Tragic news today for the Silicon Valley community. Rajeev Motwani, a prominent Silicon Valley angel investor and the Stanford professor perhaps best known for serving as the advisor for Larry Page and Sergey Brin during the formative years of Google, has passed away.
Rajeev was an ardent supporter of Silicon Valley startups, investing and mentoring many of them while continuing his research at Stanford University. With investments in companies that included PayPal and Google, he saw an overwhelming amount of success. And through it all he continued to give back to the community though his mentorship, investments, and his time at Stanford, where he continued to teach as recently as last semester.
We owe Rajeev a debt of gratitude here at TechCrunch, as he was kind enough to speak at a number of our events and was genuinely supportive of our efforts.
Om Malik has shared his thoughts on his old friend, writing that there wasn’t a startup that Rajeev didn’t love on his quest for the unknown.
Our deepest sympathies go out to Rajeev’s family. He will be sorely missed.
Very sad news. Rajeev was a great person and influence for the Web community.
My thoughts are with his family. My deepest condolences.
Really sad news..May his soul rest in peace..
Rest In Peace, Rajeev.
The startup in the sky must have needed a new angel.
R.I.P. We need more people like him in this world.
How did he die? What happened?
Judging by the recent happenings in Silicon Valley, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was hit by a train: http://anonboar...5016#msg_705122
He didn’t look old. Maybe he was ill. Condolences to his family.
A “swimming pool accident”: http://blog.com...ev-motwani.html
Accidental drowning
My deepest condolences for the visionary…:(
rip always not good news to hear someone passed away
On behalf of XG Ventures, our thoughts and deepest condolences go out to Rajeev’s family.
SAD and Very TRAGIC, hard to believe life can be so cruel some time
I saw him a few weeks back at a dinner and he was tip-top – what happened? He’s going to be severely missed. My thoughts and prayers to his family.
This is real sad news. Rajeev was definitely one of the names we associate Silicon Valley with. May hi soul rest in peace.
I never had the fortune to meet Rajeev but I’ve heard so many amazing things from so many people. His family should be so proud of how many lives he touched. My thoughts go out to them.
Very sad news. Such a gregarious guy. My heart goes out to his family.
Very shocking news at Stanford. Prof Motwani gave his usual lecture on Tuesday and even posted an administrative notice on the class newsgroup last night … I took the exam for his class afternoon! So hard to believe this could happen….
E-mail notice from Stanford CS Department:
Dear CS students,
I’m deeply saddened and shocked to inform you that our CS faculty colleague Rajeev Motwani passed away last night in an accident at his home. Our sympathy goes out to Rajeev’s friends and family, and to the large number of colleagues and students whose education and lives have been enriched by his.
Jennifer Widom
CS Department Chair
I am totally shocked!
my condolences to his family
Sergey Brin: (http://too.blog...ing-rajeev.html): “Today, whenever you use a piece of technology, there is a good chance a little bit of Rajeev Motwani is behind it.”
That’s very true. I studied his books when I was a CS student and continue to think in a certain way because of that. This is such a huge loss.
It’s really is a sad news. But what’s bothering me is that the cause of his death was just mentioned as Home accident. And there has been no actual information available regarding that..
Yes, “Home Accident” is very cryptic.
What happened, and why is it not being reported?
I never met Rajeev but have worked with several companies he advised. His passing is a big loss for the Silicon Valley and Stanford communities. My sincerest condolences go to the Motwani family.
This such tragic news. His book on Randomized Algorithms is one my my favourites.
Rest in Peace.
> It’s really is a sad news. But what’s bothering me is
> that the cause of his death was just mentioned as
> Home accident. And there has been no actual
> information available regarding that..
Yeah, because satisfying people’s morbid curiosity is *so* more important..sigh…
My deepest sympathies to his family and his closest people. His spirit will live on through his vast contributions and the “ripples” he created http://sunsetsl...sun-review.html).
It is a sad news for India. Mr.Motwani’s death has brought a big loss for many in Information Technology World.
India has lost one of her proud son.
This has to be a suspicious death, no sindhi will drown like that, sindhi’s are know’s to have this fighithing spirit to come out of any situation, going by his record, he has saved many new start up’s, he will never go down like that, please investigate his death,
some questions: why his wife did not change ler last name after marriage ? why she is not called by last name Motwani, which is very common practice is Sindhi’s,
You don’t know what you’re talking about! He did not drown but probably had a heart attack, complete cause will be known in a couple days – autopsy takes that long. How can you put out innuendo of this cheap and horrible nature? You do his memory a big disservice. His wife — so you can satisfy your horrible curiosty — is devastated. I cannot believe I am reading this type of shameful commentary…
PS. And wake up times have changed — Indian women do not always change their last names. Why should they?
The passing of this Rajeev Motwani is indeed a tragic loss to all humanity. Please refrain from overreactions and unfounded innuendo as you are taking away from the memory of a great man. This has nothing to do with race and there is no conspiracy theory.
Sorry, the news is reporting that he drowned — http://www.merc...ies/ci_12541606.
He may have had a heart attack, but one thing. He didn’t go the way of David Carradine.
Rajiv’s brilliance was outdone only by his humility. This is really tragic. My heart goes out to his family. May his soul rest in peace.
Extremely shocking news… A Very Sad Moment for all of us IT professionals…
Mr.Motwani’s death has brought a very big loss for many in Information Technology World. May his soul rest in peace.
Rest him in peace!
My condolence to his family and to all the students who have read him and admired his work. Being from same IIT fraternity of his alma mater, I have refered his book – FLAT (Formal Languages & Automata Theory) and also Randomized Algorithm in two courses. It was master piece, and still serves as reference, while I am engagd into R&D area of data-mining, machine learning and predictive algorithms.
Indeed data-mining area I have got interest into due to a number of research articles and papers due to him. A couple of days back I had ventured, as usually I do, while refering to his tutorials on the following courses- Data Structure and Algorithms, Randomized Algorithms. In my work for Microsoft’s online search engine, I have refered to his work to understand online keyword search algorithms.
I pay my tribute to this great computer scientist.
Rest in peace and may the nascent mind be enlightened and motivated by his work.
-
Kumar Hemant (Mishra)
Bangalore, India
Rest him in peace!
My condolence to his family and to all the students who have read him and admired his work. Being from same IIT fraternity of his alma mater, I have refered his book – FLAT (Formal Languages & Automata Theory) and also Randomized Algorithm in two courses. It was master piece, and still serves as reference, while I am engaged into R&D area of data-mining, machine learning and predictive algorithms.
Indeed data-mining area I have got interest into due to a number of research articles and papers due to him. A couple of days back I had ventured, as usually I do, while refering to his tutorials on the following courses- Data Structure and Algorithms, Randomized Algorithms. In my work for Microsoft’s online search engine, I have refered to his work to understand online keyword search algorithms.
I pay my tribute to this great computer scientist.
Rest in peace and may the nascent mind be enlightened and motivated by his work.
-
Kumar Hemant (Mishra)
SETLabs, Infosys, Bangalore, India
We were shocked and deeply saddened to hear about the death of Rajeev Motwani. He was very talented and had enormous knowledge on Databases, Data Mining, Information Retrieval. His contribution to Google and many more startup companies has made India feel proud. We salute him for all the works and contributions in the field of information technology.
My condolences to the departed great soul
It’s not about the curiosity. A news is not considered News if it ain’t complete.
Is Life Absurd ？