
Greg Kouri, PayPal co-founder, dies at 51 - kitcar
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/08/13/2949900/greg-kouri-paypal-co-founder-dies.html
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waldr
I really shocked and really saddened by this, I spoke to Greg just a few weeks
ago. He had contacted me after seeing our startup featured in TWiST.

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.

~~~
loceng
Sounds like someone passionate towards helping humanity move forward in a big
way.

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rabble
He listed himself as an investor in PayPal on his angel list profile.
<https://angel.co/greg-kouri>

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'.

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confluence
Looks like he was the friend who founded Zip2 along with Kimbal and Elon Musk.
He probably went on and coinvested with Kimbal in Elon's later companies. This
is assuming his angel list profile is correct. The founder title is probably a
mix up - looks like he was just an early PayPal investor.

~~~
_delirium
That's what this 1999 Salon article suggests as well:
<http://www.salon.com/1999/08/17/elon_musk/>

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.

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cft
Very strange: I always thought that PayPal had only two co-founders (I know
them personally): Max Levchin and Peter Thiel, and X.com that was merged with
PayPal had only one founder, Elon Musk?

~~~
pbreit
Correct, Max and Peter founded Confinity, Elon founded X.com. The two
companies merged and those three are considered PayPal's three co-founders.
The HN headline is inaccurate and in fact the linked article's headline is
correct: "Gregory Anthony Kouri, early PayPal investor, dies at 51". So just a
bad submission.

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dr_
Not sure I fully understand his wife's comment about him not wanting to live
in Silicon Valley because he was a family man(I don't live there, is it not
family friendly?), but this is still very sad news, 51 is very young.
Condolences to his family.

~~~
toyg
Silicon Valley is postgrad-friendly, workaholic-friendly and millionaire-
friendly. Families tend to find a better environment elsewhere.

~~~
raverbashing
San Francisco?

~~~
jimboyoungblood
Even worse.

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givan
[http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/national-
obituaries/g...](http://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/news/national-
obituaries/greg-kouri-paypal-co-founder-dies-51/nQ9kj/) without registration

~~~
rhizome
probably without optmd.com popunder ads, too.

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rexreed
This is very sad and shocking news. What I find interesting is that he was
already at the hospital prior to the heart attack (he went in due to a
fishbone he swallowed). Was he misdiagnosed, or was it so sudden and so
catastrophic that even with no transit time to the hospital he died? Anyone
with experience that can shed some light on that? I always thought there was a
"golden hour" for things like this.

~~~
pragone
Yes and no - the faster you can get them to the hospital, the better the
chance. But complete occlusion of one of many arteries or veins will lead to
sudden death, and each minute that passes means death of the heart muscle.
Heart muscle death means less likelihood of being able to restart the heart.
Most commonly found in inferior MIs, whereby the blood pressure will plummet.

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.

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utopkara
My condolences to the friends and family of Mr Kouri.

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?

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je08105
Close personal friend. Never wanted any publicity. Would take the shirt off
his back to help anyone, and never asked for anything back. Perhaps the most
solid guy I have had the pleasure to call a friend. Great husband. Great
dad....I've never heard anyone echo a negative comment about him. His
friendship, humor and sage advice will be missed.

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andrewhillman
How many co-founders did Paypal have? Seems like everyone was a co-founder.
This guy is not mentioned on wikipedia page.

~~~
confluence
Technically only two guys. But with the merger with X.com and some of the
messiness that came after it a few more got added to the list. Some may even
claim to have done so if they knew there were no consequences.

~~~
andrewhillman
So this guy was a co-founder of X.com?

~~~
confluence
Probably just a mix up - see my comment above. Looks like he was just an early
PayPal investor.

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foobarqux
Does anyone know his bio? Particularly his education.

~~~
rbercuvitz
Greg was a friend of mine since early childhood. He founded Zip2 with the
Musks and as I understand it he served in an informal capacity advising Musk
when paypal was founded. Greg was a humble person, despite his tremendous
financial success. He had a great sense of humor and keen business savvy. He
did his undergrad at Western in London, Ontario. He will be missed by those
who knew him.

~~~
foobarqux
Is Zip2 the first thing he did after graduating? Did he have a relationship
with the Musks prior? Did he have an operating role in Zip2?

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whoisjg
So sad. He seems like he was a really good guy.

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andrewstuart
Tragic early death. Was he a smoker?

