University Place  Alexis Ohanian Be Awesome Without Their Permission  February 20, 2014 UP985   cc >> We've gone on this tour all across this country, and we're here in Madison because a bunch of you on the internet said, hey, why aren't you coming to Madison? So we're like, all right, good point, good point, we will. And you have shown up on a day with some not great weather. Although I'm told this is a typical Wisconsin summer. Is that right? [LAUGHTER] But I'm really happy you guys are here. I'm especially happy because this talk has a hashtag, and I want you to take advantage of it. Whatever you want to use, take out your mobile devices, it's okay, your laptops, all that stuff. If you use Facebook, use it; Instagram, use it; Twitter, use it; Google+, no one uses Google+ so you don't have to use that. [LAUGHTER] But the reason I'm here is because I want to talk about entrepreneurship, and it's so cool to be here among a bunch of people who I hope like the things that I've made. One of the first things I started was Reddit. I don't know how many of you guys are Redditors. 

Just by a show of hands. Yes, amazing. Upvote, upvote. Upvote, upvote. Upvote. [LAUGHTER] Upvote, upvote, upvote. Thank you. You've also identified yourselves as the least productive people here at Wisconsin. [LAUGHTER] So there's that. But I've gone on to start a number of startups. 

All of them have cute mascots. I don't know why. I just love mascots. They're great. They make me happy. They're fun to doodle. You guys, however, have a mascot. Plenty of institutions have mascots. It's a way to rally people behind an idea. You've chosen the badger. 

Ferocious. Ferocious. Badger, badger, badger. The whole time I was preparing for this that song was stuck in my head. Not a honey badger. I won't hold it against you. It's still a badger, which normally I actually think of them as sort of cute animals, right? Aw. Aw, badgers. [LAUGHTER] They grow up. They grow up. 

Like they all things, they start real cute and then they get terrifying. But look, what's nice about mascots is you can get costumes. You can get a badger costume, wear it around, show a lot of school spirit, and you can get away with anything in the mascot costume. Really anything. This is the Hipmunk Chipmunk in Times Square, and you'll see that is the sword swallower being arrested by NYPD because when the NYPD sees a guy with swords they're like, hold on, let's see a permit. But they see a chipmunk and they're like keep dancing. You are looking great, chipmunk, keep it up. You can get away with anything. Just so you know. So if you're going to start a company, start a revolution, consider a mascot because then you can have a costume for it. 

Just saying. We're not here to talk about mascots. I wish we were, but we're not. We're talking about the world. It is big. A lot of water, a lot of people. And despite what one man says, he may have a compelling mustache, but despite to what he says, Tom Friedman, I'm sorry, you are wrong, the world is not flat. It's not. It's just not true. But the worldwide web is. 

As long as all bits are created equal, as long as we have things that demand neutrality, it is the world's largest stage and library in one. And that, my friends, is powerful. Extremely powerful. So bad. Oh, yes. Incidentally, this is a terrible metaphor because the Power Glove is actually a really terrible way to play video games. Some of you, with knowing nods, acknowledge that, but hear me out, okay? I was a kid. My parents brought home a computer for me. They didn't know a lot about technology. They didn't really have a ton of money to be spending on a computer, but they got me one. 

They got me a 486SX. I was teenager who had a computer in his room and the freedom to do whatever I wanted with it as long as I didn't break it. And years later, about three years later, they got me an internet connection. A 33.6 dial-up. You had to listen to your internet back then. All right, you guys don't know how good you have it. You had to listen to get started, but it changed my life. When I got that internet connection I felt like a god among men. [LAUGHTER] I did not look like one. The time that I was not spending getting ready for prom, I was spending building things online. 

And look, some of you may scoff or laugh or sigh at 16-year-old Alexis, but, yeah I know. I know. [LAUGHTER] In a hushed whisper, 16, my god. Wouldn't grow out of that for another three or four years. The point is there's a hipster somewhere making this look cool right now. Okay? [LAUGHTER] One. And two, and this is the most important thing, you see it gave me a sense of power. I was this dork who didn't feel like schoolwork was all that important, but I could come home to the internet and build things that millions of people could see online. Fine, actually really tens of people actually saw online because you never forget your first, right? Mine was GeoCities and her address was Silicon Valley/Hill/4924. It was a Quake II fan page. 

