Two SF-adjacent stories from RL

In the late 1990s, a Canadian civil servant and his daughter were avid players of "Asheron's Call", a game I recall Dorothy mentioning. Through the game the daughter met her future husband, a German guy who moved to Canada and tried to set up an internet sales site specializing in snowboards.  He hated all the options then available, so started his own company with cash from his father in law, who got shares.
Over the past five years the father-in-law, Bruce McKean, has donated 200 million dollars to CAMH (Centre for Addiction and Mental Health Foundation).
The young man's company turned out to be Shopify.  Of course, he might have had the same success regardless of who he married, but CAMH wouldn't have gained 200 mil without "Asheron's Call".
Kevin Lambert grew up in a Quebec town where his main supply of reading material came from Costco.  His early reading included  Harry Potter, Narenia, and "A series of unfortunate events".
His novels are non-genre, but he still cites those works as influences, and has won a slew of prestigious literary awards in France.  Pity Harold Bloom can't be told about this.
The author is in transition (and doesn't care what pronouns you use, hence the above) but still likes the Potter books, though he's not at all keen on JKR.  Once published, he says, a book has a life of its own, independent of the author's later opinions.
William Hyde