Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian
Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian has recalled a trip he took to Armenia back in 2010, saying that he “spent a few months in the motherland” and got back to his roots.
Ohanian’s mother was born in Germany, while his father is the son of Armenian immigrants.
In a fresh interview with The New York Times, the entrepreneur was asked about the break he took to work on microfinance in Armenia as a fellow for Kiva, a non-profit organization that allows people to lend money via the Internet to low-income entrepreneurs and students in more than 80 countries.
“I needed to get away from tech, so I spent a few months in the motherland, just volunteering for Kiva,” he said.
“I was unplugged, got back to my roots, met a bunch of Armenian entrepreneurs making wine or selling clothes — just good old-fashioned businesses making a thing and selling it.”
Ohanian started dating tennis star Serena Williams after first meeting her at a lunch in 2015. In a Reddit post confirming her engagement in 2017, Williams traced their lunch back to Rome, where Ohanian ultimately proposed.