So imagine it all black with marquee text scrolling across, blink tags, animated GIFs of flaming skulls, and this was dorky, but I could watch that counter go up and I thought, wow, there is another person somewhere in the world seeing what I made. And granted, it was just me hitting reload, but still it felt so empowering, really. And it wasn't long after that I started going on message boards, and I started reaching out to nonprofits who didn't have websites and saying, hey, I want to build a website for you. I wasn't doing it for money. I was doing it for pride. They didn't know that I was this dork in my parents' house. They knew me as someone who had a skill they did not have that was valuable, and it felt amazing. It was like a drug. These adults had no idea. They just knew I was someone who could do something they couldn't. 

It felt like wizardry. It felt really cool. So I haven't been able to shake it ever since, and let me tell you, as Marc Andreessen wrote in the Journal not too long ago, software is eating the world. The internet is the delivery mechanism for so much of it, and the incumbents have no idea. In fact, Bane, paraphrased of course, has a pretty good synopsis for this. "They merely adopted the internet. We were born in it. Molded by it." [APPLAUSE] Thank you, that's it. I am out. Thank you, guys. 

No. Look, and it's fun too because once you know you can go Bane voice you just start doing it all the damn time. Like, let's get waffles. [LAUGHTER] Doesn't matter if we don't have syrup. Yeah, it's bad. The point is this is an easy joke to make, so I'm going to keep doing it. The incumbents just don't get it, and you know exactly what I'm talking about. You've all made this phone call We all have. And who could blame well intentioned grandma, right? House of Cards Season 2. No spoilers please. 

Still trying to catch up. Orange is the New Black. Amazing stuff. We all want to be there. It's just a little off. It's because they don't have this same fluency that those of us who were lucky enough to grow up with this technology have. And that is a huge asset. That's one of the greatest strengths our generation has is because we know the software is changing the world. We don't know how it is going to, but we're in the best position to drive that future. It's a new frontier online, and we're all exploring it. 

In fact, if you'll allow me, you all are Lewis and Clark, and I am your Sacagawea. [LAUGHTER] You don't need to overvisualize that. You don't need to overvisualize that! But hear me out. If there is this new world we're exploring, we're all exploring as long as we're online and creating, but those of us who can build in this new world, the developers, the programmers, they're not just exploring the new world, they're building it under our feet. They're building the platform that are going to change industries. And on that note, how many of you are learning to code? By a show of hands. Amazing. Excellent. Great. Every one of you with your hands up, congratulations. 

You are learning the most valuable skill of this century. Really. And those of you who don't, good news, everyone, it's also one of the most accessible. You can get started on Codecademy right now. You can start Rails for Zombies. The resources are there, and the best among us, the Steve Huffmans, my co-founder, the Mark Zuckerbergs, they're largely self-taught using free resources available online. You don't even have to enroll in this class to get started, though it's a great way to get that foundation. You could start doing this right now. Literally right now. Such a valuable skill that's also so accessible, and I'm telling you, it gives you what you will need to determine your future. 

Even if you don't want to be a founder. In the event that you do, I have a spoiler. Ideas are worthless. Just to make this very clear. Everyone has great ideas. No one is going to wake you up in the middle of the night and be like, hold on, I have a terrible idea. You're going to hate it. Just hear me out. No, everyone thinks they have great ideas, and ideas aren't worth anything, especially in an age when the barrier is so low. A laptop and an internet connection is what you need to get started. 

You don't need to open a factory, you don't need to hire employees, you just need to start building. And so I was lucky enough during my sophomore year at University of Virginia, I'd been obsessing over my GPA for two years. I wanted to be an immigration lawyer, and I was taking every LSAT prep class I could, and then one Saturday morning I walked out because I was hungry for waffles. It's true. Yes, I went to a Waffle House. You guys don't have Waffle Houses here, do you? Tragic. Wow. Okay, I didn't realize. I'm really sorry. Well, it turns out I had a Waffle House there on Route 29 that I went to. 

As I was eating waffles I realized I wanted these waffles more than the LSAT, so I probably shouldn't be a lawyer. [LAUGHTER] And it was literally in that moment that I thought, all right, I've got to figure out something else to do with my life. And what I found was entrepreneurship. One of my best friends, Steve Huffman, was already going to take a job with a software company, and I talked him out of it so we could just build something and live like college students for some indefinite period of time but on our terms and in our underwear. And he acquiesced, and we got to work. We were going to build something to eliminate lines forever. It was going to let you order food from your mobile phone so you never have to wait in line again. You can just show up and say, hey, I'm Alexis, and they'd give you your Frappuccino and you'd leave. It was going to be called My Mobile Menu, or MMM. [LAUGHTER] Yes. Yes. 

