Reddit Cofounder Alexis Ohanian To Join Y Combinator | Hacker News Reader

Reddit Cofounder Alexis Ohanian To Join Y Combinator

techcrunch.com

173 pointsrazin40 comments

That's awesome news. I've always been impressed with Alexis - particularly his sense of humor and genuine friendliness.

For example, a few years ago I ran into Alexis and Steve in an Italian restaurant when my Mom was visiting me in San Francisco. They were sitting a couple of tables over in the mostly empty restaurant and I took a moment to go over and say hi to them since I recognized them from Startup School. In the conversation I mentioned my Mom was visiting me and when I gestured towards our table Alexis excitedly declares "Hi Mom!!" to her. The funniest and most endearing part was how sincerely pleased he was about meeting my Mom. It was a great bonus to our evening to run into him.

Anyway, great news for a great guy.

I'll have you know that is the only time Steve & I have ever been 'spotted' in the wild. We still joke about it because we can't believe it actually happened -- thanks for making our day.

And yes, I'm a big fan of moms. They carry our lazy, parasitic asses around for 9 months, after all ;)

Getting that on a shirt

"And yes, I'm a big fan of moms." -- Alexis Ohanian

I bow down before the creator of reddit and kiss your feet.

Glad to have you on the east coast!

I met Alexis in Thailand. I approached him not knowing who he was because he had a Reddit t-shirt so I assumed it would be cool to chat with him. We didn't chat very long but he sent me a Reddit bobblehead when he arrived back from his trip. He's an unpretentious all-round nice guy.

Whoa, I remember you! I rarely get approached while wearing a reddit shirt; leave it to a random encounter in Thailand for me to finally meet a redditor excited about our site.

What you didn't see was that I was actually "backpacking" around the country in a gold-plated helicopter.

Do you live in thailand?

Congrats Alexis! From my time with you at the Awesome Foundation I know you'll do great things with YC.

which has generated over $150,000 for charities

Wow, I had no idea. Serious props!

I was thrilled that made it into the TC piece ~ 2 years in and things are beyond my wildest expectations for breadpig.com (in fact, I'm announcing my first full-time hire shortly).

We're aiming to be a Newman's Own for Nerds: We sell geeky things (LOLmagnetz, xkcd book, shirts) and donate the profits.

I humbly suggest you sign up for our mailing list & drop our RSS feed into your reader :)

I humbly suggest you sign up for our mailing list & drop our RSS feed into your reader :)

And I second that opinion, replacing 'humbly suggest' with 'order you to'!

The cultural foundation of Breadpig has motivated me to pursue a small idea I've had for a while, but which was never going to be super profitable - switching into the charitable mindset, however, makes it a much more energising project. So thanks for that inspiration, I guess.

Very cool - the return of an East Coast presence for YC is a good thing for New York and Boston based early entrepreneurs.

Good for the individual entrepreneurs? Sure. Good for the overall East coast tech scene? I doubt it. I could be wrong, but I doubt that pg has changed his stance on startups needing to move to Silicon Valley. More than likely, this will serve as a "funnel" for companies from NYC to SV.

Of course, not that there's anything wrong with that. It's just that I doubt this is a good thing for the overall east coast entrepreneur community.

Actually we have 3 startups in the current YC batch who plan to move back to NYC now that the YC cycle is over.

I've always emphasized that seed funding isn't a local business in the way VC is. Startups come to YC from all over and can go anywhere they want afterward. I honestly believe the optimal route for founders who want to live in NYC would be to come to the Bay Area for YC, then move back to NYC afterward-- just as a lot of New Yorkers choose to go to Boston for college, then move back to NYC afterward.

pg and YC have always been upfront about their goals and investment philosophy: If founders can get life-changing wealth ("solve the money problem"), YC will be successful. Nothing in that mentions local tech scenes.

I wonder if this is what Harjeet meant by the new announcement http://twitter.com/Harjeet/status/22654064109

I liked Alexis' retweet, actually :)

http://twitter.com/kn0thing/status/22654109600

yes this is what i meant, am very excited to have alexis on board

I would hope so. Otherwise that tweet is telling Alexis, "you're cool and all, but that thing we're announcing next week is what I'm really excited about", which wouldn't exactly be the warmest welcome.

But I'm sure it is.

You're right - http://twitter.com/Harjeet/status/22722432968

If that were the case, I wonder what would be more exciting?

Wow, I wonder how big the YC network is now after so many years in operation. Has anybody done any statistical analysis? Like how many cofounders walked out the programme and where their startups are currently located

About 450 people. I would guess more than half are in the Bay Area.

Thanks for the reply pg! We are based in Australia and are putting together an application for the next round of YC. Hopefully we'll join the YC community and broaden its global presence!

We like Australians. They seem to make good founders. You may want to talk ask the founders of Omnisio, Adioso, and Whereoscope for advice.

Yes we know Tom and Fenn from Adioso, and we are going to the next local HN meetup before the submission deadline - I think the biggest thing that anybody would get out of YC is becoming part of a community of very passionate people, which makes a hell lot of difference!

Yeah, having Australian YC founders is awesome for championing our local startup communities too. There was a decent turnout at the the YC Melbourne meetup in February.

Do you reckon I'm the only one in Alaska? (For another month, anyway...)

There are several who are from Alaska, who are probably there occasionally. I don't know of any others currently working out of Alaska.

I met Alexis at Startup School in... 2006? I can't think of many people better suited to an "ambassador" type role.

Alexis is awesome. He flew down from NYC to Boston a week or two ago just to come talk to a bunch of young startups (well, I'm sure he had other reasons too, but it really meant a lot to us).

P.S. Cupcakes are generally a great way to introduce yourself :-)

Can't think of a friendlier person to represent YC. Congrats!

What compensation do these people get? A salary? Equity?

Congrats, YCombinator and Alexis! Great news.

Very cool news for YCombinator ... met Alexis at a DC Drankkit and he's a ridiculously down-to-earth dude.

Welcome to New York City, Alexis (again). We're damn glad to have you back!

I wonder if he'll be listed as a 'co-founder' of Y Combinator?

I think he's an employee that's workin' for the man now!

Congrats to both Alexis and YC!

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