Podcast Notes: Pomp Podcast with Alexis Ohanian, co-founder and executive chair of social news website Reddit.
Failure to take seed investment was "dumb"
6:20 - Ohanian said that every startup is dysfunctional in its own way. The following April after Reddit launched in June 2005, Ohanian said that they weren't making any progress with the platform. The advice he received, at the time, from investors, was to get the company sold. After a YC Demo day, he went on to note that they only managed to raise between $60,000 and $70,000, which Ohanian believed was a lot of money. So much so, that he turned down a possible offer to raise a $1 million during a Series C found because he said they didn't need that much money. He admitted that the move was "dumb," adding that they didn't think ahead to hiring people.
How does the partnership work with Garry Tan?
17:30 - Ohanian said that the "bromance" he has with Initialized Capital co-founder Garry Tan works due to hard conversations. He said that it takes work, whether it's romantic or professional, it's an investment. In order to maintain, Ohanian and Tan have two-on-two sessions with their coaches, at least quarterly, to review the mini one-on-one sessions the two regularly have. Ohanian said that it's important to have alignment on values otherwise this is where a lot of the tension can originate and things start to breakdown.
"Plus-some" mentality
20:00 - Ohanian and Tan see the world as "plus some," in that they don't think someone else's success means...
