Breadpig, iPad, 'dead tree' and me

Alexis Ohanian

Alexis Ohanian, the co-founder and former CEO of Reddit.com, a site that lets users vote for what's popular online, is now focused on Breadpig, "an uncorporation for creating (and selling) geeky things" that he founded in 2008.

Ohanian will deliver a keynote address, "How to Make a Splash in Social Media," during the Real Estate Connect SF 2010 conference, which runs from July 13-15 at the Hilton San Francisco Union Square hotel.

He responded to a set of questions posed by Inman News:

1. What is the most important business lesson you learned in the past year?

My current company, Breadpig, published a book by a popular webcomic, xkcd. In six months, it sold more than 25,000 copies. I hoped it'd do well, but didn't expect it to do that well. What's most exciting about this is that as electronic formats continue to grow, the cost of producing the final product falls even further (it turns out the margins on a "dead tree" (print) book were better than a printed T-shirt).

What's really different about the Breadpig model, though, is that we were the first publisher to give the author a majority of the profits.

It's something a few of the major publishers are emulating with books written by similarly Internet-famous people. This trend will only grow, as their traditional marketing and distribution value-adds are diminished.

Writers will have to get a larger share of the profits when they've already established a market -- especially one that's already buying merchandise directly from them. If someone is skilled enough to cultivate an audience online, where the barriers to entry are strikingly low, they can actually profit from it.

We're so excited about what this means for future authors that we published a detailed tutorial on how to start your own publishing house (or professionally publish your own book).

I'm constantly reminded of how much it pays off to be good to other people. One obviously can't spend all his/her time helping others, but in business, efforts to assist others eventually comes back, and usually is multiplied.

2. What inspired you to pursue your current career path?

Being a startup founder appealed to me as soon as I realized I didn't want to go to law school. I've always wanted to be wholly accountable for my own successes and failures. The idea of not having a boss was also very appealing -- I'd had my share of bad (and good) ones during all my part-time employment.

My dad has been running his own small business, a travel agency, since I was a kid, which I'm sure also had something to do with it.

3. Share a personal experience or anecdote about buying, selling, owning or renting a home.

Since my second year of college, I've been renting apartments. In fact, I've rented a new one just about every year since then because of some change in my career. ...CONTINUED

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