Alexis Ohanian

crazy german mom english you can imagine but uh it's the sweetest thing and like she was a ride or die and so that was the that was the bar i had and so even when those things came up i just knew i can't quit now here's where i up was i mean intense compartmentalization And it was what I felt I needed to do at that time, which was let me just use work as therapy.

crazy german mom english you can imagine but uh it's the sweetest thing and like she was a ride or die and so that was the that was the bar i had and so even when those things came up i just knew i can't quit now here's where i up was i mean intense compartmentalization And it was what I felt I needed to do at that time, which was let me just use work as therapy.

Let me just work my ass off because I cannot work anyone. And if I've got her pulling for me, I will crush any competitors. I know my co-founder wasn't really equipped to have those conversations or really be a support at all. But I mean, we were kids, right? And so I just decided work is the therapy. And for the next

Let me just work my ass off because I cannot work anyone. And if I've got her pulling for me, I will crush any competitors. I know my co-founder wasn't really equipped to have those conversations or really be a support at all. But I mean, we were kids, right? And so I just decided work is the therapy. And for the next

10 years, you know, really did not think about, explore, delve into anything other than I'm just going to do my work and I'm going to... Obviously, I took as many AirTran trips home as I could to spend time with my mom and dad on weekends, but like...

10 years, you know, really did not think about, explore, delve into anything other than I'm just going to do my work and I'm going to... Obviously, I took as many AirTran trips home as I could to spend time with my mom and dad on weekends, but like...

let me not go any deeper than yeah here's this shitty thing i'm going to compartmentalize it and just focus on the tasks at hand and there were areas look i i think compartmentalization gets a bad rap i do think there are areas where it's actually tremendously helpful but with some now my my my take is a little bit more nuanced where i think with some work

let me not go any deeper than yeah here's this shitty thing i'm going to compartmentalize it and just focus on the tasks at hand and there were areas look i i think compartmentalization gets a bad rap i do think there are areas where it's actually tremendously helpful but with some now my my my take is a little bit more nuanced where i think with some work

It's good to go into the box to rearrange some stuff, to sort through some stuff, to organize it. But I actually think there is a value to having some stuff in boxes and to compartmentalize, because I also don't want to spend my days reliving and rehashing and just analyzing those experiences. I'm not doing her any favors.

It's good to go into the box to rearrange some stuff, to sort through some stuff, to organize it. But I actually think there is a value to having some stuff in boxes and to compartmentalize, because I also don't want to spend my days reliving and rehashing and just analyzing those experiences. I'm not doing her any favors.

Her greatest joy was seeing me be successful as a CEO, as a startup founder, and whether it was Reddit or anything else. That's what mattered. And so it's a shame, right? She hasn't gotten to see me get married. She hasn't gotten to see me have kids. She hasn't. She'd have been an amazing grandmother. She hasn't gotten to see me build a lot of businesses I've built.

Her greatest joy was seeing me be successful as a CEO, as a startup founder, and whether it was Reddit or anything else. That's what mattered. And so it's a shame, right? She hasn't gotten to see me get married. She hasn't gotten to see me have kids. She hasn't. She'd have been an amazing grandmother. She hasn't gotten to see me build a lot of businesses I've built.

She saw me, though, live my dream. And when I decided it was time to build my own venture firm, I took the lessons from those days of Y Combinator. Because... Jay, I agonized over a $200 plane ticket on AirTran to Baltimore because we only had $72,000 in the bank. We didn't raise that much money. This is a very different era.

She saw me, though, live my dream. And when I decided it was time to build my own venture firm, I took the lessons from those days of Y Combinator. Because... Jay, I agonized over a $200 plane ticket on AirTran to Baltimore because we only had $72,000 in the bank. We didn't raise that much money. This is a very different era.

But even if we had raised the normal round today, it would be maybe a few million dollars. I still don't want a CEO deciding, God, this is going to hurt our burn. Do I really want to take that trip? And we built a program in 2776 specifically to say there are tens of thousands of dollars a founder can use that we are paying for.

But even if we had raised the normal round today, it would be maybe a few million dollars. I still don't want a CEO deciding, God, this is going to hurt our burn. Do I really want to take that trip? And we built a program in 2776 specifically to say there are tens of thousands of dollars a founder can use that we are paying for.

It's coming out of our fees for their wellness, their development, any caregiving needs. Like we've had founders use this to pay for a babysitter and a date night with their partner. Awesome. We've had founders use it for you know, therapy for executive coaching, for surfing lessons, right?

It's coming out of our fees for their wellness, their development, any caregiving needs. Like we've had founders use this to pay for a babysitter and a date night with their partner. Awesome. We've had founders use it for you know, therapy for executive coaching, for surfing lessons, right?

If it, if it helps them find their focus, find their balance, be better founders for early stage companies, that's often the entire business is the founder. And if Y Combinator had had a program like that, I think it would have made all the difference. And it's not to slight them. They didn't know what they were doing. They were building the firm for the first time.

If it, if it helps them find their focus, find their balance, be better founders for early stage companies, that's often the entire business is the founder. And if Y Combinator had had a program like that, I think it would have made all the difference. And it's not to slight them. They didn't know what they were doing. They were building the firm for the first time.