I have long complained that there were not enough people in industry who could cross over from the idea and venture fueled world of Silicon Valley, to the bare knuckles, scrape for every dollar world of SEM / SEO. Both sides, I reasoned, had a lot to learn from each other.
My SEO friends could learn about sustainability, and building sites that people actually like to use.
My Silicon Valley friends could learn that eventually, you have to pay the bills, and that AJAX and pastel colors will only get you so far.
I've met a handful of folks that cross over between these two worlds, and that appreciate the value that both bring:
JoeDuck
Rand Fishkin
Stuntdubl
Chris Tolles (who also wrote the definitive post on the rift between these worlds)
Aris Vlasakakis
Roger Dooley
and there's more who I don't know personally (Brian Provost and Steve Poland come to mind)
And then there was Martin.
Martin sought me out a couple of years ago on Brett Tabke's recommendation to try and get me to move to LA to work on some project he was invested in.
The dude was crazy. All energy and ideas. Before I knew it, I was actually thinking about going down to LA, despite the fact that I was completely locked into another project.
And just like that, I was part of Martin's network. He'd hit me up for intros, and I'd do the same from him. He would try and sell me dodgy domains, and I would politely decline.
I've never seen a networker like him. But it wasn't networking in the sleazy, car salesman way. It was networking in the high energy, we're going to make this happen, everybody wins kind of way. And it didn't matter if he was interacting with blue chip VCs, or with black hat SEOs - Martin was going to shake things up.
I didn't know Martin well at all. No doubt his network included way more people like me, than mine included people like him.
But he was special. And he was 23. And there's no fucking way he should be gone now.
