Picture Illustration by The Every day Beast / Picture by MobileCoin / Handout
The 43-year-old founding father of Money App was stabbed to dying in downtown San Francisco early Tuesday morning, spurring an outpouring of grief from different tech founders and stoking debate about crime within the metropolis.
The San Francisco Police Division mentioned in a information launch that officers responded to a report of a stabbing at round 2:35 a.m on Tuesday the place they discovered a “43-year-old grownup male sufferer affected by obvious stab wounds.”
“Officers rendered assist and summoned medics to the scene. The sufferer was transported to an area hospital with life-threatening accidents,” the discharge continued. “Regardless of efforts by first responders and medical personnel, the sufferer succumbed to his accidents.”
The stabbing occurred on the 300 block of Foremost Road, an space studded with different tech workplaces and million-dollar condos. The sufferer was Bob Lee, the chief product officer of cryptocurrency firm MobileCoin.
“Bob was a dynamo, a power of nature,” MobileCoin CEO Joshua Goldbar mentioned in a press release. “Bob believed within the dignity of privateness. He needed a world the place you and I may transact free from the prying eyes of predatory companies and criminals. We're grateful for and humbled by all he has finished for us.”
Lee’s father, Rick, shared an emotional tribute on Fb, saying he had misplaced his “finest good friend.”
“Bob would provide the shirt off his again,” he wrote. “He would by no means look down on anybody and adhered to a strict no-judgment philosophy.”
He added: “Bobby labored more durable than anybody and was the neatest individual I've ever identified. He will probably be missed by all people who knew him.”
His brother, Tim, wrote that he was “saddened and disheartened” by the loss and felt like he had “misplaced a part of [him]self.”
NBC Bay Space reporter Scott McGrew mentioned that mates of Lee reported he’d left San Francisco “for Miami, however got here again for a fast go to” earlier than his assault.
Previous to working at MobileCoin, Lee labored at Google for a number of years—the place he helped develop Android—earlier than transferring to Sq.. The corporate, which later modified its title to Block, is the place Lee created the Money App.
Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, who additionally arrange Block, confirmed information of Lee’s dying on the Nostr social community. “It’s actual,” Dorsey wrote in reply to a submit figuring out Lee. “Getting calls. Heartbreaking. Bob was instrumental to Sq. and Money App.”
In the course of the pandemic, Lee additionally labored to curtail the unfold of the illness, creating a house testing app, advocating for vaccines, and volunteering with the World Well being Group.
As of mid-morning native time, the police had launched few particulars in regards to the incident, together with whether or not Lee knew the assailant or was merely the sufferer of a random assault. Already, although, his dying was being seized on as supposed proof that authorities have didn't rein in crime.
In an replace on Wednesday simply earlier than midnight, San Francisco Police Chief William Scott launched a press release on the continuing murder investigation.
“I want to categorical my deepest condolences to the household, mates, and family members of Mr. Lee. There is no such thing as a place for this sort of violent crime in opposition to anybody in our metropolis,” Chief Scott mentioned.
“I wish to guarantee everybody that our investigators are working tirelessly to make an arrest and convey justice to Mr. Lee and his family members, simply as we attempt to do on each murder that happens in our metropolis.”
He added the investigation is “nonetheless within the early phases” and mentioned officers wouldn't be commenting on proof. “Nor will we speculate on the circumstances surrounding this horrific crime.”
Chief Scott added: “Though we'll commit the required assets and personnel to this investigation, I wish to guarantee everybody in San Francisco that our division is staffed and prepared to reply to all requires service.”
After discovering out about his “good good friend” being killed, former UFC fighter Jake Shields claimed Lee “was within the ‘good’ a part of the town and appeared to have been focused in a random mugging/assault.”
“Fuck San Francisco,” Shields added.
“Very sorry to listen to that,” Twitter CEO Elon Musk replied to Shields’ tweet. “Many individuals I do know have been severely assaulted. Violent crime in SF is horrific and even when attackers are caught, they're usually launched instantly.” Musk went on to ask San Francisco District Lawyer Brooke Jenkins if the town is “taking stronger motion to incarcerate repeat violent offenders.”
