In a recent podcast appearance, Serena Williams’ husband Alexis Ohanian hilariously called himself ‘very petty’ and narrated a story dating back to 2005. He explained how meeting with a Yahoo! executive after launching Reddit motivated him daily to improve his platform.
Ohanian appeared on Flau’jae’s ‘Best of Both Worlds’ podcast in an episode released on August 9. In the over-50-minute-long conversation, the pair had multiple topics of discussion. During a segment, Ohanian called himself ‘very petty’ and revealed that he had many stories about his pettiness.
He narrated a story dating back to 2005 when Reddit was founded by him along with Steve Huffman and Aaron Swartz. The social media platform had around 1000 users per day at the time. Ohanian stated they had raised $122,000 and were trying to survive when Yahoo! invited them to San Francisco.
“Yahoo invited us to go to San Francisco which was like Silicon Valley… I was excited… This was like I’ve made it like I’m a tech CEO going to Silicon Valley,” Alexis Ohanian said (at 24:27).
He said he believed the meeting with the Yahoo! executive was regarding investment or even a sale. However, when he revealed Reddit’s traffic, the meeting turned into an embarrassment.
“He’s like ‘Wait a second, how big is Reddit? Like what’s your traffic like? I’m like, ‘We get about a thousand users a day’. It was still small, we were 6 months old he looks at me and he’s like ‘A thousand users a day? You’re a rounding error compared to Yahoo. Why are you even here?'”
‘You are a rounding error’ is something that stuck with Ohanian. He printed out the text and put it on the wall next to him.
“I looked at it every single morning,” he said.
A few years ago, Reddit surpassed Yahoo! in traffic and Ohanian was delighted.
“When Reddit passed Yahoo in traffic this was like four or five years ago I screenshotted it and I told this story and I was like it just makes me feel so good,” he concluded.
Alexis Ohanian names his wife Serena Williams on his list of Top 4 athletes of all time
During the aforementioned podcast with Flau’jae, Alexis Ohanian revealed his top 4 athletes of all time. First, he named the Nicaraguan professional boxer after whom he was named – Alexis Argüello.
Next, he named American football wide receiver Art Monk and safety Sean Taylor before naming his wife Serena Williams.
“I am my wife’s biggest fan,” he proclaimed
He also gave a shout out to Gabby Thomas. She won the 200m gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics and will be participating at Athlos NYC, a track event for women launched by Ohanian.
