"You gotta be hungry" - Serena Williams' husband Alexis Ohanian associates $1 billion-worth MrBeast's hustle to his early Reddit days

Serena Williams' husband, Alexis Ohanian, drew parallels between his early days at Reddit and the hustle of YouTuber MrBeast in promoting his channel at the start of his career. Ohanian, along with Steve Huffman and Aaron Swartz, co-founded Reddit in 2005.

MrBeast, whose net worth is $1 billion (according to celebrityneyworth.com) is an American YouTuber and entrepreneur. He has the most-subscribed YouTube channel with 363 million subscribers and has also launched successful business ventures like MrBeast Burger, and Feastables, a chocolate and snack brand.

Ohanian took to social media to share a video, in which he mentioned attending the 2025 NBA All-Star game in the San Francisco Bay Area. He stated that MrBeast was also present, which reminded him of the YouTuber talking in an interview, about how he used to promote his channel while playing Call of Duty, a video game.

Reflecting on his early days, Serena Williams' husband shared how he, like MrBeast, promoted Reddit by spraying the site's mascot, Snoo, on the walls of the video game Half-Life 2.

“I'm in SF for the NBA All-Star and I actually saw Mr. Beast. He was here, and he reminded me that he was recently doing an interview about how he used to promote his YouTube channel in Call of Duty. And it turns out, in the early days of Reddit, and I’m talking 2005. First year, I made a custom spray that I used in Half-Life 2 to spray on the walls a Snoo while playing and tell people in the chat, “Check out reddit.com,”” Ohanian said.

Alexis Ohanian stated that despite potentially turning zero users to Reddit, he was glad at the way he hustled while starting a new venture. He also mentioned that one needs to be "hungry," and should be able to hustle just like he and MrBeast did to promote their respective ventures.

“I am sure it converted exactly zero people but I love knowing that Jimmy and I have this in common when we’re starting out. You gotta be hungry. No one gives a damn about what you’re building. You gotta hustle. So I love that story,” he added.

Alexis Ohanian was with Reddit for nearly 12 years. He left the company in 2010 but returned in 2014, before finally resigning in 2020. He has since launched several other companies and his venture capital firm, Seven Seven Six (776).

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Serena Williams' husband Alexis Ohanian: "Coming back to Reddit helped me meet my wife"

Serena Williams with Alexis Ohanian at the 2019 Met Gala [Image Source: Getty Images]

In October 2023, during a panel session at the Bank of America VC Summit in New York, Serena Williams' husband Alexis Ohanian talked about meeting Williams for the first time.

Ohanian shared that returning to Reddit in 2014 as executive chairman after leaving them in 2010 to pursue personal interests, helped him meet Serena Williams.

"Coming back to @reddit as exec chair for turnaround in 2014 helped me meet my wife. Ya heard it hear first!" Ohanian posted on X.

Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian first met in 2015 and engaged in 2016. Their first daughter, Olympia Ohanian, was born on September 1, 2017. They got married two months later on November 16, 2017, at the Contemporary Arts Center in New Orleans. Their youngest daughter, Adira River Ohanian, was born in August 2023.