By Stacie Rabinowitz

So Fabrice has been writing a lot lately about the joys of friendship and how much he enjoys all of the wonderful people who fill his world. In keeping with this theme of warm and fuzzy blog posts, I thought I’d share with all of you who aren’t lucky enough to know Fabrice outside of this space what it’s like to be friends with him.

In some ways, being Fabrice’s friend is exactly like reading his blog. One minute we’re talking about American healthcare policy and I have an important point to make but before I get a chance we’re talking about the cute thing Bagheera did yesterday and then whether COD5 will be better than GTA IV and then we’re on to how long it will be before video games go digital and before I know it my point about healthcare has been lost to the wind. And that’s my favorite thing about being friends with Fabrice – he’s just interested in everything. So not only can we have an interesting conversation on almost any topic, but I can also invite him to almost any activity and know that if he’s in town, he’s probably in. From theater to paintball to physics lectures to just spending a quiet night watching Snakes on a Plane, Fabrice is one of the most fun people I know for just about any activity under the sun. I have never spent even one second bored when he’s around. And he attracts a diverse crowd too – I always look forward to his parties because I meet such varied and interesting people.

The first time I met Fabrice, I got a vision of him that I’m sure a lot of you have in your heads right now – we were having dinner with a mutual friend in Paris, and I got off the Metro to find three people looking for some good wine and good food, and one hopelessly boring nerd jabbering on his cell phone (I was informed by the others that he was trying to buy a company). Four (five? six?) bottles of wine later, I got to see the real Fabrice. OK, yes, he is actually nerdy as hell. But he can also be funny and self-deprecating, silly and playful, and spontaneous and irrational. He is incredibly generous and thinks a lot of others, always trying to introduce friends he thinks would get along, passing along websites of interest, recommending books/movies/TV shows, and (my personal favorite) recommending the best restaurants in Manhattan.

So Fabrice is wonderful, but of course, there are disadvantages. I hate how much I have to share him – with his other friends, with OLX (I hate Buenos Aires!), with all of you. He has horrible taste in music, is a total wuss about being cold, and only skims your e-mails so he misses all the important details. Oh, and that picture of him on this blog is from last summer – he has much less hair now. 😉

In all seriousness, I am very glad that Fabrice has become a part of my life, and I just wanted to let you all know that behind the supersmart, supersuccessful, nerdy entrepreneur, there is also an incredibly fun, incredibly kind, yes still nerdy friend.