Who was Bob Lee, Cash App founder stabbed to death?

Bob Lee, the creator of Cash App, was stabbed to death in San Francisco

Bob Lee, the founder of tech company Cash App, was stabbed to death in San Francisco on Tuesday. The 43-year-old was found by police at about 2.35 am and rushed to a hospital, where he succumbed to his injuries.

Lee’s current employer, MobileCoin, and his father Rick Lee both confirmed the news of his death. The reason behind the stabbing is unclear and the police has not yet released details of any possible suspects.

Bob Lee joined MobileCoin in February 2021 as a part-time advisor and early stage investor. In November the same year, he became chief product officer at the cryptocurrency firm. He brought with him years of experience, gained through stints at several companies. Before he joined MobileCoin, Lee was CEO of Present – a position he had held for six years. Lee was also Limited Partner at SV Angel and SignalFire.

He is best remembered as the creator of Cash App – Lee had been the chief technology officer at digital payments company Square in 2013 when it launched Cash App. The mobile payments service was earlier known as Square Cash.

Lee started his career in 1997 as a web developer for Redrock Communications. He worked with several big names over the following years, including Capgemini, OCI and AT&T. Between 2004 to 2010, he was staff software engineer at Google – a position he left to join Square as its CTO.

‘Bob was brilliant’

Tributes to the creator of Cash App have flooded social media since news of his death broke.

Joshua Goldbard, founder of MobileCoin, remembered him as a man who made friends everywhere he went. In a series of tweets, he praised Lee as more than just a techie but an “artist”.

4/ Bob’s energy was infectious. He made friends everywhere he went.

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One of the things that made him truly special was his capacity to dream big and to summon those big crazy dreams into our world.

Bob summoned the future into the present. pic.twitter.com/6FaGPKjxyH

— Joshua Goldbard (@ThePBXGuy) April 5, 2023

Bob Lee’s father had been living with him. He wrote about his son in a Facebook post: “Bob would give you the shirt off his back. He would never look down on anyone and adhered to a strict no-judgment philosophy. Bobby worked harder than anyone and was the smartest person I have ever known. He will be missed by all those that knew him.”