I’m too young and too far away from the Valley to have ever met Om or been influenced by his early blogging work. However, I have avidly followed his blog ever since I came across it maybe 10 years ago. I love his writing. So crisp and honest, yet it had depth. His blog was one of the few I’d look forward to every day. I was waiting for him to return after he promised he’d do so in his last blog post. I certainly didn’t expect this. Om Shanti, Om. You will be missed.

A tragic loss. Amongst his many other talents, Om was a wonderful photographer; you can see some of his photos at Glass: https://glass.photo/om

This was his last post: https://om.co/2026/06/08/taking-a-few-days-off/ He seemed to know that something wasn’t right. I really loved his writing.

Rest in peace.

Personally, it's sad news for me and many other founders Om helped.

Back in 2008, my company, TringMe, was making news with browser-based telephony. We had been covered by TechCrunch, but never by GigaOM. So I decided to email Om directly and ask, half-jokingly, "Are we not worth your time?" I also asked if he had any advice.

He apologized, explained that health issues had limited his writing, assured me it was never personal, and then offered a simple piece of advice: "Bring me fresh and exclusive information."

We took that advice seriously. Our next launches, VoicePHP and the first Mobile VoIP app for BlackBerry, were both covered by GigaOM.

What I remember is not the coverage, but the kindness in his reply. He did not have to respond to a founder he barely knew, let alone with honesty, encouragement, and actionable advice. We stayed in touch after that.

Thank you, Om. Rest in peace.

One of the regrets I have is not following through when Om messaged to hang out a couple of months ago. A painful reminder to take some time off your busy lives to catch up with old friends. You never know if you’ll get another chance.

I liked the mid-2000s, gigaom and techcrunch actually had articles worth reading (not all, TC got sorta gossipy rag at one point). Om's were generally well thought out.

Om and I went a long way back. I tried to convince him RSS was the way journalism could escape capture by Big Tech. In retrospect, showing him the ad-blocking features of my feed reader might not have been the most persuasive...

He was a tremendously funny character. What's little known about him was he was a bag fiend just as much as a camera lover. A big chocolate enthusiast as well, until his heart troubles forced him to be more careful.

You will be missed.

I started out as journalist so I always appreciated great writing when I reinvented myself as a tech entrepreneur. There were three writers beginning in the nineties who were my tech troika: Kevin Kelly, George Gilder and Om Malik. Sadly now the only one still writing regularly is Kevin Kelly.

So sad. :(

Om was off my radar for the last 10 years or so, and then I recently encountered an article he wrote (https://om.co/2023/02/05/why-modern-leica-m-is-a-great-lands...) about his adoption of Leica M cameras. He had a wonderful eye: https://www.photosbyom.com/

I interacted with Om a few times. Genuinely good soul. I met him a while back - about ~15 years or so. In spite of his busy schedule he took time out to speak with me. Gave me some valuable tips on startup world. I don't say this about a lot of people but the world is less of a place without Om. You were way too young to leave us Om. I will miss you.

Sidenote: In the heydays i.e. about 15-20 years back or so Techcrunch and GigaOm were competitors. Techcrunch was founded by Michael Arrington, known for his brusque and no holds barred blogs and barbs. He would roast his competitors alive, if he could. Well, all except Om. For Om, Micheal had nothing but praise.