Back in 2015 Gratipay hosted it’s second ever retreat; the idea was a full weekend of hacking and building with all of our normally-remote members of the team. The thing you need to know about Chad is he is exceptional at bringing people together and spreading his passion. I arrived a bit early to the retreat and was tasked by Chad to cook dinner. It sounded easy enough; I need to make dinner for 10 or so people, something easy like sandwiches would work right? That was when Chad brought out the giant oven-sized dutch oven, I couldn’t believe we would be making so much food for 10 people! I was peeling potatoes for hours! Turns out that night we fed over 50 amazing people from Chad’s life. All of his friends, neighbors, churchgoers, family, peers, and even random people he had inspired at the local pub.

And every time I hung out with Chad it was like this, people from all over the world, in all sorts of backgrounds and difficulties made it a point to be Chad’s friend.

Chad, you may think you didn’t get to change the world with Gratipay, but you did, you are the catalyst that will change the world for the better. Thank you.