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Arne Halleraker
Board Observer at Hip Ecommerce
Highlights
Today we have the pleasure of celebrating Fabrice Grinda’s 50th birthday!
A lot of things have been written about FJ Labs, our strategy, and history over the years. And while I have a lot to say on that topic, today is a day to celebrate one of the two men who started it all.
I can describe Fabrice in many ways, but the first that comes to mind is uncompromising intellect. His favorite pastime is deep, topical conversations with other highly intelligent and accomplished individuals. This happens through conversations with founders, dialoguing dinners with other successful intellectuals, and various other ways. But the voraciousness of his knowledge consumption is unmatched by anyone else I’ve met. He will dive deep into any topic of interest, no matter how fringe or unpopular, not at all afraid of holding unpopular and contrarian opinions. Fabrice also has very limited patience for uninformed opinions and strong but unfounded views. At one point, with multiple senior ranking people from our anchor investor present, he called BS on a point in our OWN presentation of trends. This authentic display of intellectual rigor served us well then and since, but is something I have not seen in any other senior leader (who tend to be more political, for lack of a better word).
You might think that this exacting intellectual standard would equate to a cold, cynical person, callous to the feelings and consequences for those around him. In the case of Fabrice, nothing could be farther from the truth. Fabrice is exceptionally generous and incredibly loyal to those in his circle. He shares openly of his own success (to the point that some of his properties have a revolving door of visiting family, friends, and even business associates and entrepreneurs). Every year he opens his doors and hosts our full team for offsites. It is very clear that this generosity and openness were instilled in him from childhood by his wonderful mother Sylviane (whose wonderful life is deserving of a movie one day).
One side of Fabrice that I personally truly enjoy is his unabashed way of being himself and embracing the things that he loves. He is an avid gamer (very competitive RTS player), with a very strong nerd streak, something we share. But also in other aspects, he is unapologetically himself and equally accepting of others being themselves.
Fabrice is the true renaissance man: an exceptional mind, full of generosity and loyalty, with a multitude of interests and a voracity for a rich life, both in terms of the people he surrounds himself with and the experiences he pursues (from polar expeditions to zombie survival paintball games).
Fabrice, may you stay forever young, and I am honored to call you my partner and friend. Happy 50th birthday!
Excited to announce that Gravitics Inc has landed a monster contract ($125M) with Axiom Space for the commercial space station.
Congrats Colin Doughan, Sundeep Kumar and team!!
