Last week, the Shutl crew lost one of our first recruits; Rupert Greenhill, who joined us as an intern in July ‘09. Truth be told, at the time there really wasn’t very much of a crew. Although Guy, Steve and I were all working together, none of us were employees and we had no office. Instead we enjoyed the hospitality of Shoreditch House and my living room.

Rupert stood out among applicants for the internship “at a stealth tech startup” that we advertised on Enternships. For starters, he was 28… he possessed a law degree and had spent the previous 3 years enjoying success on a city trading floor. He was basically over-qualified to be doing any of the jobs we were doing, let alone be an intern!  Intrigued, I set up an interview. Rupert explained to us openly that he had been unsatisfied by banking and wanted to find a role where he could develop his business skills whilst ‘making a real contribution to growing a successful and lasting business’. We knew he was right for us immediately and offered him the internship. Fortunately for us, Rupert accepted – despite the fact that we had no funding and so were paying next to nothing.

When we took on our first investment, we offered Rupert a full-time job. He asked if he could invest in the pre-business and so we were delighted to have him as a shareholder too. The following year his £10k came in very useful, buying us another much needed week as we finalised our second investment round.

Rupert’s named role was ‘business development’ which was our way of saying we weren’t creative enough to come up with a title for all the things we needed him for!

He went out and found several of our first clients and worked very closely with Start London, ensuring we were able to make our first delivery. He took bookings for them over the phone when their site was down or they wanted to offer Shutl to an in-store customer. He acted as our in-house legal council and saved us countless gazillions over the years in legal fees for capital raising, IP registering, agreements with our retailers, carriers & consumers. He took on with gusto the role of information / data compliance officer and everything else we threw at him; including regularly taking @Shutldog for walks (particularly when Hendryks was only a few months old and at his most attractive to humans of the opposite sex…).

Rupert was a great ambassador to clients, partners and potential employees. He was also responsible for recruiting our first development intern, the Crawfmeister, who like Rupert also joined our crew full-time.

Feeling tired at the end of last year, shortly after celebrating his 30th birthday, Rupert went to his GP who sent him off for tests. The results were not good. Although he was initially diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, a relatively treatable form of cancer, subsequent tests showed him to have a rarer and more malignant form.

Soon after his diagnosis, Rupes came to see me to explain his situation. It was crushing, particularly since he was so healthy and full of life. He put on a very brave face and was matter of fact regarding treatment etc. I could only imagine what must have been racing through his mind. Rupert then asked me something surprising, whether he could continue working ostensibly so that he could maintain a degree of normality in his life. I agreed very quickly. The truth being that I just didn’t know how we could cope without him.

As Rupes’ treatment progressed and his prognosis worsened we saw less and less of him, despite always being at the other end of a phone call/email whenever there was a question that none of us could answer. His and our hope was always that chemotherapy and radiotherapy would weaken the cancer enough that he could undergo a bone marrow transplant. I received an email from Rupert last Sunday letting me know that his latest treatment hadn’t been successful and that he did not have much time left. He wanted me to pass on the news to his colleagues and also to make arrangements for his shares and let me know that there would be a ‘party’.

Alongside the rest of the Shutl team, I feel incredibly privileged to have worked with Rupert over the last two years and fortunate to call him a friend. We only wish that he would be around to see the fruits of his labour and hugely valuable contribution. He is already greatly missed.

Our thoughts and prayers at this difficult time are with Rupert’s parents, his brother & sister and his many, many friends.