Serena Williams inspires her Reddit co-founder husband's career in tech - and he says his marriage is 'a front row seat to greatness'

Reuters

Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian.

• Alexis Ohanian, the Reddit co-founder, always assumed he was the hardest-working person he knew.
• But he realised how wrong he was when he met Serena Williams, who has inspired his own career in tech and in business.
• Ohanian said being married to Williams is like having "a front row seat to greatness."

Being married to 23-time Grand Slam tennis champion Serena Williams is like a "front row seat to greatness," according to her husband Alexis Ohanian.

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Ohanian, an internet entrepreneur, said in an interview with Fox Business that he always presumed "tech was the hardest working industry."

But, after speaking with Williams, Ohanian quickly changed his mind.

"I really thought I was like the hardest working person I knew," he said. "I thought tech was the hardest working industry. Our businesses are open 24/7 and, of course, we're always working and grinding. But then I started talking to her and then realised, very quickly, just how wrong I was."

Ohanian co-founded the news website Reddit in 2005 and became a multi-millionaire aged 23 when he sold it 16 months later. He met Williams at a cafe in Italy in 2015 and improved the tennis ace's website with a superior "tech strategy" while also helping secure "deal flows with sponsorships and investments."

The pair got married in 2017 and Ohanian said Williams has inspired him in business.

"It's a front row seat to greatness and that is what I'm working towards in my own career," he said.

Ohanian and Williams had a daughter, Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr., in September last year. Since then, Williams has returned to tennis and almost captured her first major since being a mom, what would have been her 24th Grand Slam title, when she reached the 2018 Wimbledon Championships final - but she missed out to Angelique Kerber.

Ohanian co-founded Initialized Capital in 2010, is an Open Internet activist (an advocate for net neutrality), and is widely regarded as "one of the most creative people in business."