Alexis Ohanian would be the first to tell you he’s no expert when it comes to women’s soccer or golf or track and field. Though he played nose tackle in high school and religiously watched NFL games with his father, he didn’t hold onto the childhood dream of becoming a professional athlete for long. Sports were important to him, but so was building his own company—Reddit, which he founded in 2005 at the age of 22.
Still, sports have never been far from Ohanian’s mind. But it wasn’t the influence of his megastar wife Serena Williams—with whom he has two daughters, 8-year-old Olympia and 2 1/2-year old Adira—or some notion of reliving his high school glory days that led him back. Like any entrepreneur, his goal is building billion-dollar companies. And sports have become the next arena for Ohanian to do exactly that.
