We’re happy to announce that we’ve appointed Alexis Ohanian as YC’s Ambassador to the East. He’s going to be based in New York, and he’ll be talking to potential YC applicants and representing us at events all along the Atlantic Corridor.

We’ve known Alexis since before Y Combinator even existed. In fact he was part of the reason we started it. He and Steve Huffman came up on the train from UVA to hear the talk at Harvard that led to Y Combinator. I had coffee with them afterward and found myself thinking “These guys could actually pull it off.”

Their startup, Reddit, was in the first YC batch in the summer of 2005, and was acquired by Conde Nast in 2007. It’s still one of the best known of the companies we’ve funded. Since leaving Conde Nast in 2009, Alexis has focused on his social enterprise, Breadpig, which has generated over $150,000 for charities.

We’ve always loved Alexis, and we’re delighted to have him back.

Anyone on the East Coast thinking of applying to YC should feel free to ask him any questions they have about YC or the application process (alexis@ycombinator.com).