Alexis Ohanian Quotes

Facebook makes me hate the people I know, and Reddit makes me love the people I don't.

I often think of a quote from entrepreneur Jim Rohn: 'You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.' Surround yourself with people who are doing interesting things, who are thinking interesting thoughts, who challenge you to be better, and who come from a diverse set of backgrounds and experiences. That, combined with appropriate moments of 'me' time, provides the perfect breeding ground for great ideas. And whatever you do, don't get hung up on what competitors are doing. Be aware of what's going on in the industry, but don't let it dictate your own creative process.

The people who are going to be succeeding are not going to be waiting around for anyone's permission.

It takes discipline not to let social media steal your time.

If you want to succeed, you've got to be okay to just lose control.

I think we are a better and a more efficient society when people actually get to do the things that they really are passionate about, and really are amazing at, because it's going to mean better stuff for us, too.

At the end of the day, how many ads did it take to convince you to use Facebook or Twitter? It wasn't marketing or advertising that convinced you to use these services. It was their value.

The great thing about the Internet is, it's the freest marketplace of ideas that there is.

The surveillance state has run amok. Technology that's enabled us to send selfies 24/7 - not that valuable - has also enabled us to be spied upon us 24/7.

Every founder has to delude themselves into thinking, "Yes, it's going to be big. It's going to take over the world."

It turns out the Internet is this amazing resource for everyone who has access to it.

Entrepreneur is just French for 'has ideas, does them'.

Not everyone is going to end up being a founder of a company, but the skill of being entrepreneurial, having ideas and going through with them - that skill is so important. Everyone should be imbued with it. Because once you have that, once your brain has been wired for that, all these problems, obstacles, all these things start looking like things you can hack.

I hate phone calls so I believe in a telephone armistice. To me, the idea of calling someone unprompted is basically saying, 'Hey, stop whatever you're doing and talk to me right now.

We don't even realize something is broken until someone else shows us a better way

There was a clear lesson here — and that was that the Internet loves Mister Splashy Pants.

The first version of everything is janky.

The problem is these politicians have very, very big interests in being re-elected, and the money that gets them there is provided by people who don't necessarily have the interest of the public in mind.

I think everyone should learn how to code.

I actually haven't even found a curriculum in America that is really preparing people for this 21st century world.

The Internet is, as a communication platform and a learning platform, unparalleled because whether you want to learn something or share something, it's simply a few clicks away.

Do not be scared of the incumbents.

If I didn't believe in rooting for founders and investing in founders, I'd be a bit of a hypocrite.

Obviously solving the education problem is big and complex, and there's already so many failings, but coding is the new fluency. This is the most valuable skill of this century. If you want to be a founder of a company, and not even just a tech company, but like a founder of a company, because I'm telling you software is going to play a role.

The stage of investing that I do is seed stage, so it's really early. Here's a pair of founders who maybe have a prototype. They have a little bit of traction, maybe one employee, tops. At that stage, you really, really can only evaluate a company based on those founders and what they've been able to build. It's very, very team driven.