My heart sunk when I heard the awful news that Steve O’Hear had passed away. I was instantly shocked and upset.
Steve and I were long term friends. Anyone who knows Steve well, will know how he comically hated using the word “friend” especially with people in the tech startup ecosystem, an arena in which he presented a persona which was defined by his concise, carefully chosen, meticulously measured words, direct manner, with his unique sprinkle of sharp humour and an air of enigmatic mystique.
He wanted to be known as all about business, zero bullshit, with high standards and excellence in his crafts, all of which were absolutely true, but there was so much more depth to Steve, that most people didn’t get to know. So I feel it’s important to enlighten others about that, as he really was such an amazing and inspirational guy.
Steve was a huge character, with relentless focus, tenacity, a razor sharp intellect and he was super talented in many ways. He was also one of the most decent, genuine and helpful guys in the European startup ecosystem. He always carried himself with solid class, dignity, ethics, integrity, humanity, humility, morals and professionalism.
As I got to know Steve, we kept in touch on a daily basis and we’d frequently chat for hours on end, which usually was a combination of us discussing our personal lives, our ambitions, dreams, essentially acting as symbiotic sounding boards for each other and also discussing all the crazy goings on in the startup ecosystem.
Steve is most widely known for his second tenure at TechCrunch and at the point when he rejoined them, he was pretty much burnt out and emotionally drained from his time as CEO/Founder of his startup Beepl. Most people had no idea given his professional poker face, but his confidence was low and he was very stressed about his health and future.
He often said to me how grateful he was that Mike Butcher not only gave him the opportunity to rejoin TC, but also how Mike was super supportive, both in terms of his work and also his health.
Steve was open with me about how he had to be very realistic about his Muscular Dystrophy, meaning he’d have a limited life expectancy, many with the same condition, sadly don’t reach their 30’s or 40’s. Understandably, he struggled emotionally with this, but even more so as he had huge ambitions and wanted to leave his mark on the world, but he also was acutely aware that as his condition progressed the expense of his care would increase and he felt the pressure of that. He would always tell me and I quote “I need to make some fucking coin HJG, before it’s too late”
Obviously journalism isn’t known to be lucrative (and is essentially more like an expensive hobby in terms of renumeration, than a wise career choice for financial gain) but that’s why the greatest journalists need to live, breathe and love what they do, which is nearly always shown in the quality of their work and the smartest use journalism as a springboard to fulfil various other ambitions.
I could see why Steve was feeling worried and lacking confidence, but I also saw his brilliance and potential.
I told him that he needed to let go of what he couldn’t control, define where he wanted to get to, map out each of the individual milestones he needed to in order to get there and even though he potentially wouldn’t have all of the years that would take, he needed to operate on the basis he would have, as I really believed so long as he kept his spirits high and kept doing what he loved, he would.
He told me his ultimate goal was to become a VC and maximise his earnings along the way to mitigate the inevitable growing expense of his care. So I told him I believed in him and felt what he needed to do was use his time at TechCrunch to make his mark, build his network and thus manifest his milestones.
At that time TechCrunch was such a strong name and doing good work, but if we’re being honest was vastly different to it’s earlier DNA growing in tandem with the ecosystems it covered, I don’t mean that disrespectfully, more of a compliment actually and to highlight its natural evolution and maturity into an established, respected, elder statesman publication. It became to startup, tech and venture ecosystem what Financial Times is to Business and Finance. I know several TC journalists so I mean that in terms of it’s output, not internal culture, as I know they’re all a great bunch.
But with all due respect I didn’t think it would be hard for Steve to stand out, with his passion, talent and how he prided himself on his journalistic integrity and high standards, so he wasn’t there to make up numbers, spin press releases or create evergreen content. He wanted his talent to shine and would work his ass off to make that happen.
I told him he needed to be both strategic and Machiavellian and by that I meant choosing two or three core verticals to focus on, he already had some momentum in FinTech so that was an obvious foundation on which to build and i suggested he also focus on FoodTech/Delivery/Mobility which was booming and I obviously worked in so could help and also Venture Capital in order to build his network for when he eventually became an investor. Steve agreed and boy did he knock the ball out of the park in those core verticals, whilst also covering others.
He became known for how thorough he was, from keeping the big name Fintech titans leadership teams on their toes to great pieces about venture for example his deep dive on leading seed VC firm LocalGlobe which you can read Here
He provided a unique ringside seat in all of the happenings towards the end of the last cycle and commentary and a perspective that few other journalists managed to execute to the level he did.
Which is all the more impressive when you consider due to Steve’s health he had to always plan his travel, which meant he did almost all of his work from home in Tottenham, long before that became the norm. He wasn’t drinking and rubbing shoulders with founders at the endless conferences and events, he was remote first and his tentacles were literally everywhere.
He would regularly tell me how much he enjoyed the competition with the likes of James Cook and the Business Insider team, Michael Stothart and Amy Lewin at Sifted, and the major nationals like James Hurley at The Times and the the teams covering Tech at Bloomberg, The Telegraph, Financial Times etc.
I know it baffled many of them for years how he was able to be the first to break news and scoop so often, but he did so through building solid relationships, earning the respect and trust of many, so lots of people wanted to see him win, from being sources to sounding boards.
