A new friend emerges, then dies
In the summer of 2008 I was sitting at my desk in Austin Texas when my direct line rang. I picked up to hear the voice of a man who identified himself as Martin Schaedel, a venture capitalist who “wanted to talk to me about the internet automotive industry.” His strange accent and impressive credentials had me intrigued, admittedly, so we set up a time to chat and he phoned later that night.
For someone who had never worked in automotive media Martin knew more about my professional corner of the world than, in all honesty, a lot of people who were directly involved in it. He talked about investments he had made in media and mentioned that he was looking to make an investment in the space and also that he had been a fan of Winding Road, the digital magazine I once edited. He also matterly of factly told me stories of renting just-released sports cars and taking wild adventures with them in the American southwest. I didn’t know if his stories were true or not, but they were interesting.
I never knew how old he was—he never told me—but because of his laundry list of accomplishments (venture capitalist, investor in Skype, etc) I figured he was probably 40. I thought it was strange when he asked for my instant message address, but being an internet guy I figured he was just highly connected.
Only a day passed before Martin started instant messaging me, throwing together some really interesting calculations on how he could build a business that targeted the automotive space. He’d send me notes all the time, recounting stories of travel and interesting cars. He knew we bonded over strange, fast cars and we shared stories and thoughts on new products coming out. Since he knew I was a media geek, too, he spoke about forthcoming deals that—sure enough—would take place weeks later.
I only learned how old Martin was this week, when I learned he died in a stunt airplane crash in Santa Monica. He was 23, believe it or not, and he was loved by throngs of people around the world. As it turns out he had developed friendships with people just like he had with me—simply called people up, impressed the hell out of them and kept in contact on a regular basis. It sounds simple and crazy but if you have some balls and some consistency you can get pretty far.
I wish I would have known Martin earlier, and longer. He lived a full life but had so much more to give. So long, new friend.
Obituary: The Last Flight of Martin Schaedel
