Reddit / en Reddit co-founder to aspiring 91³Ō¹Ļ entrepreneurs: failure is an option /news/reddit-co-founder-aspiring-u-t-entrepreneurs-failure-option <span class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Reddit co-founder to aspiring 91³Ō¹Ļ entrepreneurs: failure is an option </span> <span class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><span>sgupta</span></span> <span class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden"><time datetime="2014-01-15T02:54:11-05:00" title="Wednesday, January 15, 2014 - 02:54" class="datetime">Wed, 01/15/2014 - 02:54</time> </span> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-field-cutline-long field--type-text-long field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Cutline</div> <div class="field__item">Alexis Ohanian addresses 91³Ō¹Ļ entrepreneurs (photo by Roberta Baker)</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-reporters field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/authors-reporters/rj-taylor" hreflang="en">RJ Taylor</a></div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-author-legacy field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">Author legacy</div> <div class="field__item">RJ Taylor</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-story-tags field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden field__items"> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/top-stories" hreflang="en">Top Stories</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/reddit" hreflang="en">Reddit</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/entrepreneurship" hreflang="en">Entrepreneurship</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/commercialization" hreflang="en">Commercialization</a></div> <div class="field__item"><a href="/news/tags/alumni" hreflang="en">Alumni</a></div> </div> <div class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Before co-founding Reddit, one of the Internetā€™s most popular websites,&nbsp;Alexis Ohanian suffered some pretty big failures.&nbsp;The biggest was&nbsp;My Mobile Menu, a mobile app that&nbsp;could allow users to order food before arriving at restaurants.</p> <p>It was an idea ahead of its time (smartphones were still rare) so when Ohanian and partner Steve Huffman pitched the notion to venture capitalist&nbsp;Paul Graham he was quick to reject it. But Graham was&nbsp;intrigued by&nbsp;the duo and asked for more ideas.</p> <p>Ohanian&nbsp;and Huffman&nbsp;conceived Reddit and the rest is Internet history. The popular social news site had 100 million visitors in the last month alone, clicking through five billion pages of articles, photos and videos.</p> <p>ā€œSucking is the first step to being sort of good at something,ā€ explained Ohanian to&nbsp;more than&nbsp;300 91³Ō¹Ļ&nbsp;students this week, hosted by the 91³Ō¹Ļ Engineeringā€™s<a href="http://hatchery.engineering.utoronto.ca/"> Entrepreneurship Hatchery</a>.</p> <p>Ohanian eagerly recalled his post-university days of inventing Reddit, encouraging students to ā€œstart having ideas and do them. Donā€™t let ā€˜I donā€™t know what Iā€™m doingā€™ stop you from doing it.ā€</p> <p>Ohanian was joined by 91³Ō¹Ļ alumnus <strong>Yuri Sagalov</strong>&nbsp;who recently co-founded <a href="https://www.aerofs.com/">AeroFS</a>, a start-up offering a file syncing and storage tool for businesses that need increased online security.</p> <p>ā€œMy advice is to build something that youā€™re passionate about,ā€ urged Sagalov. During an early funding pitch, he once had a potential investor get up and walk right out of the room but&nbsp;AeroFS overcame&nbsp;such early hurdles to attract investment from the likes of Redditā€™s Ohanian and others.</p> <p><strong>Joseph Orozco</strong>, executive director of The Entrepreneurship Hatchery, said failure is okay, as long as itā€™s not the end. ā€œThis is the time to take the risk.&nbsp;And if students have an idea, the Hatchery is a great place to start.ā€</p> <p>Now in its second year, the Hatchery boasts a team of experienced mentors and 48 student entrepreneurs. Students are hatching ideas&nbsp;such as&nbsp;Air Xposure, an affordable way to take aerial video using helicopter drones, and Modly, a portable lighting system for smartphone photos.</p> <p>The Entrepreneurship Hatchery will continue to grow in its new home in the <a href="http://boundless.utoronto.ca/initiatives/the-centre-for-engineering-innovation-entrepreneurship/">Centre for Engineering Innovation &amp; Entrepreneurship</a>, a dynamic new environment that will foster creativity and inspire 21st-century learning and innovation, said Orozco.&nbsp;The Centre&nbsp;is set to break ground later this year.</p> <p>Ohanianā€™s visit to 91³Ō¹Ļ kicks off the second leg of a North American tour promoting his new book, <em>Without Their Permission: How the 21st Century Will Be Made, Not Managed,</em> which includes 77 university stops.</p> <p>ā€œWhy 77 universities?ā€ Ohanian finished, ā€œbecause this is what I wish Iā€™d been told when I was in school.ā€</p> <p><em>RJ Taylor is a writer with the Faculty of Applied Science &amp; Engineering at the 91³Ō¹Ļ.</em></p> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-news-home-page-banner field--type-boolean field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">News home page banner</div> <div class="field__item">Off</div> </div> <div class="field field--name-field-picpath field--type-string field--label-above"> <div class="field__label">picpath</div> <div class="field__item">sites/default/files/2014-01-14-alexis-ohanian-reddit.jpg</div> </div> Wed, 15 Jan 2014 07:54:11 +0000 sgupta 5811 at