We could workshop it. But look, we starting talking to every restaurant in Charlottesville. We started building a prototype. We had business cards. We had a checking account. We were doing this. And by our senior year we learned about something brand new called Y Combinator. And at this point we had thought this is perfect. This is destiny. This guy named Paul Graham was creating a seed stage venture firm that would invest $6,000 per founder so that you could basically live for a summer up in Boston doing nothing but writing code, getting users, and playing World of Warcraft. 

We both hit level 60. Yes. And we thought this is amazing. We've already started this company, we're going to apply, we're going to get in, we're going to move, MMM is going to change the world. And so we applied. We got invited up for interviews. We went up to Boston, and, I got to be honest with you, we crushed it. We felt so good after that. We went out drinking afterward to celebrate. They called us to give us the good news and said we were rejected. 

It sucked. And the reason it worked out was because we were already drinking so we just figured now we'll just drink to mourn our failure instead of celebrate our success. [LAUGHTER] That night we were in Harvard Square. We bumped into a couple of other drunk people who were Harvard students. True story. They were Harvard students. And I only admitted this as I was writing the book, they were a little drunk and a little bold. You see, they had just gotten these great jobs at Lehman Brothers, and they were bragging. I don't know how that worked out for them, but they had just gotten these great Lehman Brothers jobs and they were bragging to us about them. And in my drunkenness and insecurity, I blurted out, oh, well, Steve and I are starting a company called MMM, and we just got into Y Combinator. 

You probably haven't heard of it, but it's going to be awesome. And I felt like such a tool as the lie came out of my mouth, and so I drank more. [LAUGHTER] I realize I'm talking to a bunch of college students, so I don't want you to get the wrong impression. Alcohol is not a solution, kids. It's not. Technically you're right, it is. It is technically a solution. That's true. That's true. But you know what I meant, right? So the next morning, hungover on a long train ride back to Virginia, we got a call from Y Combinator, and they said, listen, we still don't like your idea, but we like you guys. 

If you're willing to change your idea, don't do anything mobile, it's still too early. This was 2005. There was no smartphone. The smartest phone was either a Trio or a Blackberry. Too soon. Too soon, Blackberry. But either way, we knew this wasn't the right course. They said build something in a browser that solves your problem. Don't build a mobile and we'll let you in. So we agreed. 

We got off at the next stop, went back to Boston, and agreed to be in the first ever class of Y Combinator. We were going to build something that solved our problem every morning in a browser. There we were. First day. We graduated and went right to Boston. First day of Y Combinator. This is like class photo day. There they are, the founders of Reddit, Steve and Alexis. You'll notice, we haven't built anything yet, but I already have a t-shirt with our mascot. [LAUGHTER] Which I do not recommend. 

That is the wrong order of operations, but that was us. Steve actually, if you'll notice, to this day looks the exact same, which is because he's a vampire. But if you'll notice one other thing, one other really important thing about this photo, remember this is the founders of Reddit, this is day zero of Reddit, we have no [BLEEP] idea what we were doing at all. And this is something I love stressing, especially to college students because I wish I had this eight years ago or 10 years ago or 20 years ago. No one knows what they're doing. Life is not a paint by number. We're all figuring it out. I still don't know what I'm doing most of the time. No one does. Anyone who fronts to you like they have it all figured out is either lying or delusional. 

Mark my words. So do not let I don't know what I'm doing stop you from figuring it out because we all are. We're all figuring this stuff out. Okay? No one's got all the answers, and it's okay because your first version of whatever you make is going to be janky. It's the only word to describe it, ladies and gentlemen. It's janky. This is the first version of Reddit. Minutes after we went live to the world I took this screenshot because I wanted to remember it. I made the first submission ever. Fun fact. 

It was to the Downing Street memo. You'll notice I have negative one karma. [LAUGHTER] That is because Steve is a [BLEEP]. [LAUGHTER] He downvoted the first ever submission to Reddit. [LAUGHTER] And it was his best friend and co-founder and we were in the same room. [LAUGHTER] And I looked over and I was like, really? Really? That's the kind of guy Steve is. But look, that was the first version. That's minimum viable product before it was a catchphrase. All right? It solved a problem we hoped for ourselves, we hoped for 10 people or a hundred people. Do not get caught up with where you might be in eight years, okay? Because back then I can assure you we were just two kids who had no idea what we were doing, trying to make something that just worked for a few people. 

