What Serena Williams' Husband Really Does For A Living

Serena Williams and Alexis Ohanian are the very definition of a power couple. Even before they were an item, each had found success in their own right, with Williams being one of the greatest tennis players of all time and Ohanian being a behemoth in the tech space.

Speaking with Vanity Fair, Williams dished that she met her future husband in a hotel in Rome. After a short scuffle over a vacant table, the athlete invited Ohanian to join her, eventually inviting him to watch her play her next match in Paris. "Even if she blows me off and we don't even hang out, I'm still going to have an amazing time in Paris, and I'll have an even better story for all my childhood friends," Ohanian said. Luckily, they did get the chance to hang out, and in the six hours they spent walking around the streets of Paris, they discovered they were meant to be together.

Even though Ohanian was also trying to flourish in his industry, he's incredibly supportive of Williams and has no problem putting her first or being known solely as her husband. "I'll be a self-made billionaire one day and most people will still know me as Serena's husband (or Olympia's dad) and that's fine by me," he told a fan on Twitter. And he's definitely not lying about on the road to becoming a billionaire, either. Little do fans know that he founded one of the most visited websites on the internet.

While still studying at the University of Virginia, Alexis Ohanian initially set his sights on becoming a lawyer. But during one of his study sessions for the LSAT, he realized that his passion lay elsewhere. "I didn't want to be a lawyer," he said in an interview with Inc. "I wanted to make a dent in the universe."

He then partnered with his college roommate Steve Huffman to develop an app for ordering food. They tried pitching it to Paul Graham — who rejected their idea — but invited the duo to join his start-up incubator. "In our conversation, Paul said, "You guys need to build the front page of the Internet.'" Ohanian added. In just three weeks, they built Reddit.

But over a year later, tragedy struck twice. Ohanian's then-girlfriend was involved in an accident, and his mother was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. He and Huffman brokered a deal with Condé Nast to sell Reddit, which would eventually be worth far more than what they sold it for. "I thought I was getting away with something because for 16 [months] worth of work, I was getting more money than my parents had made their entire working lives," he tweeted in 2020. "My mom's illness weighed on me the most. She was diagnosed with terminal brain cancer just a couple months into founding the company, so the idea of rewarding her life-long unflagging confidence in me with a $10M exit was tremendously appealing."

After helping build a few more startups, Alexis Ohanian became a venture capitalist. In 2016, he partnered with businessman Garry Tan to kickstart Initialized Capital, an early-stage VC firm with $500 million in assets, according to Insider.

Come 2021, Ohanian started his very own VC fund called Seven Seven Six, and according to the website, it has already invested in over 60 companies. He told CNBC that Serena Williams plays a big part in maintaining his motivation. "She was like, 'You work more than I do. And at first I was so flattered. I was like, 'Wow, thank you so much,'" he said, adding that his wife later clarified that it "wasn't a compliment." Ohanian shared that Williams taught him that while hustling is crucial, downtime is just as important. Overworking is "not actually the way to sustained greatness, because, especially as an athlete, you have to be spending as much time recovering and regrouping as you do working, training and practicing," he said of Williams' advice. "Otherwise you can't be at your best for a long time."

Ohanian also learned to put Williams' needs in front of his. "At the end of the day, sometimes her career really does have to come first. I try to be the most supportive partner I can be," he shared with Glamour. "I'm far from perfect, but I try to get behind her and let her know I'm there for her and our daughter, no matter what."