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Late last year I saw Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian speak in Baltimore, MD while promoting his book titled Without Their Permission. I’ve got a bit of a Reddit soft spot: it’s the story of an underdog that defeated Digg, their website is stamped with a smiling robot mascot, and Alexis grew up 10 minutes from my childhood home (though I had never met him).
Turns out we share a soft spot (and not just Reddit)… check out how he signed my book:
This wasn’t just a playful ploy. Case and point: the dude was wearing Galaxy Gear on his wrist.
His talk was relatively interesting and covered all the topics you might expect, from how Reddit started to lessons he learned along the way, followed by a Q&A. The Q&A was diverse, ranging from questions about net neutrality and privacy to local entrepreneurs asking for words of wisdom. I wish I could have edged in some questions about the mobile industry, but didn’t get the chance.
I only had a brief minute to chat with him afterwards. I’m sure he’s a fan of technology in general, but being a redditor whose activity has increased drastically over the past couple years, it was fun to hear him speak and delightful to hear about his enthusiasm for Android. I’m eager to hear if anyone else from /r/Android has heard or met Alexis in person and if they’ve had the chance to read his book.
You can buy his book Without Their Permission on Amazon for $27. It’s a good read that became a New York Times Best Seller and I wouldn’t be surprised if it hit the front page of Reddit at some point during its run.
What questions would you have asked Alexis if you had the opportunity?
It was actually on the front page this morning with this one:
http://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/1xl2ut/alexis_ohanian_cofounder_of_reddit_and_what_he/
If you want to show Alexis your overwhelming approval of his OS choices, I’m sure upvoting on Reddit wouldn’t hurt!!
http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/1xnxzn/reddit_cofounder_loves_android_and_ive_got_the/
I saw Alexis speak last Saturday. He is a wonderful speaker about technology, startups and our Internet age. I really enjoyed his presentation.
When you have a bazillion dollars you can waste it on frivolous garbage like galaxy gear =) Even if I was worth several million I wouldn’t buy one of those foolish things.
It’s not garbage. Some people find it very useful. I’d love one myself, but it’s just a bit too pricey for me.