I started writing for Irish Tech News around this time and Steve would always say “You’re no fucking journalist, so any scoops send ’em my way fella” lol… he was right I certainly wasn’t a journalist, I just have always had a love writing, as it forces me to think, learn, I find it cathartic and the main reason I started at ITN was to help the great team there, give a voice to the unheard and unsung hero’s in tech startups (who were to small for the likes of TechCrunch) and also write about the things I was interested in, but my main focus was my exec roles in tech startups.
Steve would always give me banter and constructive critique for example when I interviewed the likes of Twitter founder Biz Stone or Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei etc, he would ping me after it was published and say “For an amateur good job, but here’s a few things you could’ve done better” which I really appreciated.
I gave Steve a few scoops over the years, which obviously I won’t go into as it wouldn’t be classy, but the one I will share was quite amusing, it was about a delivery startup called Jinn, who just so happened to be based in the same building as James Cook and Business Insider, who Steve beat to the story and he loved that he did lol.
You can read that piece here
But as much as Steve enjoyed competing with his dancing partners in journalism, he was equally passionate about helping them, sharing his experience with all of the new kids on the block and a few seasoned pros! I know there are many in journalism who he made a lot of time for, mentored (and again he hates the F word lol) even a few he became friends with.
Steve and I had several things in common, we had synergy and resonated with each-other in being somewhat unconventional, maverick outsiders, underdogs even, with an abundance of energy, passion and talent. We both worked hard to apply talents, use our abilities to think outside the box and to chase our dreams.
We obviously had differences and some things which we didn’t agree on, but equally we agreed on many things one of which was:
“You don’t really know someone, unless you know someone and even then you need to always keep your perceptions flexible, as you could be wrong”
Given how the world is rapidly becoming more and more divided, polarised and toxic, I really feel that is important for us all remind ourselves of and ensure our strong views, are loosely held, especially about other people.
There were plenty of times I said to Steve that I didn’t rate someone and he would usually give me a totally different perspective, often based on his own experiences with that person and I could see I had been wrongfully judgemental.
But again Steve was human and there was one or two times he also misunderstood people, one of which springs to mind is a leading VC, who he didn’t really know how to take and he had mostly heard negative things, but I actually knew that person and ironically enough he reminded me so much of Steve, with so many strings to his bow and I explained to Steve that the person had super high standards and many people can’t always handle that, and what do you know when Steve and he finally got spent time together, Steve reluctantly said “Ok dude, you were right, he reminds me of me and I think he is as kick ass as you always told me he was” lol.
It shows the value of not being quick to judge others and even those of us who had that kind of thing, can also be guilty of it, so we need to master our cognitive biases, elevate our consciousness and try our best to see the good in people.
Whenever Steve was unwell and feeling a bit low, I would always remind him of the various journalists who had made the jump from Journalism to Venture Capital such as Michael Moritz at Sequoia, Om Malik, Stewart Alsop, Esther Dyson, Eamonn Carey and latterly the likes of TechCrunch’s own Michael Arrington and MG Siegler and I would say “your name wont be amongst those if you stop believing in yourself” I’d also remind him how journalists and venture capitalists struggle with mainly the same end decision; is the story worth publishing and is the story worth investing in?
I knew this would spark the fire he needed to pick himself up and push forwards and he would always say how much our conversations energised him and that feeling was totally mutual, there were many times when he did exactly the same for me, we’re all human and we would be lying if we said there aren’t moments we lose sight of who we are and our confidence can take knocks. The key is we realise it and push ahead.
I was so happy to see Steve smash it with his journalism and just like we had spend hours discussing milestones, the opportunities came. One of which was the Atomico Angel gig, now shoutout to Mr 3 beards OG himself Bryce Keane and Atomico founder Niklas Zennström that opportunity meant the world to Steve as it gave him a chance to see if investing was actually for him and I know he thoroughly enjoyed it.
Over the years Steve also was approached with many opportunities to join startups as an exec, very few he took seriously until a couple came along which really suited him, one of which was the SVP Strategy role at last mile delivery startup Zapp. Steve and I discussed his options at length when he was weighing up those roles and I encouraged him to take the role at Zapp, based on my own experience of building the unicorn JUST EAT and how much I learnt during those years and also the potential for the wealth creation he had to prioritise because of his long term heath needs.
The really hard part of that decision was Steve found leaving TechCrunch so hard and he didn’t want to let Mike Butcher down, but I knew Mike wouldn’t want anything but the best for Steve and told him not to worry about that, Steve spent quite a bit of time making his decision and obviously decided to join Zapp which I’m so happy he did, because I know how much he enjoyed that chapter and how much he respected, learned from and was supported by Zapp founder Navid Hadzaad, within Zaap and O’Hear&Co. So shout out to Navid because he is a class act and I hope he knows how much of an impact he had on Steve and how he held him in the highest esteem.
Like always Steve had done similar for me, as he had been a great sounding board and it was him who encouraged me to leave my CCO role at mobility startup Talixo and found my startup Send-Off, which he joined as an advisor.
Send-Off provides services to bereaved people such as cleaning graves and delivering flowers directly to funerals and resting places and I never once thought that I would be needing to deliver some flowers to Steve’s, as he was such a huge soul, who despite his health issues, he was someone I subconsciously assumed would live forever.
His passing is a poignant reminder we are all mortal, human and have limited time…
The thing that makes me most happy is knowing that Steve got the recognition and the flowers he deserved whilst he could still smell them.
I know one thing will live on for a very long time… his legacy!
RIP Steve, until we meet again, rest easy my friend!
