Alexis Ohanian

Internet entrepreneur Alexis Ohanian was born in Brooklyn, New York, to an Armenian-born father and a German-born mother. Raised in Ellicott City, MD, Ohanian was a strong studen in high school, and gave the student address upon the occassion of his graduation from Howard High School. Ohanian graduated from the University of Virginia in 2005, and launched Reddit soon after with funding from startup incubator Y Combinator. Reddit was acquired by Conde Nast in 2006, but was made independent again in 2015, when it again fell under Ohanian's control . In addition to launching Reddit, Ohanian was also the founder of Breadpig, an organization that sold "geek merchandise" with proceeds donated to charitable organizations. In 2010 Ohanian founded Initialized Capital, a venture firm and made early seed investments in a number of startup companies like Instacard, Opendoor, and Cruise. In addition to his work as an investor and an entrepreneur, Ohanian was also an advocate for an open internet. He advocated against the Stop Online Piracy act, and a senatorial act designed to protect intellectual property online. His advocacy helped to overturn both bills. Ohanian was also an outspoken advocate for net neutrality and raised money for a campaign to stop the FCCs dismissal of net neutrality. In December of 2016, Ohanian became engaged to tennis player Serena Williams.