According to his family, Bob Lee, a technology executive who created the mobile payment firm Cash App and had previously worked at Square, passed away on Tuesday after being stabbed close to central San Francisco.
Around 2:35 a.m. on Tuesday, according to San Francisco police, officers responded to a report of a stabbing. The police discovered a 43-year-old male who appeared to have been stabbed. According to the authorities, he was taken to a hospital with serious injuries, where he eventually passed away.
Lee’s father and sibling recognized the man as the victim, but authorities withheld his identity.
“Bobby was the brightest individual I’ve ever known and worked harder than anyone. He will be mourned by everyone who knew him,” wrote Richard Lee in a Facebook message that included a news report about his son’s stabbing. Thank you to everyone who offered their assistance.
His father stated in the article that the two had relocated from California to Miami in October. After Bob Lee’s mother passed away in 2019, their bond got even closer. Bob Lee returned to the Bay Area, but NBC News could not determine why.
Tim Oliver Lee posted on Facebook that he was “so saddened and disheartened” to have lost his sibling. He was the finest of us. He was my childhood best friend; I feel like some of me has been gone.
The chief product manager of the bitcoin business MobileCoin was Bob Lee. Before joining Block, he served as chief technology officer of Square, a financial technology start-up co-founded by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. Square is now known as Block.
Lee later developed the money-transfer program Cash App.
According to his LinkedIn page, he also invested in other tech companies, including the social audio app Clubhouse and Elon Musk’s SpaceX business. He had “crazybob” as his Twitter and LinkedIn usernames.
The World Health Organization said in a statement that “Bob built a large part of the server for the WHO Covid-19 App,” NBC News confirmed on Wednesday that Lee gave his “support and expertise” during the pandemic.
Joshua Goldbard, the creator and CEO of MobileCoin, said Lee “passed away yesterday” in a statement on Wednesday and lauded his business savvy. He did not say how Lee passed away.
“Bob was a powerhouse, a natural force. Bob was the real deal, according to Goldbard. He was created for the world that is currently in development. He had big ambitions as a child and brought to life anything he could have envisioned.
Goldbard described Lee as “like a brother to me” and a “brilliant” visionary with a “kaleidoscopic” intellect in a Twitter conversation.
As of early Wednesday, no charges appeared to have been made. Due to the ongoing investigation into the murder, police refused to provide additional details and referred inquiries about the victim’s name to the municipal medical examiner.
There was “no information to disclose or further comment at this time,” according to the medical examiner’s office.
The deadly stabbing may draw even more attention to San Francisco’s public safety concerns, as locals and business owners have grown increasingly alarmed by violent crimes and robberies. London Breed, the mayor, has vowed to toughen up on crime.
According to statistics collected by the police agency, San Francisco has experienced 12 murders since the year’s beginning. There were 10 murders during the same time span last year.
On social media, Lee’s peers and coworkers offered tribute to him. A former MMA competitor, Jake Shields, described him as a “loyal friend.” Musk expressed his “great sorrow” at learning of Lee’s passing in reaction to one of Shields’ tweets.
On the social media site Nostr, Dorsey, the former CEO of Twitter, referred to Lee’s passing as “heartbreaking.” Dorsey said, “Bob was crucial to Square and Cash App.”
Lee’s friend Joshua Bloch recalled him as a charismatic individual who “always had a huge smile on his face” and “constantly lived life to the fullest.” Lee worked with Bloch at Google in the late 2000s.
Bloch remembered Lee as a tech “autodidact” who could allegedly “do anything he wanted” in a phone interview on Wednesday, adding, “I don’t think he realized how special he was.”
People frequently compliment the deceased, but in this instance, Bloch said, “I would say the same things if he were still living. He was extraordinary.
