Thank You, John Gale: A Pillar of the Community at Canopy

Last week we lost John Gale, who passed away following an illness. For ten years John was a big part of Canopy Community, and for a long stretch of that time he served on our In Residence team. This week at Web Summit we missed him in every room. We also raised a glass to him and celebrated the joy of having known him all these years.

This post is our thank you.

It Started on a Platform at Oriente

I first met John on a station platform at Oriente in Lisboa. We were both heading to Braga for an event, which meant hours of conversation before, during and after it. That one day led to podcasts, Demo Nights, AMAs, breakfasts, lunches and projects. All of it came from that first trip and from the kindness of António Lucena de Faria, who introduced us that day.

That is how a startup ecosystem grows: one generous introduction at a time.

From there, John was part of almost everything Canopy did. He came to the crowdsourced paint party at Cais do Sodré when we opened our first physical space. He mentored founders at Tagus Park Incubadora, joined our Demo Nights at Palácio Sottomayor and came to our Breakfasts of Awesome at Martinhal Oriente. Through the COVID years, when everything moved online, we could count on John to be there. When we first brought events back in person, we could count on him again. His influence runs through many of our events and initiatives.

Years of Support for Founders

John brought 25 years of experience as a Silicon Valley tech veteran to founders in Portugal and beyond. As one of our In Residence advisors, he ran one-to-one sessions with founders, shared his thoughts on boards and governance, and turned up at our breakfasts and networking events.

To many founders he was the critical friend they needed. He asked the uncomfortable question at the right moment, and then he became their staunch advocate. If you wanted to truly think something through and be sure you had looked around every corner, you went to John.

Investors and ecosystem builders valued him for the same reasons. There was hardly a startup or entrepreneurship room in Lisbon that John could walk into without people knowing who he was, and they would soon be looking to him for his thoughts. He was a true maven. He showed up, and when he was in the room you knew it.

From Lexington to Lisboa

John came from Lexington, Massachusetts, and spent many years in Silicon Valley. He and I shared a soft spot for the East Coast and Boston, and that gave us plenty to talk about.

He lived in Portugal for more than 15 years. In that time his deeply American self came to love many of the country's beautiful things, especially its wines and its food. He was also often frustrated by the bureaucracy, by the inefficiencies at Finanças and by the small daily hurdles of life in Lisboa. We talked about all of it, sometimes feistily, over many breakfasts and lunches. Founders new to Portugal will recognise those conversations. John showed that you could love this country and still push it to be better.

John didn't suffer fools gladly. I personally feel privileged that our conversations were so many, so varied and spanned so many years. We navigated plenty of things we didn't agree on, but we always remained friends, with mutual respect.

What turned out to be our last breakfast together was at the Martinhal Residences, where John joined me for the morning. He enjoyed his customary two glasses of champagne, which he always insisted were "calorie free", or at least low glycaemic index. So two at breakfast was more than acceptable.

Never Stopping with His Why

In his later years John kept learning, taking up dancing and massage therapy. His "why" never changed: thinking, sharing, challenging and helping all of us to be better. He did that for founders, for Canopy and for many of us as individuals.

He was a trusted friend. His influence will be felt for years to come by founders he coached, by investors he challenged and by everyone at Canopy whose thinking he sharpened.

Thank You, John

Thank you for the years of support you gave founders. Thank you for shaping Canopy, for being our critical friend when we needed one and our advocate when it mattered. Thank you for showing up.

If you have a memory of John, please go to his LinkedIn profile and share it as a comment on his feed, so others can read it too. I'm sure it would be appreciated. That is how his influence will carry on across Portugal's startup community.

Cheers to you, John. Saúde! Obrigadíssimo! You are missed.

Stew, Rachel, Pedro, Mariana, Matt and everyone at Canopy Community