Bob Lee, who was the founder of the multibillion-dollar tech company Cash App, had relocated to Miami and was reportedly staying an extra day in San Francisco where he was stabbed to death on 4 April.
The 43-year-old tech mogul was found at 2.35am outside a luxury high rise apartment on the 300 block of Main St near Rincon Hill and the Bay Bridge with life-threatening stab wounds, the San Francisco Police Department said in a statement.
San Francisco police reportedly arrested fellow tech executive Nima Momeni in connection with the fatal stabbing of Cash App founder Bob Lee on 13 April.
The arrest was made on Thursday morning and Mr Momeni has been booked into the San Francisco Sheriff’s Jail.
Bob Lee’s wife says that the suspect in her husband’s killing is from Emeryville, California, reported KTVU.
“This is the first step toward justice,” Ms Lee said from her home in Miami, where Bob Lee had moved from Mill Valley, California, last year.
Lee was the chief product officer of San Francisco-based cryptocurrency startup MobileCoin and an active investor in companies such as SpaceX, Clubhouse, and Figma.
Lee was a much-loved member of the San Francisco tech community, where he was affectionately known as Crazy Bob.
He is survived by two young daughters and his wife Krista.
Here is a timeline of Lee’s career and events leading up to his death
In 2004, Lee moved to San Francisco to begin his job as an engineer at Google, leading Android’s core library team and launching the world’s most used operating system.
He began living in the city after living and working in St Louis Missouri for 10 years as an open-source developer.
By 2010, his career had already skyrocketed and it was the year when Lee joined Square.
Lee, who was largely self-taught, was recruited by billionaire Block co-founder Jim McKelvey and Jack Dorsey. He built its main payments product before creating the Cash App.
He said “Square is the top free finance app in Android’s market” and also wrote that “Android Surpasses iPhone in the US”.
In 2011, just a year after his joining he was promoted to be the company’s first Chief Technology Officer.
In a 15 November blog entry, he apologised for an error in the app. “Mistakes happen. At Square, we accept that human error is inevitable. We anticipate potential slip-ups and implement safety measures to mitigate – and oftentimes completely eliminate – any repercussions,” he wrote and further explained how it happened.
In 2015, he became the CEO of the local chat group app Present, a year after resigning from Square.
The chat group app was led on the idea to connect women and he helped host the 2018 Women’s March in San Francisco.
A Facebook picture of Lee from 2015 shows him on the floor of the Nasdaq the day the company went public.
In 2019, Lee moved to Mill Valley in California with his father Rick Lee following his mother’s death.
"I just lost my best friend, my son Bob Lee, when he lost his life on the street in San Francisco early Tuesday Morning," wrote Rick Lee in a post. "I moved to Mill Valley, CA, with Bob after his mother died in 2019 and we recently relocated to Miami in Oct 2022,” he said.
He purchased a four-bedroom residence in Mill Valley in 2018 for $2.6m, which he sold in July 2022 for $4.43m.
In late 2021, Lee became chief product officer of MobileCoin and said in a statement that he hoped the company could “help the hundreds of millions of unbanked people worldwide” by giving them an option of democratised access to digital cash.
The company received $66m in venture backing.
In October 2022, Lee relocated to Miami. Lee’s friend and mixed martial arts champion Jake Shields told News Nation that the entrepreneur had just moved to Miami due to a rise in drug abuse and crime in San Francisco.
"He did comment on San Francisco deteriorating," Mr Shields said, adding: "which is why he had actually just relocated to Miami."
On 7 October 2022 he tweeted a picture of the Miami skyline and said he moved there a week ago.
At 2.35am on 4 April 2023 Lee was stabbed outside a luxury high rise apartment on the 300 block of Main St, near Rincon Hill and the Bay Bridge, police said.
It is not known when he returned to San Francisco but Lee was believed to have a “a little business back in San Francisco for a couple of days” that made him return to the city, his friend said.
He was tragically stabbed less than a mile away from the office of the startup team of Square.
The tech executive was treated at the scene by first responders before being rushed to a hospital where he died from his injuries, police said.
Surveillance footage at around 2.30am, reviewed by The Standard, showed his final moments when he cried for help but pleas fell on deaf ears of onlookers.
The footage initially shows Lee walking along a deserted sidewalk on Main St with his mobile phone in one hand and holding his side with the other,The Standard reported.
The Cash App founder then crossed at the intersection with Harrison St where a white Toyota Camry with flashing lights was parked.
The footage reportedly showed Lee lifting up his shirt in a plea for help, and then falling to the ground as the driver pulled away.
Lee then got back on his feet and started to retrace his steps along the Main St in the direction of the Bay Bridge before collapsing again outside of the Portside apartment building at 403 Main St.
His friend, who was not named, said Lee had stayed an “extra day” and was to meet him this weekend, The Standard said.
“I’m still in shock,” the friend said. “No way he did anything to provoke this, and I feel like he would just hand his money and watch to a mugger.”
Shortly after 2.35am in the morning on Tuesday medics arrived on the scene and rendered aid to Lee. “The victim was transported to a local hospital with life-threatening injuries,” police said.
Lee was declared dead at the hospital.
On 13 April it was reported that San Francisco police had arrested fellow tech executive Nima Momeni in connection with the fatal stabbing.
Mr Momeni has been booked into the San Francisco Sheriff’s Jail. The reported arrest has yet to be officially confirmed by the San Francisco Police Department.
Bob Lee’s wife says that the suspect in her husband’s killing is a man from Emeryville, California, reported KTVU.
“This is the first step toward justice,” Ms Lee said from her home in Miami, where Bob Lee had moved from Mill Valley, California, last year.
