Without Their Permission

What would you do if every barrier between your ideas and the world vanished overnight? In Without Their Permission, Alexis Ohanian—co-founder of Reddit and serial entrepreneur—argues that the open Internet has created a new era of global creativity, entrepreneurship, and empowerment. He contends that anyone with a laptop, a connection, and a willingness to act can now shape industries, disrupt old systems, and make the world, as he puts it, “suck less.”

At its core, the book is a manifesto for what Ohanian calls the age of “permissionless innovation.” He insists that the Internet has flattened the playing field—an equal platform where ideas win not because of who you know but because people like them. The web rewards determination and openness rather than hierarchy and privilege. But this opportunity also brings responsibility: we must protect and understand the digital infrastructure that allows this creativity to thrive.

A Blueprint for the Internet Generation

Ohanian builds his argument around his personal evolution—from a college kid in a dorm room building Reddit, to an activist fighting against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), to an investor helping others realize their own online ventures. His story reads like a roadmap for digital-age entrepreneurship. Each experience reinforces a single point: the Internet empowers those who care, who persist, and who aren’t afraid to learn from failure.

Throughout the book, Ohanian weaves together his narrative with lessons from other innovators—educators, programmers, and artists—who used the web to bypass traditional gatekeepers. You’ll meet Charles Best, founder of DonorsChoose.org, who transformed classroom philanthropy; you’ll see how crowdfunding platforms like Kickstarter and Kiva changed how we think about money; and you’ll discover how humorist and YouTube star Zach Anner turned disability into a superpower with online community support.

Making and Doing Without Asking

The title Without Their Permission captures the book’s defiant optimism. Ohanian urges you to stop waiting for validation—no degree, investor, or institution gives you “permission” to start. On today’s Internet, the barriers to entry have collapsed. Instead of rent-seeking gatekeepers and centralized control, we now have a marketplace of attention. The biggest risk, Ohanian warns, isn’t failure—it’s inaction.

“No one needs to give you permission to be awesome.”

—Alexis Ohanian

Each chapter functions as both memoir and manual—blending Ohanian’s firsthand experiences building startups with broader commentary on Internet culture, activism, and the ethos of doing good through tech. From his time at Y Combinator learning that “ideas are worthless, execution is everything” to his activism during the SOPA protests, Ohanian emphasizes continuous learning, iteration, and community building.

Why These Ideas Matter

Ohanian believes that the Internet’s openness mirrors the democratic ideals America was founded upon—it’s a meritocracy of ideas. But he also warns that it’s fragile. Legislation like SOPA and corporate overreach could stifle the freedom that made breakthroughs like Reddit, Airbnb, or DonorsChoose possible. For him, protecting Internet freedom is not just a political fight; it’s a means of preserving humanity’s most powerful stage for innovation and equality.

Across the book, you’ll explore how to identify real problems worth solving, how to build things people love, how to grow transparently and ethically, and how online connectivity can make both profits and progress. Above all, Ohanian calls on you to use your creativity and hustle to build a better world—without waiting for permission from anyone.

At the heart of Ohanian’s entrepreneurial philosophy is a deceptively simple mantra borrowed from Y Combinator: make something people want. It’s the cornerstone of any thriving startup—and of meaningful creativity more broadly. In Ohanian’s view, too many would-be founders obsess over grand ideas instead of solving real problems that people actually face. The Internet is a ruthless, impatient marketplace; it rewards whatever users genuinely love and ignores everything else.

From Worthless Ideas to Relentless Execution

Ideas, Ohanian insists, are “worthless.” What matters is execution—the process of building, testing, failing, and iterating until users show through their behavior that they care. When he and Steve Huffman first applied to Y Combinator, their idea, “My Mobile Menu,” failed to impress. It was only when they pivoted and focused on solving the problem of finding the best of the Internet—what became Reddit—that they created something people truly wanted.

Execution meant starting embarrassingly small. Their first version of Reddit didn’t even have comments; it was simply a list of links that rose or fell by votes. They faked traction by submitting their own posts under different usernames until strangers began joining. As the site evolved, the duo constantly listened to users and added features like subreddits and commenting in response to community needs. This cycle of build, listen, adapt formed their blueprint for success.

