
On turning Y Combinator rejection into reddit - kn0thing
http://www.theatlantic.com/video/archive/2013/09/creative-breakthroughs-alexis-ohanian/279593/
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L_Rahman
Hey Alexis.

Between Small Empires on The Verge, and a number of recent media appearances,
you've recently begun very publicly advocating in favor of entrepreneurship.

Any particular reason you chose to do this now, instead of earlier, or even
sometime in the future?

~~~
kn0thing
It's been something on my mind since SOPA/PIPA. After that, I turned my eyes
toward getting people think about the internet economy happening outside of
the Valley (e.g., INTERNET 2012 bus tour + documentary:
[http://siliconprairiefilm.com](http://siliconprairiefilm.com)) so that more
Americans (and our politicians) realize just how important protecting +
nurturing the internet is for the American economy.

I'm spending the next year promoting lowercase "e" entrepreneurship -- not
just for people who want to start companies, but just use the same
entrepreneurial skills to help themselves be awesome. The motivation for Small
Empires was not only to make founders + startup employees more relatable, but
also the users who are using these tools.

For everyone one person who wants to start etsy, there are tens of thousands
who just want to start an etsy store -- I'd argue they're even more important
to reach.

And after speaking at enough universities, it was clear there is no curriculum
in the country preparing students for the new economy, yet we're sitting at a
time of unprecedented potential. That's what lead to the book (Without Their
Permission) and the 70-university, 150-stop tour I'm doing this fall!

[http://withouttheirpermission.com/tour-
dates](http://withouttheirpermission.com/tour-dates)

There is no master plan, though, I can guarantee that.

~~~
prayag
Silicon Valley is doing a poor job at connecting with the rest of the world.
In people's eyes it's all brilliant MIT kids who get millions of dollars to
write software that lets other kids share pictures and sell it for billions.
Most of the rest of the world can't even fathom this. It's a novelty, a fairy
tale which will never affect them. In a lot of people's eyes there will be no
major casualty if the tech business "goes away".

It is really important for rest of America to relate to Silicon Valley. To see
the millions of lives these companies are changing, not just by connecting
people to each other but also by helping them earn a living. The etsies of the
world are providing real opportunity that didn't exist before. The rest of
America needs to see that.

This is why I am so excited about Alexis' "Without their Permission". I hope
it gets a much wider audience than the tech sector and people see the tech
world for what it really is.

In similar vein, it is very important for the tech world to remain humble, not
to get carried away by catered lunches, google buses, 6 figure salaries and
free ubers. The tech world needs to understand that this is not how life in
most professions works and we are in real danger of turning into spoilt and
privileged people that the rest of the world has started seeing us as.

~~~
mkr-hn
> _The etsies of the world_

Etsy was launched in NYC. Other than that, I agree. I'm struggling to think of
a SV company other than Facebook, Twitter, and Google. And as far as I'm
aware, Google is the only one of those three with projects outside SV. Maybe
it's easier to think of more if you're in SV and not on the other side of the
continent.

~~~
jrpt
Are you serious? Facebook and Twitter are huge forces worldwide. There's a
reason countries like Iran and China have blocked them. (And this just in:
Iran has unblocked FB and Twitter as of this week.)

And for SV companies other than those, there's no lack of big names: Apple,
Oracle, Salesforce, HP, Intel, Symantec...

~~~
mkr-hn
> _Are you serious?_

You must have missed this:

> _Maybe it 's easier to think of more if you're in SV and not on the other
> side of the continent._

I didn't know those were SV companies. They're household names because of
their impact, not their location. People don't tend to associate them with the
location of the company's headquarters.

> _There 's a reason countries like Iran and China have blocked them. (And
> this just in: Iran has unblocked FB and Twitter as of this week.)_

You missed this too:

> _only one of those three with projects outside SV_

I was thinking of Google Fiber and Google's lobbying to make driverless cars
legal in as many states as possible. Projects. "Getting banned in China" isn't
a project. It's almost as if you ignored the content of my comment.

And today I learned that Menlo Park (Facebook) and Cupertino (Apple) are in
California. I imagine this is what it's like when someone learns there's more
to Atlanta than the airport.