Tech enterprise capitalist Matthew Ocko went additional, arguing that Jenkins’ predecessor Chesa Boudin and “the criminal-loving metropolis council that enabled him” have “Bob’s literal blood on their arms.” “Take motion,” Ocko wrote. He mentioned Lee was a good friend to him and folks at his firm, and that his “coronary heart goes out to [Lee’s] family members.”
“Think about having an incredible profession, constructing an organization that helps your metropolis and residents—solely to be violently killed in a metropolis that deserted enforcement and forces its residents to be defenseless,” Martech Zone founder Douglas Karr wrote in response to information of Lee’s dying. “How #Sanfran politicians sleep at night time is past me.”
The variety of homicides in San Fransisco remained the identical between 2021 and 2022, although the variety of assaults and rapes elevated barely, based on SFPD knowledge. In 2019, the town noticed its lowest variety of homicides in almost 60 years. Twelve murder victims have been recorded to this point in 2023—two greater than throughout the identical interval final 12 months.
In a press release, San Francisco Mayor London Breed mentioned that the town is “prioritizing public security, together with not too long ago passing our finances supplemental so now we have the police staffing essential to have extra law enforcement officials in our neighborhoods and to research violent crimes after they do happen. I’m assured that when the Police make an arrest in circumstances like this, our District Lawyer will do what’s obligatory to carry any people accountable for his or her actions.”
Wesley Chan, a enterprise capitalist and early Google worker, advised The Every day Beast that Lee offered essential assist to many tech founders, hopping on the telephone in any respect hours of the night time to present steering. He mentioned Lee even helped him with certainly one of his personal engineering tasks with out asking for something in return.
“He was each your cheerleader and your coach,” Chan mentioned. “He made that extremely lonely journey a lot extra bearable for a legion of individuals throughout Silicon Valley.”
Shields, the previous UFC fighter, advised The Every day Beast he was supposed to satisfy Lee in Miami on Thursday, and he described his late good friend as low key and humble. “After we met I didn’t even know he was an enormous tech man,” Shields mentioned. “He’s a man that nobody has something dangerous to say about. That’s why I’m virtually sure this needs to be random assault.”
Shields added that he and Lee had completely different political opinions, however they loved partaking in “lengthy, fascinating debates.”
One other long-time good friend, Ajit Varma, mentioned he met Lee roughly 18 years in the past; they attended a live performance collectively, then stayed up till 7 a.m. hanging out and enjoying Nintendo Wii. Varma additionally recalled Lee’s welcoming and beneficiant spirit. “He would all the time speak me up,” he mentioned. “He was so good and so caring. He all the time put his mates first.”
In accordance with Varma, Lee grew up in St. Louis and had restricted publicity to the tech world. Ultimately, he began programming and creating open-source expertise, which caught the attention of Google.
“On the time, Google was making an attempt to recruit at, like, MIT and Stanford, and Bob did not have like these form of credentials,” Varma mentioned. “However he was an incredible programmer. He was in all probability, like, perhaps the neatest Java engineer that I ever met.”
Different colleagues and mates of Lee paid tribute on social media. “I simply acquired devastating information that our good friend Bob Lee... was killed in SF early in the present day,” tweeted Invoice Barhydt, co-founder of the Abra crypto pockets. “Bob was a dad, the previous CTO of Sq. the place he created Money App & CTO of Cell Coin. He was a beneficiant first rate human being who didn’t should be killed.”
“So unhappy to listen to of [Lee’s] premature passing,” Figma CEO Dylan Area wrote in his tribute. “I first met him in summer season 2006—he didn’t care that I used to be solely 14 and we talked tech / geeked out about programming. We remained linked over time and he was an early supporter of Figma. It’s so laborious to imagine he's gone.”
“RIP to one of many realist most sensible people I’ve ever met,” wrote Joshua Donaldson, founding father of the nonprofit When the Music Stops. Donaldson added that Lee was a “rad single Dad.”
TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington known as Lee “among the finest people I’ve ever met,” whereas investor Megan Quinn described him as “the nicest individual - all the time encouraging, all the time upbeat.”
“And that smile!” she added. “He was all the time smiling. That’s how I'll bear in mind him.”
Police have urged anybody with details about this case to name the SFPD 24-hour Tip Line at 1-415-575-4444 or Textual content a Tip to TIP411 and start the textual content message with SFPD. It's possible you'll stay nameless or go away your data for follow-up by a murder investigator.