Alexis Ohanian once rejected business advice from one of Silicon Valley’s most legendary investors–and it led to a multibillion-dollar success story.

“One of my favorite worst pieces of business advice was given to me by Paul Graham,” the Reddit cofounder revealed on the sidelines of the Fortune Global Forum in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in October. The Y Combinator cofounder thought Reddit’s name was “terrible” for a fledgling company, and he wanted Ohanian to ditch the orange-eyed mascot he had designed, the alien named Snoo.

“I made a lot of mistakes as a first-time CEO, but disregarding that advice was definitely one of the things I got right,” Ohanian, now a 42-year-old millionaire investor and founder of venture firm Seven Seven Six, said.

Back in 2005, after soon-to-be Universit

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