Learning from the Crowd

What Reddit taught Ohanian was that co-creation—inviting users to shape the product—is far more powerful than any marketing plan. Every product on the Internet must earn people’s attention and affection. His advice to you: talk less about ideas and show prototypes instead. Gather feedback not through surveys but through behavior. As Paul Graham told him, “The back button is your enemy.” Every second a visitor spends matters, and each interaction is a chance to build delight.

The Power of Minimum Viable Products

Ohanian stresses building a minimum viable product—simple, imperfect, but functional. Perfectionism kills momentum. True progress comes from releasing early and improving publicly. This approach mirrored other startup legends: Google launched as an ugly search form; Airbnb began with air mattresses in a San Francisco apartment. Each started embarrassingly small—but they made something people couldn’t ignore.

The Internet rewards authenticity and responsiveness, not polish. Ohanian’s takeaway is clear: focus on value, listen to your users, and surprise them with care, wit, and humility. If you show that you genuinely give a damn, they’ll give a damn back. That’s how you build something people love.

Failure, for Ohanian, isn’t the end of your story—it’s the precondition for creating a better one. Every major success in Without Their Permission emerges from wrong turns, pivots, and what Silicon Valley euphemistically calls “iterations.” The lesson is blunt: you can’t think your way to success. You have to act, mess things up, and adjust quickly.

The Value of Failing Forward

Ohanian recalls how startups like Reddit, Airbnb, and Justin.tv all began as half-baked experiments. Reddit was built in a month; Justin.tv almost collapsed before pivoting into the live-streaming powerhouse Twitch. Each founder learned that the ability to adapt mattered more than the brilliance of the original idea. Failure was simply information pointing to where value didn’t exist yet.

Stop Waiting for the Perfect Idea

Too many people wait for permission to start—waiting until their idea is “good enough.” Ohanian flips this logic: only through testing can you know it’s good. Even your first version should embarrass you. By launching reddit early, he and Huffman gave themselves a priceless advantage: real user behavior. Every criticism was data; every bug report was guidance.

As he puts it, “Success doesn’t happen in a vacuum.” It happens through collaboration, criticism, and relentless iteration. The startups that survive, he says, are the ones that pivot—not out of panic, but from careful listening and humility.

Learning to Pivot Without Ego

Letting go of an idea feels like failure, but Ohanian reframes it as compassion for your future self. By shedding attachment to one vision, you stay alive long enough to find a better one. His advice applies beyond startups: in art, business, or life, iteration creates discovery. If you’re not changing, you’re stagnating—and the Internet moves too fast for stagnation.

In Ohanian’s world, great products don’t just function—they delight. Every button, message, or error screen is a chance to show personality and empathy. This principle helped Reddit’s alien mascot become an emotional touchpoint for millions and turned Hipmunk’s flight search tool into something fun rather than tedious.

The Human Touch in Tech

Ohanian believes technology has to feel human. When Hipmunk displayed the error message, “We don’t support trips to the past yet,” it transformed a user’s mistake into a playful moment. He calls this the art of “surprise and delight”—turning functional transactions into human exchanges. Thoughtfulness is rare online, which is why even tiny touches resonate.

Why Caring Scales Better Than Advertising

Most companies spend fortunes chasing attention, but Ohanian argues that caring scales infinitely better. To delight users is to create free evangelists. Zappos built its empire on customer service; Reddit built loyalty through humor and interaction. The Internet spreads word-of-mouth faster than any billboard—if you give people something worth talking about.

As Tony Hsieh (CEO of Zappos) observed in Delivering Happiness, exceptional service becomes marketing. Ohanian extends this logic to everything: every reply, design choice, and policy should communicate that you respect users as real humans, not data points.

Empathy as Competitive Advantage

The takeaway: empathy isn’t sentimental—it’s strategic. In an era of automation, the companies that give a damn stand out. Whether you’re running a startup or crafting art online, remember that the people on the other side of the screen crave connection. Treat every interaction as a chance to prove you care.