Last month, look, everything is janky. The first version of Facebook, do you remember? Do you remember what Facebook used to look like? Yeah, janky. This is about to blow your minds. Hold onto yourselves, okay? The first version of Twitter, what? Seriously? This is a publicly traded company right now, and just by showing this image I'm probably going to tank the stock by another 8%. That's the first version of Twitter. Janky. What is that? Ew. I don't even know. That's the first version. Publicly traded now. 

And look, if you aren't convinced, seriously, the first version of everything you love is janky. Even the first Iron Man, remember the Mark I? Janky. But it solved the problem. It got Tony out of that prison. If it's good enough for Tony Stark, it should be good enough for the rest of us. This is not for a grade. It just has to be good enough. Passing is actually good enough. And look, like I said, don't get caught up with where you might in 10 years. You have to create something that a hundred people will care about in the next week, or then maybe a thousand people might care about it, or then maybe 10,000 people might care about it. 

What's crazy is today 112 million people used Reddit last month, and it is still mind-blowing to me. It still feels like this thing Steve and I were starting because we had no idea what we were doing. There was no grand path. There was no road map where we were like, ah-ha, yes, everything is going according to plan. No, every day was wrought and fraught with uncertainty. We still have to this day. So don't get caught up with where you might be. Start by solving that problem for 10 people or a hundred people or a thousand people by making something great they will care about and will want to tell people about. And know that there will be competition. Hopefully you'll have heard about it by the time you launch because we didn't. 

Swear to you, about a week or two after we launched Reddit, I learned about Digg. And clearly here was a site that knew how to use CSS. This was going to be real competition. Their founder was a celebrity with a TV show. Kevin Rose announced Digg on his TV show. He didn't mention it was his website, but still. He announced it on his TV show. He had hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of followers who flocked to it. His audience, he had Silicon Valley money. He had millions of dollars from Silicon Valley VCs. 

We were living in a suburb of a suburb of a suburb of Boston called Medfield. We have 12 grand in the bank, and we were two dudes out of UVA who had no idea what we were doing, and we looked at that and we thought [BLEEP]. They seemed like they were doing everything right, and we didn't have a clue. And I can prove it to you because two weeks after we launched I sent this team-wide email to Steve which I think will show you. Yeah. Oh, I was "scured." Not even scared. I am talking next level "scured." You can tell all the caps subject line. This is it. The thought was we had just launched this thing, we just wanted 20 people to care, and oh, here was the Goliath. Here they were. 

But we had amazing advisors, Paul and Jessica. They told us do not care. Do not care about your competition one bit. They will not beat you. You will just beat yourself. And every time Digg or one of the Digg clones came up on our radar, we just remembered no. No. We will not care. Incidentally, Grumpy cat is an amazing role model for this. Hear me out, okay? Grumpy has more competition every day than we will all have our entire lives. 

Because Grumpy has to be better than every cat on the internet. Do you think Grumpy wakes up caring? No. Grumpy ain't got no time for that. Grumpy, please, Grumpy ran out of damns to give many years ago. [LAUGHTER] So do not care about your competition one bit. Who you should care about, you should care about your users. You should care about people like Andrew. Now Andrew, this is before social media remember. So the only people who shared their views was really through blogs. So this was a Typepad blog, which probably had 10 visitors all year, but two of them were me and Steve because Andrew was the first person to ever write about Reddit. 

Eighteen months before TechCrunch. TechCrunch didn't write about us until the day we got acquired, and they spent the rest of the time talking about our inevitable demise. Okay? Don't build a company, don't build a thing for the pride or for the pleasure of TechCrunch. Build it for your users. Build it for your Andrews. Build it for the people who will care, and take good care of them. This is the comment thread on that blog. Steve is giving him tech support, the CTO, to some dude who's got probably 10 readers because we care that much, and if you don't believe me, I did not take those screenshots eight years ago. I took them a few months ago. And the reason I was able to find this random blog, it's long gone, was because of the Wayback Machine. 

