Asos co-founder dies after falling from apartment building in Thailand

PATTAYA, Thailand — Quentin Griffiths, a co-founder of the British online fashion giant Asos, died after falling from the 17th floor of an apartment building in the resort city of Pattaya on Feb. 9. He was 58.

Local police said preliminary investigations point to suicide, noting there were no signs of a struggle or foul play. Security camera footage confirmed that no one else had entered the apartment where Griffiths lived alone.

Investigators discovered documents in the residence related to legal disputes with Griffiths' ex-wife, a Thai national. A friend of the businessman reported that he had been under significant stress regarding the lawsuits.

Griffiths’ body has been sent for an autopsy to confirm the cause of death.

A British citizen, Griffiths co-founded Asos in London in 2000. The company rapidly grew into one of the world's premier online fashion retailers before Griffiths departed the firm in 2005.

The British Foreign Office stated it is currently supporting the family. Asos also released a statement expressing its condolences.

The death of Quentin Griffiths serves as a somber reminder of the latent personal pressures that often pursue high-profile entrepreneurs, even long after they have exited their landmark ventures. The incident underscores a recurring reality in the upper echelons of business: that a facade of financial triumph can frequently mask deep-seated personal turbulence—in this instance, exacerbated by protracted legal disputes with his former spouse.

Griffiths’ career trajectory following his departure from Asos reflects a challenging phenomenon within the startup ecosystem: the immense difficulty of replicating a "unicorn" success. While his later ventures, such as the furniture outlet Achica and the fashion platform EBTM, sought to capture the same lightning in a bottle, they failed to achieve comparable scale, with some ultimately collapsing. His experience highlights the volatile path of the serial entrepreneur, for whom a second act rarely mirrors the meteoric rise of the first.

The evolution of Asos from the niche "As Seen on Screen" concept into a global e-commerce titan remains a definitive case study of the dot-com era’s transformative power. Griffiths’ passing marks a tragic final chapter for one of the architects of that digital revolution, drawing a sharp, painful contrast between a lasting corporate legacy and the personal fragility of the individuals who build them.