by - Bob Lee’s peers and industry leaders wrote social media posts mourning the creator of Cash App.
- Jack Dorsey called it “heartbreaking”, while Elon Musk blasted “violent crime in SF”.
- The San Francisco Police Department said an “active investigation” is underway.
Tech executives took to social media to pay heartfelt tributes and stunned reactions to Cash App creator Bob Lee’s fatal stabbing on Wednesday.
Lee, also the former CTO of Square, died after being stabbed in San Francisco on Tuesday morning, according to a report from NBC Bay Area. Police have yet to identify a subject or announce any arrests related to the incident.
Lee’s father, Rick Lee, said on Facebook that his son moved with him to Miami last year.
“Bob would give you the shirt off his back,” Rick Lee wrote. “He never looked down on anyone and adhered to a strict non-judgmental philosophy. Bobby worked harder than anyone and was the smartest person I’ve ever known. He will be missed by all who knew him.”
Lee’s brother, Tim Oliver Lee, wrote in a Facebook post, “I was so lucky to grow up with him, and I feel like I’ve lost a part of myself.”
Rick Lee and Tim Oliver Lee did not respond to Insider’s requests for comment.
Block CEO Jack Dorsey, who co-founded Twitter, called Lee’s death “heartbreaking.”
“It’s real. Getting calls,” Dorsey wrote on Nostr. “Bob was instrumental in Square and Cash App.”
Lee joined Square, the fintech company of Jack Dorsey, as its first CTO in 2010. Within the company, the leader created Cash App, a mobile payment platform. In 2021, he became the product manager of MobileCoin, another fintech company that uses end-to-end encryption.
MobileCoin CEO Joshua Goldbard told Insider that Lee was “a force of nature” and described Lee in a statement as the “ultimate creator, leader and hacker.”
“He helped birth Android and CashApp into our world,” Goldbard said. “Moby was his dream: a privacy wallet for the 21st century. I will miss him every day.”
Tommy Sowers, the president of Fly Exclusive, shared photos of his time with Lee.
“Over the past 14 years, Bob has led me into his love of building technology, unlocked San Francisco, a city he loved, and taught me I had another gear when I wanted to come home. go to bed at midnight (although Bob has several other gears),” Sowers said on LinkedIn. “We shared roaming adventures around the Yucatan and Italy and families’ simple love of each other and our time together.”
YCombinator CEO Garry Tan called Lee’s death a “huge loss to the tech community and to San Francisco.”
“We must remember his life and his works”, Tan said on Twitter. “We know so little about the circumstances and it’s still too early to speculate what happened. This area is full of cameras, so we’ll find out soon.”
—Garry Tan 陈嘉兴 (@garrytan) April 5, 2023
Renewed calls for safety in San Francisco
A view of the San Francisco skyline, featuring the Golden Gate Bridge and the Salesforce Tower.
Dan Kurtzman/Getty Images
Lee’s death has reignited concern among some technology leaders and other industry players about San Francisco’s safety.
Brooke Jenkins, the San Francisco District Attorney, tweeted Wednesday that there were no arrests yet and sent a message of condolence to Lee’s family. “We do not condone these horrific acts of violence in San Francisco,” she tweeted.
—Brooke Jenkins (@BrookeJenkinsSF) April 5, 2023
The San Francisco Police Department needs to wrap up its investigation before the district attorney’s office can intervene, Randy Quezada, director of communications at the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office, told Insider.
“They have to talk to witnesses, gather evidence and present it to us, and our office really steps in to assess the evidence and then decide the charges,” Quezada said.
“The investigation is very recent,” he said. “Until there is an arrest, we wait.”
Elon Musk too commented about the tragedy on Twitter.
“So sorry to hear this. Lots of people I know have been severely assaulted,” Musk tweeted. “Violent crimes in SF are horrific and even if the perpetrators are caught, they are often released immediately,” he added, without citing sources to back up the claim.
Former MMA fighter Jake Shields was one of the first people to comment on Lee’s death on social media and has since continued to call for justice for the old frame.
