"Just reimagined and made a little better" - Serena Williams' husband Alexis Ohanian reveals unoriginal inspiration behind starting Reddit

Serena Williams' husband, Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit, recently revealed what inspired him to create the social media platform. The 41-year-old often shares personal insights and opinions with fans online.

Ohanian co-founded Reddit with Steve Huffman in 2005 and later sold the platform to Condé Nast for $10 million. Although no longer involved, Ohanian retains nearly five per cent of its stake. The social media platform marked a pivotal milestone in his entrepreneurial journey, and he recently shared the inspiration behind its creation on X.

"What inspired me to start Reddit given the prior existence of online forums? It was actually an online form that I ran throughout college that really motivated me. It was using some open source software called phpBB. I managed a community, probably of just under a 1000 people, posting commentary on news of the day, philosophy and it was a lot of fun, he said."

Ohanian shared that managing the college forum for years helped him understand how to build Reddit. He introduced upvotes and downvotes to enhance content quality by distinguishing valuable posts and comments from less relevant ones.

"And I managed this community for a number of years in college. My roommate, ironically, who I would recruit to become my co-founder, thought the whole thing was just waste of time. But it was the perfect foundational work to wrap my head around how to build a better next-gen forum like Reddit. I designed the up votes and the down votes as a way to better sort out the signal from the noise, not just in the post themselves, but also the comments," he said.

Serena Williams' husband further emphasized that Reddit is an improved version of forum software, reimagining foundational web concepts with enhanced functionality. He encouraged focusing on building significantly better solutions rather than pursuing complete originality.

"At the end of the day, that's really what Reddit is about. It's just next level forum software. Really, the building block of the original World Wide Web, just remixed, reimagined, and made a little better. So much in life is about re-mixing ideas, and as long as you know you're building something that's 10x better, that is demonstrably better than what exists out there today. It doesn't have to be totally original. In fact there are many totally original ideas out there. Just make sure it's something great," he added.

Check out his quotes from the clip below:

Last year in December, Alexis Ohanian shared how selling Reddit provided the financial support he needed during his mother Anke’s cancer treatment. He mentioned that his earnings in less than two years exceeded his parents' lifetime income, allowing him to ensure she received the best care.

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"Has become so common now": Serena Williams' husband Alexis Ohanian reveals how he introduced the 'upvote' feature on Reddit

Serena Williams' husband Alexis Ohanian at Sportico's Invest in Sports New York - Image Source: Getty

The upvote feature on Reddit has been vital in maintaining user engagement by allowing them to endorse posts and comments. Last year in December, Serena Williams' husband, Alexis Ohanian, reflected on how the feature was conceived.

The 41-year-old was playing Marvel's third-person shooter, Marvel Rivals, on Reddit, receiving upvotes from viewers. Ohanian later shared a screenshot from his stream on his Instagram story and thanked the fans for their support. He added that he created the feature in 2005 while designing Reddit's voting system.

"Still crazy to me that "upvote" has become so common now. I just made it back in 2005 when I was designing our reddit voting system. Thank you for the upvotes, team. Marvel Rivals is fun btw," he wrote.

Ohanian currently leads the venture capital firm Seven Seven Six and has made significant investments, including in the NWSL team Angel City FC. He also co-owns the Los Angeles Golf Club with his wife, Serena, and her sister, Venus.

The Reddit co-founder often shares glimpses of his family adventures online. Despite his hectic business schedule, he spends quality time with his daughters, Olympia and Adira River Ohanian.