“After my wife nearly died giving birth, I spent months at home caring for my family. Every dad should be empowered to do the same.” Fatherhood. For Serena Williams’ husband Alexis Ohanian, it started with 16 weeks of deserved paid paternity leave. While Serena spent days recovering from a hole in the abdomen and pregnancy complications, Ohanian persevered. One can only come out of it stronger, and the Reddit co-founder was ready. Ready to be a dad to daughter Olympia.

Over six years ago, Alexis Ohanian wasn’t just a tech entrepreneur anymore, he became a playmate, a sous chef, and most importantly, a dad. And, thanks to his “little princess,” Olympia, his confidence as an individual has soared.

Recently appearing on ‘Business Dad’ podcast, Alexis Ohanian sat with Airbnb co-founder Nathan Blecharczyk and discussed balancing work and family life. They delved into world travel with kids, paid leave for new parents, and the influence of fatherhood on business decisions. Discussing paternity leave in particular, Alexis Ohanian also revealed a surprising lack of confidence in his early days as a dad.

Having grown up as an only child, Ohanian’s feeling of going it alone intensified when his daughter, Olympia, was born. “I was an only child growing up, I really didn’t know what I was getting myself into having a daughter. And the big unlock for me spending time, obviously paternity leave obviously, with my daughter in those early months was normalizing this unknown, unknown,” he said.

“And so the confidence that I got from knowing like, hey, actually, like, we got this, I got this. I can actually handle this. I can be responsible for this human being, and it’s going to be okay,” the father of the two admitted.

The Reddit co-founder developed into a more confident human being through his parenting journey with Olympia. “And even though I had no previous mental model for what this would look like. I can handle being a dad. I can handle being the dad of a girl, like there was something about those early months that gave me tremendous confidence. And now, with a six-year-old, like nothing can faze me,” revealed the proud father.

In 2020, Ohanian talked about the difference between being a parent when he was born and when he himself became a father. In a New York Times article, he mentioned, “When I was born in 1983, my father took a single day off work. He used a vacation day. When my wife, Serena Williams, gave birth to our daughter Olympia in 2017, I took 16 weeks of paid paternity leave — which was the policy at Reddit, the company I co-founded and led at the time.”  

Back in 2020, Alexis Ohanian admitted that paternity leave wasn’t initially on his radar. He credits Reddit’s generous policy, championed by their VP of People and Culture, Katelin Holloway, for giving him the chance to experience its benefits firsthand.

After Serena, his wife, faced life-threatening complications during an emergency C-section for their daughter Olympia, the focus became her recovery. Serena battled pulmonary embolisms for days, and when they finally brought Olympia home, the reality was daunting. Daily bandage changes, medication, and limited mobility for Serena painted a very different picture of those early days.

“Nothing could have dragged me away from my wife and daughter in those hours, days and weeks — and I’m grateful that I was never forced to choose between my family and my job,” Ohanian wrote in the New York Times article.

Meanwhile, not only on a personal level, but little Olympia has also allowed her father to develop as a professional. Last year in a thread on X, Ohanian revealed that when his daughter turned three in 2020, it motivated him to resign in protest from the Reddit board and start his own venture, Seven Seven Six. He called it his life’s best work and “wanted her (Olympia) to see me doing my best, in a way she’d be proud of.” 

Surprisingly, Olympia’s birth wasn’t just the fuel to Ohanian’s confidence fire, but it also led the confident father to bring a revolution in parental leaves!

The tech executive and father of two, Ohanian’s fight for “not having paid leave was unconscionable”

Witnessing his wife Serena’s struggle to recover from childbirth while Alexis enjoyed paternity leave during Olympia’s birth sparked a fire within him. The vast majority of new mothers in the US, unlike his employees, couldn’t afford such support. Statistics like 1 in 4 women returning to work within 2 weeks of childbirth fueled his resolve.

True to his action-oriented nature, Ohanian didn’t just observe the disparity – he took the fight to Congress. Their successful advocacy led to 12 weeks of paid parental leave for all federal employees, recently expanded to include the military. However, he acknowledges the ongoing need for broader reform.

In August 2023, the couple welcomed their second daughter, Adira River Ohanian. And Alexis again utilized his paternity leave and stood true to his words!

This year, in a May interview with PEOPLE magazine about his podcast ‘Business Dad’ launch, Alexis Ohanian reflected on the joys of being a dad of two. He admitted having a second child (Adira) has been a much smoother experience compared to the whirlwind of new parenthood they faced with their first daughter, Olympia.

Almost after one month of Adira being born, the entrepreneur dad, revealed how his one month paternity leave has been vital for his family. “One month into my #PaternityLeave, as grateful as I am that Adira’s birth was smooth & Serena has been recovering well; this leave has been vital for our family.” The proud father of two, in an interview, went on to reveal the how husbands can act as a good rock for their wives.

“What’s been interesting is I don’t have as much of the anxiety. I feel like I was a good rock for my wife during some of the more stressful early years of parenting, especially as a first-time parent. You just don’t want to mess it up, right?”

Well, for Ohanian being a parent has been a transformative experience both personally and professionally. What are your thoughts about Alexis Ohanian’s growth as a person with Olympia? Do let us know in the comments!