The last thing I said to him

We chatted earlier this month about transitioning back to work from a 10yr startup adventure.

Checked in Monday to see where things are and wish him a happy birthday.

Allen Romero died on Sunday just shy of 44.

We met on a boat in 2011.

He could be described, sometimes, as energy anthropomorphized.

He wasn’t simple. Definitely not all sunshine and rainbows.

There was a sadness in him that made the optimism more strained and grounded in reality.

We were “the crazy ones” together. And we fed off one another with little to no external validation. I was working on an idea that I couldn’t move in the right direction, and he was, too.

I quit in 2015 after almost five years. He persevered another 6 years.

His mission with HANG LOCAL was to bring people closer together IRL. We both hated social networks. He was committed to this vision for himself and he saw it as his reason for being.

Our last thread this month was strategizing as to how to position his 10 yr gap. I poked if there were founders he knew who had a hard fail before believing they’ll understand.

I said: “They’ll appreciate that you have the incredibly rare ability to believe, persevere and be loyal to your truth.”

That’s the last thing I’ll say to him.

Thank you Allen, for helping me believe.