Co-founder of Reddit now investor, adviser

Alexis Ohanian is on a mission to “make the world suck less.”

The co-founder of Reddit and now-investor and adviser for more than 70 start-ups spoke to more than 200 IU students Thursday in Alumni Hall at the Indiana Memorial Union about how they can join him.

A year after graduating from the University of Virginia, Ohanian started Reddit, the popular social news and entertainment website.  

Most recently, he has become the bestselling author of “Without Their Permission,” a book about Internet entrepreneurship in which he tells his story as well as those of others that have inspired him.

“Go forth and suck,” Ohanian said. “Sucking is the first step to being sort of good at something. No one actually knows what they’re doing because life is not a paint by number.”

Ohanian is currently on a tour of 200 events across the country and will visit a total of 77 universities.

Back in August, an IU student found that Ohanian had posted on the sub-Reddit page for IU about coming to the University as a part of his book tour.

The Informatics and Computing Student Association and Union Board teamed up to the plan the event and it has been underway ever since.

“The great thing about Union Board being able to put on an event like this is we’re really tapping into a key audience of students who maybe haven’t really found their niche place on campus, if they aren’t a part of the Greek system, if they aren’t super involved in student organizations,” Union Board member Aamena Ansari said. “Really, the Internet is a place to flock to to find yourself and to learn so much about the world around you.”

Ohanian said he hopes students will use the Internet to its maximum potential because it has so much to offer the millennial generation.

“This is the time to be trying new things — shipping and launching and failing — because no one’s looking,” he said.

Ohanian is now an ambassador for Y Combinator, the digital entrepreneur company that helped him get his start.

He said there is no better time to start acting on ideas than as a student.

“You’re not just another history major,” he said. “You’re a history major who’s launched three kickstarter campaigns. That’s real stuff that you can start doing
right now.”

Rachel Shinn, student ambassador for ICSA, said she hopes Ohanian’s visit will help students to realize that was he has done is possible for anyone here at IU.

“IU has so many talented students and I’m positive that some of them have great ideas,” she said. “It would be awesome if someone’s idea is turned into a reality with the help of Alexis.”

At the end of the event, Ohanian was joined on stage by Mike Trotzke, who started SproutBox.  

SproutBox is based out of Bloomington and is a business focused on investing in startup companies.

As entrepreneurs who invest in and also provide resources for entrepreneurs to take action on their ideas, Ohanian and Trotzke served as inspiration to the students who attended.

“Try anything even, if you think it’s going to fail, because you really don’t know how it’s going to do,” IU student Alexis Baker said.

Ohanian is an example of what can happen with the freedom of the Internet and all the technology around us. He said he wanted to persuade students to use the resources they have to put themselves out there and have their ideas heard.

“The Internet means so much to us — not just culturally or economically, on so many levels,” Ohanian said. “These are the skills that are going to make you not only someone I want to invest in, but someone I want to hire.”

Follow reporter Grace Palmieri on Twitter @grace_palmieri.