Serena Williams' $150M husband Alexis Ohanian uses Elon Musk example to share joy of starting a new business from scratch

Alexis Ohanian, the husband of Serena Williams, has talked about the joy of starting a new business venture from scratch. Ohanian made his fortune as the founder of Reddit, which he started in 2005 in his college bedroom along with co-founder Steve Huffman. Less than a year after the business was incorporated, the pair sold it to Conde Nast one year later.

Ohanian, who was once named "The Mayor of the Internet" by Forbes, now runs his own venture capital firm called Seven Seven Six. Ohanian invests in several disparate business sectors, including social media and tech, but along with his wife Serena, is revolutionizing women's sports in the US. Ohanian is now worth $150 million, according to celebritynetworth.com.

Ohanian was responding on his X (formerly Twitter) account to a post from X user Jay Plemons, who was extolling the virtues of Elon Musk as an entrepreneur and risk taker. Plemons stated on his X account that:

"Great artists and entrepreneurs always have the ability to start over. Elon Musk made $200 million from selling PayPal then put $100 million into SpaceX, $80 into Tesla, $20 into SolarCity, and had to borrow money to pay rent."

Ohanian immediately replied on X, agreeing that starting a business from scratch is invigorating:

"There's something really liberating when you start over from a blank canvas. It's fun."

Ohanian and Serena Williams' commercial ventures extend beyond traditional sectors. They own the soccer team Angel City FC, as well as co-owning the Los Angeles Golf Club, which is one of the six teams participating in Tiger Woods' TGL venture. Serena Williams also has a minority stake in the NFL's Miami Dolphins.

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Alexis Ohanian and Serena Williams have brought entrepreneurial flair to the business of women's sports in the US

Sportico's Invest in Sports New York - Source: Getty

Ohanian has made a major commitment to bringing female sports to the fore in the US. At the outset, he admitted that gaining traction was extraordinarily difficult, and not unlike his early days at Reddit. Ever the risk-taker, however, Ohanian has ploughed over $100 million of his own money into the effort and insists that his investment is paying off.

At the Forbes 30/50 Summit last month in Abu Dhabi, Ohanian talked about how he ignored the naysayers who suggested that investing in Angel City FC was a mistake, as reported by msn.com:

"Everyone, from random people on the internet, to other investors, who I respected, they all told me I was going to lose all my money, and it would never work. I'm very happy to prove them wrong. Angel City is now the most valuable team in the world at $300m."

Ohanian and Musk are serial investors who take risks. Serena Williams's husband has recently announced that he's on the team that will bring TikTok under US ownership, and that he intends to bring his usual entrepreneurial flair to that project also.