Fans of tennis player Serena Williams probably know that her husband, Alexis Ohanian, is her biggest fan.
Before she retired, he was often seen in the stands cheering her on or holding Olympia while she competed. You’ve probably seen how cute they are together when they walk the red carpet.
In his early 20s, he helped start Reddit, a social media site worth $10 billion as of August 2021, and quickly made a name for himself as an investor and business owner.
The most interesting facts about his life and his family’s history as German immigrants are listed below.
Brooklyn-Born Alexis Ohanian Is Son To German Immigrant Parents
Alexis Ohanian was born in Brooklyn and is the son of Anke and Chris, who came to the United States from Germany. He has a deep appreciation for both his past and his present.
Once, he told the Financial Times, and they quoted him: “I like the Statue of Liberty a little bit. I think about that every day to keep things in perspective, since I come from a family of immigrants and am grateful for my good luck.”
Ohanian has a unique point of view because of his family history, and he feels compelled to speak up when he sees wrongdoing.
In an open letter published by the Armenian National Committee of America, Ohanian wrote, “I am the son of an undocumented immigrant from Germany and the great-grandson of refugees who escaped the Armenian Genocide.”
He also talked about the history of his family and how immigration and new opportunities had affected everyone in it. Because of this, he tries to help people who are trying to get visas but need help.
Chris, Alexis’s dad, was the best man at his wedding.
Chris, Alexis’s father, is 67 years old. You might be able to see him in some of the many photos on Alexis’s Instagram account. This seems to show that the two are close.
Well, the investor is said to have bought his father a 1966 Mustang as a surprise, which was his childhood dream car. Alexis posted a picture of the shot he took in front of the car with the caption: “Surprise, Dad. His dream car when he was young.”
On his father’s birthday, he also posted an image with the words
“Happy birthday, dad. Today I’m 65 years old, and I wish we could talk in person. But you’ve been there from the beginning, and you didn’t mind when I had to go to a fancy tailor to buy a suit for my wedding as Best Man. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate you.”
Alexis also put a clip of the interview with his dad on his Instagram page with the words:
“Chris Ohanian, the first #BusinessDad, sat down with me for the first of what would be many conversations about how hard it is to balance work and fatherhood. The first season ends with this episode.”
Alexis’s mother, Anke Ohanian, is from Germany. Alexis is 39 years old.
Alexis Ohanian’s Instagram is filled with pictures of his father, but there aren’t many of his mother. Anke, who is his mother, is from Germany.
Based on the pictures of his siblings that Alexis posted on his Instagram, it looks like Anke has a son and two daughters.
Also, one of his siblings is married, as shown by a picture of the Odanian family taken at the wedding of one of his siblings.
His grandfather John Ohanian turned 100 this year. He is from an Armenian family
Alexis’s Armenian family is said to have come to the United States from Germany, and his grandfather, John Odanian, is the son of a refugee.
In honor of his grandfather’s 100th birthday on January 12, the investor posted a picture of his family and wrote, “Having four generations of Ohanians together was a blessing.”
“The next day, we had Armenian food for dinner at our house, and he told us stories about winning a car in a church lottery (which he sold to pay for college) and serving in WWII.”
“I’m grateful for what his generation, which was built differently, gave up.”
“To see how far we’ve come, think about the fact that my grandfather John Ohanian is related to refugees and survivors of the Armenian Genocide who came to the United States as orphans with nothing.
“His grandson started @reddit, and his son started a small travel agency, which he retired from this year. Who knows how far his great-granddaughter will go?”
Besides that, he posted: “Ohanians from the fourth generation. From the age of 96 to the age of 4 months. Grandfather, happy birthday!”
He is an Internet business owner who is married to Serena Williams and has a 6-year-old daughter
Alexis Ohanian and his wife Serena Williams’ relationship seems to be based on a real-life romantic comedy ever since they met by chance in 2015.
One year after they met in Rome, the couple got engaged in December 2016. In short, they had been dating secretly for 15 months.
After that, the couple shared on their social media accounts that they were getting married. On November 16, 2017, at a fancy party in New Orleans, the couple said their wedding vows.
Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian’s daughter Olympia was born in 2017. At the time, they hadn’t planned to have a child. Williams said that she was shocked when the pregnancy test turned out to be positive.
Also, on Friday, September 2, their daughter Olympia turned five years old.
Early years
Alexis Kerry Ohanian was born in the New York city of Brooklyn. After the Armenian genocide, his paternal grandparents fled to the United States. The mother of Ohanian was born in Germany. He went to Howard High School in Ellicott City, Maryland, where he gave the student address at his 2001 graduation.
Career
Ohanian says that when he was in middle school and got a 33.6k dialup modem, he became very interested in technology. He used message boards to learn how to code and put together websites. Eventually, he started making free websites for nonprofits by “tricking” them. He hid the fact that he was a teenager working from his parents’ basement behind his email.
Ohanian got degrees in business and history from the University of Virginia in 2005. He and his friend Steve Huffman then went to Y Combinator with the idea for MyMobileMenu. The company didn’t like the idea, but they told the two to come up with something else that the company might be interested in. Later, they made reddit.com with the idea that it would become the “front page of the Internet.”
Ohanian did well in school at the University of Virginia. He was accepted into The National Society of Collegiate Scholars (NSCS) and was a very involved member of his chapter.
Reddit was part of Y-first Combinator’s group of start-ups in the summer of 2005. In 2006, Condé Nast bought Reddit for an amount between $10 million and $20 million that was not made public.
As a member of Reddit’s board of directors, Ohanian kept working closely with the site. In July 2015, Ohanian and co-founder Huffman went back to Reddit full-time to run the company, which was now on its own. In February 2018, he left the company to go back to focusing on investing.
Ohanian started Breadpig in 2007 as a “uncorporation” that makes geeky stuff and gives the money to charity. As of 2012, he no longer has anything to do with how Breadpig is run.
Ohanian talked about a whale named Mister Splashy Pants at TED in 2009. Ohanian worked in microfinance for three months as a Kiva fellow in Yerevan, Armenia, after he left Reddit in 2010. Ohanian helped start the travel search site Hipmunk in 2010, and he still works there as an advisor. Ohanian announced in June 2010 that his company, Das Kapital Capital, would start investing, advising, and consulting for new businesses.
The early-stage venture firm Y Combinator gave Ohanian the title “Ambassador to the East.” In this role, he meets with applicants from the East Coast, helps New York YC founders, and acts as a general company representative. He was also a part-time and full-time partner at Y Combinator until he left in 2016 to help Garry Tan start the third Initialized Capital fund.
Ohanian quit Reddit’s board on June 5, 2020, and asked to be replaced by a black person because of the death of George Floyd.
Michael Seibel, an African-American entrepreneur, was named a Reddit board member on June 10, 2020.
On July 21, 2020, it was announced that Ohanian was the main investor in a group of mostly women who were given a new team in the National Women’s Soccer League. This is the highest level of women’s soccer in the U.S. In 2022, the new team, whose name was later revealed to be Angel City FC, began playing. The ownership group is mostly made up of women, with 14 former members of the U.S. women’s national team, the Oscar-winning actress Natalie Portman, and many other famous actors, entertainers, media figures, and athletes, including Ohanian’s wife, Serena Williams.
Ohanian gave up his job as Managing Partner at Initialized in June 2020. Ohanian announced in June 2021 that he would be running a new venture capital firm called “776.”
Investing in tech at the beginning
Ohanian co-founded Initialized Capital in 2010, and he put money into new companies like Instacart, Zenefits, Opendoor, and Cruise as a first step. It has managed three funds with a total of more than $500 million. In 2014, CB Insights looked at all the tech investors and put Ohanian at the top for network centrality. This is how many connections an investor has with other investors in the ecosystem and how good and deep those connections are.
Ohanian put $3 million into the child care start-up Kinside in 2019 through Initialized Capital. Ohanian also put $4 million into David’s Disposable in the year 2020.
In April 2021, Ohanian put $10 million into the social startup pearpop as part of a Series A round. Other investors, such as Bessemer Venture Partners, Sound Ventures, Slow Ventures, and some famous people, also put in $6 million.