Greg Kouri, PayPal co-founder, dies at 51
miamiherald.com
miamiherald.com
He was a smart, genuine guy that really cared about helping us. From what I'd picked up he was a close friend to Elon Musk and had backed him @ zip2, paypal, tesla and space x.
He gave us some great advice, and took a lot of time out to make intro's and give us feedback.
As somebody who has a complicated relationship with a well known startup's founding, it's tricky to explain sometimes. Important and early roles are held by many, the title founder is tricky and often contested. What's worse the media usually has incentive to make everybody in to a 'founder'.
Looks like Kouri is curiously little-mentioned prior to this obituary (at least, on the internet and in a quick news-archive search). Seems to have kept a low profile. The only thing anyone says about him is about one sentence worth: that he co-founded Zip2, is a Musk friend, and an investor in Musk's later ventures. No further bio, no interviews, nothing else I can find. I assume reporters have tried to contact him over the years, so I'd guess that he just didn't want publicity.
Truth is, there's still a lot about the heart we don't know, even in the areas of preventive medicine. It's possible a preliminary screening for cholesterol and high blood pressure would've caught it. It's also possible for his cholesterol and blood pressure and other markers to be normal.
I don't mean to hijack this discussion, but this could be a cue for somebody to visit the culture of dealing with a loss within the developer community. I would really like to hear the thoughts of a professional on this. I have witnessed one case where people completely ignored the loss and chose to forget that the person ever was there; or at least that is what I thought was happening. Is this what happens in all workplaces? How healthy/sane is such a reaction or lack thereof?