Om Malik, Founder Of GigaOm, Spent His Career Asking Hard Questions Tech Didn’t Want To Hear

The founder of GigaOm was one of the earliest and most influential tech journalists.

(Photo credit: Cmichel67/Wikimedia Commons, CC-BY-SA 4.0)

Om Malik died on June 24, 2026, after a health battle. If you work in IT and his name doesn’t immediately ring a bell, his work shaped many of us tech journalists a long time ago: how tech gets covered and held accountable.

Malik was born in New Delhi and came to America to cover an industry that was rewiring the most fundamental corners of society—communications, information access, and business.

In 2001 he founded GigaOm, one of the earliest and most influential tech news sites during a time when media was still trying to find its place in an internet-connected world.

GigaOm didn’t just cover tech; it interrogated the industry. Malik asked what the tech actually did, who it served, and reported when hype did not match reality.

As a young network administrator back then, I considered GigaOm essential reading. Malik’s 2016 essay in The New Yorker, “Silicon Valley Has An Empathy Problem,” was not only ahead of its time, but forecasted the unfettered influence technology entrepreneurs would prove to have across the political, social, and economic spectrums.

He had a complete grasp on the conflict between people who understood tech but did not understand the people they were building the tech for.

He went on to become a partner at True Ventures, the firm that was his first investor, and spent 18 years there. He wrote for The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company and Wired. In his final days, he kept writing and analyzing—tech journalism was not just his job--it was his passion.

For those of us who cover technology, Om was a role model. Not just for how well he wrote and the great content he created, but for his integrity and his commitment to getting under the surface of the tech industry. Om Malik followed the truth about the industry and its impact on real people and organizations.

That’s a scenario with which midmarket leaders can relate. You are the ones every day having to make technology work, while keeping employees’ privacy, productivity, and online safety intact.

Om Malik spent decades reminding the technology industry that innovation without accountability is not enough, and that understanding people matters as much as understanding technology. At a time when AI is reshaping nearly every aspect of business and society, that lesson may be more important than ever. Rest in peace, Om, and thank you.