy, |
| 1:19.2 | efficient, maybe even enjoyable? Well, that's where Zero come in. Zero is beautiful, |
| 1:23.8 | easy to use online accounting software for small businesses. With Zero, you can easily |
... |
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