I remembered enough about this random guy's blog that eight years later I could find it in the Wayback Machine. That's how much this stuff means. You never forget your first. These are the people who care because only your moms are going to care. Moms are amazing. But no one else will. You have to convince every other person what you have made, whether it's your startup, your app, your Etsy story, your Kickstarter, your blog, your photojournal, whatever, is worth their time. So take care of them and eat waffles. I already told you about the Waffle House, which is great for both waffles and epiphanies, and really you should try one if you haven't. The other reason I love this is because it reminds me of one of my favorite Reddit stories. 

You see, three months, maybe four months into Reddit, Steve and I were invited out to Silicon Valley. We were so excited. We made a mix CD. It was our first trip our west to Silicon Valley, and we were so excited. This executive at a company called Yahoo, you guys know Yahoo? Yeah. They had invited us out, and we were so thrilled. This meeting, he's got his whole team, they're giving us free candy. We sit down in that meeting room and he says, tell us about Reddit. So we did. We started and a few minutes in he cuts us off. 

And we're looking at him like, okay. And he says, hold on, hold on, hold on, just wait. How much traffic do you guys have anyway? Well, we just launched a few months ago, about 12,000 users. It's growing week over week. And he just laughs at us. You guys are a rounding error compared to Yahoo, what are you even doing here? We're like, you invited us. [LAUGHTER] Is that like a thing you do at Yahoo? You just invite a startup to hate on them? Can we get some more M&Ms and then go? That meeting did not go well, and we went back home, went back to Boston a little defeated. But I'll tell you, as soon as we got back I printed something out and put it on my wall right next to my desk. A few words, it was, "You are a rounding error." I put it on my desk because I wanted to know exactly who we were proving wrong, exactly who Steve and I were proving wrong. This was our wall of negative reinforcement. 

And it got a little bigger over time. I still have it. It's in Dropbox now. But, like, this was motivation. This guy, he's still in tech. I'm sure he doesn't remember this meeting at all, and I haven't crossed paths with him. I've never named him because I have no reason to. I want to meet him again, and I want to thank him because he has done so much for me because every day, to this day I still get motivated by that guy. I still do. I'm so grateful because he provided me with so much motivation. 

And so what I say to you is, look, there are going to be constructive critics in your life who are amazing. They're the ones who makes us better; they're the ones who keep it real. And then there are going to be haters. Haters gonna hate. Scientifically proven. But we have an alternative to take that criticism. We don't have to just take it. We can eat it up for breakfast like waffles. We can use it as motivation. It can be the honey badger. 

Be the honey badger or the badger. Honey badger don't give [BLEEP]. Uhh-uh. And start marking, start doing because now is the time. This is such an amazing time of your lives because you probably don't have anyone dependent on you. You have more creative freedom now than you ever will. Actually now that I think about, some of you are probably already working on some amazing stuff. Just by a show of hands, how many of you are working on some really cool projects that you're proud of? Put them up high. Wow, look at, wow, awesome. Actually, I saw your hand go up first. 

Would you mind telling everyone what you're working on. [INAUDIBLE] Wait, wait, come on up here.  Just clap it up. Come up here. [APPLAUSE] What's up, man? What's your name? >> Maurice. >> Maurice, come on up, man. [APPLAUSE] I'll take a load off. I'm getting old. [LAUGHTER] Tell them what you're working on. >> Um, I'm working on a couple different video game ideas. 

>> You've got the crowd, man. Tell them what you're working on. >> Sorry, I'm really nervous being up here like this. Yeah, no, I'm working on a zombie survival video game idea that would consist of more of an emphasis on the storyline of the actual surviving in a house with several other members, as opposed to going and slaying all the zombies. So you're actually suck in this house, setting up the barricades and all this kind of stuff as opposed to zombie games nowadays where the emphasis is just strictly on destroying all of the other zombies. [APPLAUSE] >> What's it going to be called? Tell them what it's going to be called. >> I have no idea what it's going to be called. >> I want to sign up for the mailing list, man. >> Oh, um, I guess if you want to reach out on Twitter @badoil_49. >> @badoil_49? >> Yes. 

[APPLAUSE]  >> That was on the spot. Maurice, you did an amazing job, man. Seriously. This is what I'm showing you guys. And I do this at every university, and it's never prepared. It's just totally random. First hand I see, come on up here, take the mic. Look, the point is people are doing this right now. People are developing video games. What year are you here? [INAUDIBLE] You're a fifth-year senior here. 

