Bob Lee, a tech executive and investor who founded the mobile payment service Cash App, was fatally stabbed on the street in San Francisco on Tuesday, according to his family.
The San Francisco Police Department said it responded to a call about a stabbing in the Rincon Hill neighborhood at about 2:35 a.m. on Tuesday. The police did not identify the victim, a 43-year-old man with “apparent stab wounds,” who died at a hospital. But KPIX, the local CBS affiliate, reported that friends of Mr. Lee said he was the victim, which was confirmed Wednesday morning on Facebook by his father, Rick Lee of Miami.
Rick Lee said on Facebook that he moved in with his son after Bob’s mother died in 2019, and they had moved to Miami together in October.
“Bob would give you the shirt off his back,” Mr. Lee wrote. “He would never look down on anyone and adhered to a strict no-judgment philosophy.”
Tim Oliver Lee, Bob’s brother, wrote on Facebook about his brother’s death. “I was so fortunate to grow up with him, and I feel like I’ve lost part of myself,” he said.
The San Francisco district attorney, Brooke Jenkins, said on Twitter that no arrests had been made as of Wednesday morning. “We do not tolerate these horrific acts of violence in San Francisco,” she said.
Matt Dorsey, the Democratic San Francisco city supervisor who represents Rincon Hill, a neighborhood near the Bay Bridge, condos and corporate offices, said on Twitter that Mr. Lee’s death was “a senseless tragedy that I know is made worse by the fact that no suspect is yet in custody.”
Before Mr. Lee joined MobileCoin in 2021, he was the chief technology officer of the payment company Square, which was renamed Block in 2021, and was a software engineer at Google. He was also a start-up adviser and had invested in companies including SpaceX and Clubhouse, according to his LinkedIn.
Mr. Dorsey, the San Francisco supervisor, said that he had been speaking with the police about the investigation into the stabbing since Tuesday morning.
“I’ve also heard from many constituents in the area — some of whom have already voiced concerns to me about public safety challenges — and I’m asking everyone to cooperate with police in their investigation, especially those with access to surveillance video that may help,” Mr. Dorsey said.
At the time of his death, Mr. Lee, 43, was the chief product officer of MobileCoin, a cryptocurrency start-up. The founder and chief executive of MobileCoin, Joshua Goldbard, confirmed in an emailed statement that Mr. Lee died on Tuesday but did not give a cause.
Mr. Goldbard said on Twitter that Mr. Lee “was like a brother to me” and had a “kaleidoscopic” mind.
“Pick a topic and Bob would be right there with you telling you all of the ways he had thought about the idea already,” Mr. Goldbard said.
Condolences for Mr. Lee poured out across social media platforms on Wednesday as the news spread.
He was perhaps best known for his work on Cash App, now owned by Jack Dorsey’s company Block. Mr. Dorsey, the former CEO of Twitter, called Mr. Lee’s death “heartbreaking” on the social media site Nostr. “Bob was instrumental to Square and Cash App,” he wrote.
The chief executive of the design platform, Figma, Dylan Field, said on Twitter that he had first met Mr. Lee in 2006. “He didn’t care that I was only 14 and we talked tech / geeked out about programming,” Mr. Field said.
Bill Barhydt, the chief executive of digital financial platform Abra, said on Twitter that Mr. Lee “was a generous decent human being who didn’t deserve to be killed.”
Megan Quinn, a start-up investor, said on Twitter that Mr. Lee was “always encouraging, always upbeat.”
“He was always smiling,” she said. “That’s how I will remember him.”
Violent crime rates in some major cities are still recovering from a 2020 surge associated with the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. Across the country, crime has been steadily declining for most of the last quarter of a century.
Homicides in San Francisco have risen slightly in recent years since dropping in 2019 to 41 people, the lowest number in nearly 60 years, according to the city. The number of homicides rose to 56 deaths in 2022.
As of April 2, there have been 12 homicides in San Francisco this year, according to the San Francisco Police Department. In the same period in 2022, there had been 10 homicides.
Susan C. Beachy contributed research.
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