Business

Meet Your Instructor

Lesson time 06:32 min

It’s never too late to pivot. When Alexis Ohanian left Reddit in 2020, he wanted to work with companies that were more aligned with his personal values. Now he’s sharing strategies to carve your own path and build a successful startup.

Students give MasterClass an average rating of 4.7 out of 5 stars

Topics include: Meet Your Instructor

Alexis Ohanian

Teaches Building Your Startup

Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian teaches you how to turn an idea into a startup. Get the advice he’s shared through his VC fund, Seven Seven Six.

Preview

ALEXIS OHANIAN: It starts with an idea, maybe just a kernel of an idea. But life gets in the way-- school, work, family. We're busy people, constantly on the move. But you can't shake it. It's the last thing on your mind when you go to bed, and the first thing that you think about in the morning. And deep down, you think, I've got something here. But what are you going to do with it? [MUSIC PLAYING] I'm Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit. While I was a senior at UVA-- - To be honest, it's really not about me. It's about you guys on the other end of the monitor. - --sold the company, came back to Reddit in 2014 as exec chairman to help lead a turnaround, left. REPORTER: Ohanian says more diversity is in the best interests of Reddit, and the tech industry more broadly. - --then began investing. - --wanted to discover the next Alexis Ohanian, hand them a check, and have them create something even bigger and even better. - The next Alexis Ohanian is actually your own child. - Oh, yeah. - Right there. ALEXIS OHANIAN: Business dad life. I don't know if this color works for me. - In this class, I'm going to teach you everything I've learned as a CEO and an investor in multiple billion-dollar companies, so that you can go from your own idea to actually executing your dreams. I'm the right person to teach this class, because few have both founded and scaled world-changing companies, and also been among the earliest investors in dozens of startups, 30 of which are now multibillion-dollar companies. In the Industrial Revolution, you needed to open a factory to change the world. In the internet revolution, you only need to open a laptop. If there's an aspiring CEO out there watching this, I would want her to know that starting a company is one of the highest-leverage ways to change the world. And one thing that I am sure of is, wherever you are, whatever your circumstances, you are capable of building an incredible business. You are capable of being a very successful entrepreneur. And I am convinced that there are great ideas everywhere. There are people capable of executing on those great ideas everywhere, and I hope you will take the lessons from this my own experiences, my ups, my downs, my successes, and my failures, to do even better than I did. And frankly, I want you to do this, because then, when you are successful, I want you to tell me about it, so that I can then brag about all of your success and claim all the credit for it. That is all I want out of this. Because I really deeply believe that my purpose, for however many decades I get to do this, is to help another generation do even better than I did. As an investor, I'll clue you in on what I'm looking for, what gets me excited. I'll teach you the steps to get funding for your business. I want to teach you how to find the right idea and steer you away from the bad ones-- what wou...

About the Instructor

In 2005, UVA undergrad Alexis Ohanian envisioned a place online where users connect over subcultures—enter Reddit. That was only the start: From growing billion-dollar companies to championing female founders, Ohanian shaped culture. Now he wants to lead tomorrow’s innovators. Learn how to turn an idea into a startup with advice Alexis has shared with other entrepreneurs through his VC fund, Seven Seven Six.

Featured MasterClass Instructor

Alexis Ohanian

Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian teaches you how to turn an idea into a startup. Get the advice he’s shared through his VC fund, Seven Seven Six.

Explore the Class