Dude, so wait, hold on a second. So you're saying right now you don't have to wait for anyone's permission to get started on this idea? No because why should you. You could start on this [BLEEP] right now, and the fact that he had the courage to come up here is another important lesson that I learned when I was back in school, which is every one of us has the potential, has the passion, has the everything to do amazing stuff, but the people who do are the ones who put their hands up and get counted. They're the ones who go and do random [BLEEP] like get up on stage with a microphone and talk about what their passions are. They're the ones who speak up in conversations to say here is something I'm working on that I care about that you should know about. Take advantage of these opportunities. Serendipity is not going to happen to you; it will happen because of you. And it may not be as obvious as, hey, does anyone here have an idea, take the microphone. They're throughout life, so take advantage of them because I want you guys to do amazing stuff. I really do because this inspiration abounds all over the  internet. 

Websites like Maya. Maya has been running this store for the last seven years. She started up because she wanted an eco-friendly apparel line. She wasn't happy with any of the clothing she found so she decided to make her own. Her business has been going so well that she started a nonprofit to take proceeds from this successful business and help other people all over the world. And I first learned about her through a Ted Talk. It was a video I found online. I was just amazed. Amazed. And I'm thinking here is someone reaching their maximum potential for awesome using the internet. 

Oh, and I forgot, Maya is also 14. And what's wild about this is, yeah, she makes us feel like we wasted our adolescence, she's an amazing young woman. I got to meet her when we were down in Atlanta, and she has some amazing parents who enabled her to be as great as possible. The internet is her vehicle to learn and to share and to run a business and a nonprofit. And what's so cool is these are the people who are going to make this internet live up to its fullest potential. It's not just the young bloods either. One of my favorite stories is Lester Chambers, who is this 72-year-old musician. He's a member of the Chambers Brothers decades ago. He made gold records and just never got paid for them. And so a few years ago he was penniless. 

I know, it's shocking to imagine the music industry taking advantage of its artists. That's exactly what they did. And so Lester, penniless with his son, got so fed up they took this photo and put it online. It's cropped, but this photo sort of tells the story. He said a plea to all of his fans and said, listen, I am penniless now because of the record companies and I don't know what to do. So he posted this, it went viral, Facebook, Twitter, it was top of our music, and everyone said to him, Lester, what can we do to help. So he turned to a relatively new website called Kickstarter, and for the first time in his life Lester Chambers got an album that he owned. He raised $60,000 from his fans. Without a parasitic middle man he was able to get an album made. And no this is not a magic wand. 

This doesn't undo all the injustice to Lester or artists like him. What it means is there is another way. And this didn't exist five years ago. It's about to pass $1 billion in money transferred from people like us to other people like us who have created projects. It didn't exist five years ago. And it's not an end point; it's a part of the process. And so now is the time to get started doing stuff. It's the time to start failing because you're all here actually because you're good at not failing. You made it here because you're good at passing tests and doing the right thing, and our education system does a really good job of encouraging us to follow those rules and avoid failure. But life, if you're an entrepreneur or not, is going to have it. 

And getting good at responding to it and adapting to it is what is going to help you be great. Because look, sucking is the first step to being sort of good at something. Adventure Time knows. Look, if you remember nothing else from this, seriously, Badger, just remember go forth and suck. [LAUGHTER] Obviously, don't take that out of context. Actually, you know what? Live your life. Live your life. [LAUGHTER] Go forth and suck, Badgers. YOLO. Why not? But really, though, this is the time, and one of my favorite stories, this isn't even about an entrepreneur or tech startup. 

No, no, no. It's about a kid who failed the University of Georgia. Couldn't hold a bunch of jobs. He pretty failed out of everything he touched. He tried a bond trader, he was working at Applebee's, he failed at everything. And then one day he got a camera and told his friends and family, get this, he was like, I'm going to move and I'm going to take pictures for a living. And they were like, but you suck at photography. This is a terrible idea. And he was like, I know I'm bad. I've never done this before but I want to do it. 

And they say, yeah, good luck. Good luck. You're hosed but good luck. So he moved up to New York. He started taking photos, and he sucked. He was terrible. He started a Tumblr blog and wasn't getting a lot of buzz. He started taking more and more photos. He was really obsessing over his craft. He started to find inspiration from photographers all over the internet, and then he started talking to the people he was photographing. 

