in memory of Sameer Bhatia

Sameer left us yesterday morning.  

Sameer and I were never close friends, but he was like a doppelganger.  We started our companies at the same time, hit on the same girls at TiE conferences, ended up on the same email threads about outsourcing, and competed with each other on all fronts.   After a few years of seeing each other at every conference, tech party, and random desi event in SF, Deepa and I had the pleasure of sharing a table with him and his wife at our friend Vijay’s wedding.  We enjoyed three hours of each other’s company, and we looked forward to their inevitable move back to SF.

He had this easy charm, handsome (almost gallant) demeanor, and raw entrepreneurial passion that I used to unconsciously mimic whenever we were around each other.  Gonna miss him terribly, as is the community he inspired.