TechCrunch has lost one of our beloved former colleagues. Steve O'Hear, who wrote for TechCrunch in his hometown of London for more than a decade, has passed away after a short illness. He was 49 years old.
It is difficult to explain Steve's extraordinary talent in words. Despite being born with muscular dystrophy, spending his entire life in a wheelchair, and having significant health, mobility, and accessibility issues, he is without a doubt the most productive journalist we have ever worked with. I was one of them.
Steve brings the best to this organization every day, making TechCrunch great (and doing so – you can read his 3,210 posts here, a true masterpiece).
Steve was a tenacious news junkie with many stories to tell. He also wrote epic novels, spoke truth to power, and, quite simply, had an original and unmistakable voice.
Steve first joined TechCrunch in 2009 and was hired to help build TechCrunch's footprint in Europe and, in turn, expose the nascent tech ecosystem here to the rest of the world.
Steve was fearless and more than just a writer. In 2004, long before he came to TechCrunch, he became fascinated with Silicon Valley's apparent gravitational pull toward Europe and traveled to California with two friends to find out what makes it tick. produced a movie. You can watch that movie here.
Illustrations by Steve O'Hear and Bryce Durbin. Image credit: Bryce Durbin / TechCrunch
He was also a big music lover and enjoyed the world, building audio hardware and producing music himself (as a keyboard player).
Like many people who end up writing about startups, he had a strong entrepreneurial spirit. He left TechCrunch in late 2011 to co-found a semantic Q&A/search platform called Beepl. Oh, that wasn't horny enough. Eventually, Steve followed TechCrunch's great boomerang and came back here.
Steve is a natural talent at TechCrunch, deftly handling two aspects of what it means to work in a high-performing team.
He's fiercely independent and competitive, takes pride in his work, relentlessly pursues stories, twists his arms, develops clues, spills the beans, and (usually!) smiles. But he took no prisoners and did not suffer fools. He was a consummate team player and friend, always collaborating and helping others with their tasks. In our permanently distributed virtual office, Steve was a great guy to joke around with on Slack about the ridiculous things we saw.
As technology grew and TechCrunch grew, so did Steve's profile. He is an excellent on-stage interviewer and has covered iconic, tricky, but ultimately inspirational subjects over the years.
He eventually caught the bug and did something different again, making a big pivot to the startup world and working for quick commerce player Zapp.
The strict rules of start-up life eventually steered him in a different direction, and he once again started his own business, a communications consultancy called O'Hear & Co. As the company stated earlier, their plan is to continue Steve's vision. I had it.
It's a big loss and he left too soon. Our hearts go out to his former colleagues, his friends, his wife Sarah, and his family.
– Mike Butcher and Ingrid Landen
(We'll include some more below as word from the team arrives. We'd like to say here: Refresh to see the latest information.)
Connie Loizos, TechCrunch Editor-in-Chief
I worked with Steve for seven years, and although we were rarely in the same place at the same time, he seems to be omnipresent within TechCrunch, especially with up-and-coming founders in London and Berlin. He produced a huge amount of work on the subject, but at the same time he was actively active. Join us on our own internal social channels to flag stories he's been covering, share tips for others to follow, and sometimes, as everyone in the news industry does. At times, he would complain about his rivals in a good mood.
He cared about TechCrunch, and TechCrunch cared about him. His parting words to all of us in 2021 were: If I had to give any advice to newcomers (and you didn't ask for it), it would be that TechCrunch is a great platform like no other in this industry. If you use that special power to do your best work, it will pay you back twice. ”
Natasha Lomas
I first met Steve professionally and in person when I joined TechCrunch in 2012. However, as I may have said jokingly at the time, I soon realized that I had already met this guy on “Social.” His strength of personality and love of hustle has allowed him to play Twitter like a DJ dropping big tunes in a club. Of course, he expected the crowd to go wild. Mic drops were his bread and butter.
His character in real life was just as big and charming as his social media self. On the other hand, professionally, I have happily found that I have gained colleagues who are more forgiving to a fault. We're always happy to hear from you. I'm genuinely interested in being a sounding board for story ideas. He also had a mentor-like eagerness to help those without his labyrinthine expertise with the ins and outs of VC funding. In fact, it was most of his colleagues. Externally, I think he did not suffer fools willingly. But you wouldn't expect anything less from a man with his extremely smart intellect. Dear Steve, we miss you so much already.
The news of Steve's death is truly shocking. He spoke little about his health. Lowering it was the same as Steve. Because he was busy turning up the volume on the rest of the world.
Devin Caldwee
Although I worked with Steve on and off over the years, and only got to speak with him in person a few times (like many of my colleagues and friends here), he shared my interest in accessibility. I credit him with starting the fire. Of course, he covered countless other topics in depth, and I learned interview techniques from watching him. But he was well-informed and a passionate advocate of accessibility, criticizing the tech industry's historically rather lax approach to this important issue. He corrected me many times over the years, and I was sad to lose his expertise when he left TechCrunch. It makes me even sadder to think that I will never have his insight again.
romain dillet
Steve was also the epitome of a curious person. He has a resourceful personality, and just when you think he understands you, he sometimes surprises you with unexpected behavior. In the late 2010s, he fully immersed himself in a new passion: music.
After spending a small amount of money on synthesizers, sequencers, and other musical equipment, he even recorded an album. Steve's album, or maybe I should say Otis 'Max' Lord, is still available to listen to on Spotify and Apple Music.
He described these 10 songs as his “debut solo/concept album with friends.” This phrase alone perfectly describes Steve's personality. He didn't just want to record an album. It had to be a concept album. And it wasn't just a solo album, it was a solo album with friends.
It's one thing to love music, it's another to love it so much that you want to make music with your friends and release it to the world. Steve had an irresistible urge to share his love of music with others.
And yes, 'In Between Floors' was supposed to be his debut album…
Steve was a creative force and had so much to share with the world. Many of his headlines and arrangements are still available on the Internet. That's the beauty of the web, and he cherished the medium for giving him the superpower to reach such a wide audience. That allowed him to do what he liked. Now let's do the same.