Quotes from Alexis Ohanian

It's so fantastic to see redditors thriving because Reddit was able to be a part of their journey. Over the last decade, we've seen countless people improve their lives because of it - from quitting addiction to getting a Hollywood screenwriting deal - and I hope there will be many more talents who'll be discovered on our platform.

It takes discipline not to let social media steal your time.

Pitch tip: Speak confidently about your product, but be able to admit when you need more information, and get it to the people you're pitching quickly after the meeting.

Facebook makes me hate the people I know, and Reddit makes me love the people I don't.

Reddit was created for people to speak freely and authentically and also for us to protect and value privacy. We're sort of the anti-Facebook in that regard.

People want a remarkable experience; it's what they'll talk about, largely because the bar has been set so low by so many companies.

Republicans want to keep the open Internet safe from big government. Democrats want to keep it safe from big corporations. I say we agree to agree and move ahead.

My junior year, I went to an LSAT-prep course. I flipped over my test and thought, 'You bastards.' I walked out and went to Waffle House. That's where I had what I call 'The Waffle House Epiphany': I didn't want to be a lawyer. I wanted to make a dent in the universe.

On my father's side, I'm descended from immigrants, one of whom was a Syrian refugee from the Armenian genocide, and my mother was an immigrant from Germany whose visa had expired and, for a year and change, was undocumented here in the U.S.

The best part of being an angel investor is seeing these kids coming up with companies that get way more traffic than Reddit had when we sold it. I think, 'Are you kidding me? They're just kids, and they've done so much.'

The Internet is too transformative for incumbents to not want to try to stifle or curb it - incumbents in the sense of multinational corporations, governments, take your pick.

The reason why I think Reddit is still around and some of our competitors are not is because we were really adamant about maintaining the integrity of the site.

The Internet is, as a communication platform and a learning platform, unparalleled because whether you want to learn something or share something, it's simply a few clicks away.

The first step, and the thing that everyone has to do right on the Internet is make something people want.

The reason people need advice on using social media is that they're a much more complex and nuanced way to communicate than a conversation or email.

Being effective at social media, whether for business or personal use, means capturing people who have short attention spans. They're only a click away from a picture of a funny cat, so you have to make your thing more compelling than that cat. And that can be a high bar.

My entire career has been built on the understanding that I am not only not the smartest person in the room, I am definitely not the smartest person in the world. And I am instead going to try to create as many opportunities to connect those great ideas and help them be great.

What makes Reddit special is that people feel free to express themselves. Where we want to draw the line is where that feeling of being able to express oneself freely starts to infringe on someone feeling like they can express themselves.

It's a fight to get anyone other than your mom to care about your startup.

Status quo just means that everyone's doing it. It doesn't mean that this was divinely ordained, and of course this is the right decision.

Unless it's really an emergency, I'm not going to bother you. And you can see people chafe at that. 'You're in the same office and instant-message each other? Why don't you just walk over?' That's the perfect example of how ingrained the status quo is. To certain people, it may seem lazy, but I would argue it's much more efficient and considerate.

Word of mouth now has a unprecedented influence because it spreads so far and so fast.

Love making jewelry? Awesome! Find blogs that inspire you, follow people on social media who have great taste, start an Etsy store, and borrow a friend's DSLR to take some beautiful photos of your craft. All of this costs $0.

To join in the industrial revolution, you needed to open a factory; in the Internet revolution, you need to open a laptop.