He started doing this kind of storytelling, and what is amazing is that total failure, three years later, became Humans of New York. Brandon Stanton is now one of the best known photographers in the world. Millions of people see this dude's work every day. And three years ago he was by all accounts a total failure. And I don't know how without the internet a story like his, a story like Lester's, a story like Maya's could have ever happened. This stuff gets me excited. This stuff makes me really happy, frankly. Proud cat dad. Not my cat, but still, it makes me really happy because this is an opportunity. It's an opportunity for us to be like, yay, internet. 

Woo-hoo. Right? It's great. I'm obviously a fan. But none of it is guaranteed. Historically, all the other revolutionary communication platforms have really ended up being anything but. The gatekeepers are still there. That neutrality has taken huge blow after huge blow, including a most recent one. With the Time Warner/Comcast merger, that's one more threat. TPP, mass surveillance, there are plenty of reasons why this may not work out, but it has to. It has to because of all the potential. 

All of the great people in just the last five years who I've just talked about are being great thanks to an open internet. And we have the tools. The internet is itself an amazing resource for this, but it still doesn't reach millions of Americans. There are millions of Americans right now who don't even have broadband. They're still using the same dial-up I was using in my teens because they live in rural America. Ridiculous. There are still millions of Americans who have to take their kids to McDonald's for free Wi-Fi because they can't afford it. If we believed every American should have a reasonable chance at a utility, like a electricity, why shouldn't they have a reasonable chance at internet? These are things that we can win, but it's going to be hard. No pressure. It's kind of on all of us. 

But it's going to mean more power for individuals to finally be great. And it's going to mean getting this off of its pedestal because, I don't speak French, but this is what it should mean. Entrepreneurs are not like special creatures and then there's everyone else. Being entrepreneurial is just having ideas and doing them. This is the muscle to exercise while you are here because it will make you a great founder that I want to invest in as well as a great employee that I want to work with. This is the skill. It doesn't matter what you want to do. The internet is an amazing resource to figure it out. YouTube didn't even exist when I was in college. Right? Crazy. 

What do you want to learn today? Do you want to learn Python, or do you want to learn how to knit? Do not sleep on the knitting communities on the internet, by the way. They're amazing. These are resources are there, and you now have an amazing opportunity to get started having ideas and doing them. That's the important thing. That's the skill that the internet enables. And look, I'm taking this message everywhere, including our hat, Canada. All right? Also, those books are not to scale because that would be terrifying. [LAUGHTER] And I believe you all got postcards. So in the spirit of having ideas and doing them, fill out those postcards with your address and something you want to have accomplished by the time my tour ends in April. When I get back to Brooklyn, assuming the postal service is still around, I will mail them back to you, and you'll find them in the mail and you'll be like, whoa, hey past-self, what was that thing I wanted to do? Oh, yeah, launch my Etsy store, start my Kickstarter, start my photo blog, get a thousand followers. 

I don't care. Whatever it is, write it down, challenge yourself, and then when it shows up in the mail hopefully you'll brush your shoulders off and be like, yes, I did it. Because there's no reason not to. Get in this habit now while you're in school. I am the ambassador for Y Combinator. I told you about how much it changed my life. If I can help you, email me at join@alexisohanian.com. Whether you want to apply to be a Y Combinator founder, whether you want to work at a YC company, there are a bunch there, whether you want an internship at a YC company, email me. Even if you just want to brag about something awesome you've launched, like when you launch your video game, let me know because every one of those is one more example that I can use when I'm talking to a politician or a journalist about what this generation is not only capable of, but doing. Now I've got one last slide, which is an homage to when video games used to be hard. 

A long time ago. Finite number of lives and then the game would reset. And the reason I have this slide is because I remembered as a kid how much harder I would play on my last life because I didn't have any left. I didn't want the game to reset. And I realized that's just like real life, notwithstanding resurrection or reincarnation. We're all playing with zero lives remaining. So by virtue of the fact that we're even here in this amazing room, having this discussion, gives us an amount of privilege and responsibility that is mind-blowing. So on a personal level, please take full advantage of it. We have an amazing opportunity. This is an amazing time, and, as you heard, I hope we can get towards this future, and I hope this technology can bring us more tolerance and more understanding. 

We still have a ways to go, but it's up to you all in this room. Again, no pressure. But really, whether you want an IPO in five years or have another $17 billion acquisition or whether you want to win a Nobel Prize, whatever it is, go do it and then give me a shout-out because I want to take all of the credit for it. [LAUGHTER] Take all the credit. Thank you very much, Badgers. [APPLAUSE]