From Google to Sq. to the crypto world, ‘extremely iconic tech founder’ Bob Lee leaves behind a Bay in mourning

Officers responded to a report of a stabbing on Most important Road at 2:35 a.m. Tuesday and located a 43-year-old man with stab wounds, the San Francisco Police Division mentioned in a press launch. The sufferer died at a hospital.

Police didn’t establish the sufferer however MobileCoin confirmed Lee’s demise in response to an electronic mail from The Related Press on Wednesday.

“Our pricey pal and colleague, Bob Lee handed away yesterday on the age of 43, survived by a loving household and assortment of shut buddies and collaborators,” MobileCoin CEO Josh Goldbard mentioned in an announcement.

Lee was “made for the brand new world,” Goldbard wrote.

“From massive contributions to Android at google, to being the primary CTO of Sq., in that point creating CashApp, and dealing with us right here at Mobilecoin, Bob certainly had an influence that may final far past his quick time on earth,” he mentioned.

Lee got here to MobileCoin as an early stage investor and advisor, then turned chief product officer and helped launch the Moby app, Goldbard mentioned. Lee was the chief expertise officer at digital funds firm Sq. in 2013 when it launched a cash switch software now generally known as Money App.

Among the many tech leaders to share their devastation about Lee’s demise was enterprise capitalist Wesley Chan, co-founder of FPV Ventures. Chan mentioned he befriended Lee greater than a decade in the past once they each labored at Google, at a time when software program engineers like Lee have been serving to to construct the Android smartphone working system earlier than its 2008 launch.

“He was an extremely iconic founder within the tech world,” Chan mentioned by cellphone Wednesday. “He wrote massive components of Android when he was at Google. He turned the CTO of Sq. and helped construct Money App. His resume reads one thing like a Fortune cowl article.”

However Chan mentioned Lee was additionally beneficiant in serving to to teach and champion different engineers and tech entrepreneurs who’d name on him for recommendation. And he was modest about his key position in growing profitable merchandise, such because the broadly used Money App.

“With every thing that Bob labored on, it was all the time a nice shock,” Chan mentioned. “That’s one of many issues I liked about him. He was all the time humble about it, he’d say, ‘Oh, I don’t know if it’s going to work or not, however we’ll attempt.’”

Outstanding enterprise capitalist Ron Conway, founding father of the San Francisco-based funding agency SV Angel, tweeted Wednesday that Lee’s loss was an immense tragedy.

“Deepest condolences to Bob’s household and to the whole tech group,” Conway mentioned. “Remembering fondly when Bob gave an inspiring discuss at our CEO Summit. We’ve misplaced an awesome innovator, intelligence, and spirit. Praying a suspect is apprehended swiftly.”

The police assertion didn’t present any particulars on the circumstances of the stabbing.

“That is an open and lively investigation. For that motive we aren’t releasing additional info,” Officer Niccole Pacchetti, a public info officer, mentioned in an electronic mail. “We’ll present additional particulars once they develop into out there.”