I've seen that mentioned many times and since I hadn't spoken with him since his initial treatments last year, had forgotten how that was one of his most endearing traits.
Ask him a question; he'd answer. No matter who you were. He always had time for everyone. And though his presence here seemed like it was full-time, it was far from it. His brain, to use computer parlance, had such a massive number of clock-cycles, he was quite the multi-tasker and he was just as busy in other endeavors.
I guess I can say this here rather than iHub since it'll surely be seen and possibly quoted, and to me SI still remains the place I think of as Ze'ev's home, though he did move to iHub and certainly classed up the joint.
First there was Tom Veale, who moved over to iHub from Motley Fool, along with all of his crew. We couldn't believe the number of folks who came with him who dug into their pockets and contributed to the cause. It was our first indication that we just might make it as a business. Tom and I are good friends and have shared lots of time on racetracks together since.
Then along came Ze'ev. As I mentioned earlier, his relocation to iHub put a massive strain on our computing resources, but suddenly the coffers were filling at an astonishing rate because so many of the folks who came with him were also reaching into their pockets. We were able to buy more powerful servers and though I initially was donating 10% of the subscription proceeds from anyone I could tell came with him to his favorite charity, it became easier to just donate 10% of the total for a while. The vast majority of subscriptions were from Ze'ev and his friends. Subscriptions set records that have only been broken on the rare occasion we've offered lifetime or discounted long-term subs on iHub.
Ze'ev really put us on the map, not only by the enormity of the traffic that came with him, but because of the high standards desired (but, oddly, not demanded) by the group, keeping us on our toes in terms of software as well.
I very much appreciate Ze'ev as a person and iHub as a company owes a lot of its success to him. Had he not come along, it's a given we wouldn't have ended up in the position when we did that we could buy SI, and later be a large enough internet presence to sell the websites and companies to ADVFN.
While I'm thinking about it, just a quick mention of ADVFN. What a good parent company we selected! And it was a selection process. Everyone and their yellow dog wanted us. Where were the Brothers Dryer this long after Go2Net acquired SI? Disempowered and gone. Yet here I am still happily running the joint and the whole crew is still here, apparently just as happily.
Our condolences definitely go out not only as the various people who've come into contact with Ze'ev in our operation of the sites but also even as a larger corporate entity. One comprised of real people who really do care about such things and consider our customers our friends. In fact, Clem (our CEO) mentioned just this at a speaking engagement for dotcommers the other night. To make it as a dotcom, you'd better really love your customers or you won't have them very long and if you don't love them, you're really not in the right line of work anyway. Especially true of online communities, I think.
God-speed, Ze'ev, and our condolences to his family and personal friends. |