The Internet empowers not only entrepreneurs but also entire movements of generosity and creativity. Ohanian illustrates this through stirring stories of digital-era altruism—from teachers funding classrooms through DonorsChoose.org to ordinary citizens rebuilding disaster-stricken communities like Joplin, Missouri. His message: technology amplifies human goodness when people connect with transparency and purpose.

Transparency Builds Trust

Charles Best’s DonorsChoose solved a simple but profound problem: donors wanted to know where their money went. By showing photos, teacher letters, and exact purchases, he transformed giving from an act of faith into a tangible connection. That trust powered over $175 million in donations and redefined twenty-first-century philanthropy.

Ordinary People, Extraordinary Impact

Debby Guardino, a special education teacher, epitomized the Internet’s potential for grassroots action. After a tornado leveled Joplin’s schools, Debby used DonorsChoose.org and social media to raise over $800,000 in supplies—without a single institutional gatekeeper. Her online compassion turned into truckloads of real-world change.

Crowdfunding and Citizen Power

Platforms like Kickstarter, Kiva, and GlobalGiving extend the same principle: anyone, anywhere, can invest in what they believe in. Ohanian calls this the “future of giving,” where small donors wield collective power once reserved for elites. It’s not charity alone—it’s empowerment, fueled by data and community storytelling.

For Ohanian, this isn’t optimism; it’s strategy. An open Internet turns abstract empathy into measurable impact. Connection becomes currency, and those who act selflessly can now change the world—without anyone’s permission.

Beneath Ohanian’s entrepreneurial cheer runs a deeper thread of civic urgency: if we don’t protect the open Internet, we lose the foundation that makes all this innovation possible. The book climaxes with his activism during the 2012 SOPA and PIPA protests—when websites like Reddit, Wikipedia, and Google “went dark” in opposition to laws that threatened online freedom.

From Founder to Freedom Fighter

When Ohanian received word that Congress was advancing the Stop Online Piracy Act, he saw how it could destroy what allowed Reddit to exist: user-generated content and permissionless sharing. He and millions of others mobilized. Coordinating the blackout became a symbolic act of digital civil disobedience—an Internet-scale protest defending free speech.

The People vs. the Gatekeepers

Hundreds of millions of users joined; lawmakers’ phones rang off the hook. By the next day, key sponsors withdrew support, and both bills collapsed. Ohanian saw this as democracy reborn through technology—a decentralized, crowd-powered movement proving that citizens could triumph over entrenched lobbyists. It was a watershed for Internet rights and civic participation alike.

Protecting the Future

In the book’s later chapters, he warns that this victory isn’t permanent. Net neutrality, open access, and privacy laws remain under threat. He urges readers to become “stewards” of the digital commons: call your representatives, support digital-rights nonprofits, and use your voice online responsibly. The future of innovation depends on citizens who understand and defend the open systems that empower them.

Ohanian closes with a call that blends humor, humility, and hope: use your talents to “make the world suck less.” He believes entrepreneurship and empathy aren’t opposites—they’re partners. The Internet magnifies whatever values we bring to it, which means our collective creativity can build businesses that also solve human problems.

Entrepreneurship as Service

From Breadpig, his social enterprise that publishes webcomics and donates profits to charity, to his investments in mission-driven startups, Ohanian embodies what he preaches: business can be both profitable and purposeful. He encourages readers to find alignment between what excites them and what helps others. The Internet, he writes, offers infinite stage space for both.

Empowering the Next Generation

His final chapter projects into the future—a hypothetical commencement address to the “Class of 2025.” It warns of complacency and censorship but ends with optimism: if we nurture digital literacy, inclusivity, and open access, we’ll empower a new generation of creators who ask no one’s permission to build, share, and connect.

For Ohanian, the real revolution isn’t technological—it’s moral. Giving a damn is still the greatest competitive advantage. Whether you’re raising money for teachers, coding the next big app, or organizing online for justice, the Internet amplifies your capacity to matter. That, he insists, is both a privilege and a responsibility.