If there’s one piece of advice that Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian has for aspiring entrepreneurs, it’s to forget about their GPA and focus on GTD: Getting Things Done.

As simple as it may sound, Ohanian has been reinforcing this mantra to every group of students that he speaks to on the book tour for his new bestseller “Without Their Permission.” The book focuses on Internet entrepreneurship and the vast resources that are available to startup companies in the age of free, open Internet.

On Tuesday night, Ohanian discussed how entrepreneurs and startups can leverage the power of the Internet as their most valuable resource at an event organized by Syracuse University’s School of Information Studies.

“As long as we have net neutrality, the world is our stage and the Internet is our library. We have endless amounts of information readily available for us to learn about anything that we’re interested in,” Ohanian said.

Ohanian’s book highlights this mentality and also gives readers a glimpse into the mind of the man who Forbes called “the mayor of the Internet” and one half of the founding team behind Reddit, known colloquially as the front page of the Internet.

Ohanian and his former college roommate Steve Huffman founded Reddit in 2005 in hopes of changing the way people consume news and entertainment on the web.

Reddit generated more than 5 billion page views from more than 100 million unique visitors last month. Ohanian uses Reddit’s success as an example for students who hope to create their own careers instead of following the “safe” career paths that have, until now, been the status quo in America.

“As college students, you have the time and resources to start doing things right now. For most students, nobody is dependent on you to pay a mortgage or raise a family while you’re still in school, so the time is now,” Ohanian said.

One of the resources currently available for SU students is the Newhouse Center For Digital Media Entrepreneurship. SU alumnus Sean Branagan founded the center in 2011 and also coaches student startups.

“He’s a rarity in this industry. He started being entrepreneurial in college and has kept his sense of direction through the sometimes messy process of an acquisition,” Branagan said. “Hopefully him speaking to students tonight is going to make this mindset that anybody can be an entrepreneur more widespread.”

Ohanian was joined by Wiley Cerilli, an SU alumnus, to continue discussion on the idea of internet entrepreneurship. Cerilli started his own technology company, SinglePlatform, in 2010. Constant Contact acquired Cerilli’s company for $100 million in 2012, and he still serves as its vice president.

Ohanian told the audience that his goal was to show how a former SU student leveraged the power of the Internet to create a business that solves problems and generates revenue. He asked Cerilli questions about his journey as an entrepreneur.

“When I was a student here, it was totally different. We didn’t have all these resources like the iSchool that support entrepreneurship, so it’s great to be back here and see how far SU has come,” Cerilli said.

Ohanian engaged the audience by using popular memes to reinforce his key points with a touch of humor. When advising students not to worry too much about their competitors, Ohanian flashed a picture of Grumpy Cat on the screen.

“Grumpy Cat has more competition than any of us. Do you know how many cats are out there trying to become more famous than Grumpy Cat? He ran out of damns to give about his competitors a long time ago,” Ohanian joked.

Although Ohanian maintains optimism about the power of the Internet for entrepreneurs, he made it clear that these opportunities aren’t guaranteed in the future. Ohanian believes firmly in net neutrality and was instrumental to the United States House Judiciary Committee’s decision to postpone the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in 2012.

Ohanian has since taken a stance against the NSA’s mass surveillance that was revealed last year by Edward Snowden. He continues to advocate for the same open Internet that allowed him to create his own career — without anybody else’s permission.

Published on February 5, 2014 at 1:04 am

Contact Tom: tsharkey@syr.edu