Lee, who was largely self-taught, worked on Android for Google before McKelvey and Dorsey recruited him to join Square. He first built out its main payments product, then created the Cash App. — Reuters
Two memories of Bob Lee spring to mind for Block Inc co-founder Jim McKelvey: that he recruited him to work at Square at his wedding in St. Louis, and Jack Dorsey’s effusive praise of Lee’s coding.
“Jack, who is not prone to hyperbole, said Bob Lee was the best Java programmer in the world,” McKelvey said in an interview. “He had a stellar technical reputation, and he had an enthusiasm and confidence that was infectious.”
Lee’s death in San Francisco early Tuesday morning has shaken a Bay Area community who revered the former chief technology officer of Square and chief product officer of MobileCoin as much for his technical prowess as his personal kindness and energy.
“Everybody worshipped him,” said Max Rhodes, who worked with Lee at Square. “He could solve problems other people couldn’t solve. All the best engineers wanted to work with him.”
Lee, who went by the nickname “Crazy Bob” from his days playing high school water polo, would later become an investor in Rhodes’ startup Faire.
“I don’t think I’d be where I am today without him,” Rhodes said.
Lee died after being stabbed multiple times in San Francisco’s downtown, in what the city’s top law enforcement official called a “senseless act of violence.” The police department said officers found a 43-year-old man with stab wounds after responding to a call at 2.35am, and the person later died at the hospital.
Lee is survived by his family, including his children.
“Bob would give you the shirt off his back,” his father Rick Lee wrote in a Facebook post about his son’s death. “He would never look down on anyone and adhered to a strict no-judgment philosophy.”
Lee’s “Crazy Bob” moniker applied to his professional career, too.
It wasn’t that he was irresponsible, McKelvey said. Rather, “he didn’t see the limitations so many of us perceive,” he said. “All pioneers are called crazy.”
Lee, who was largely self-taught, worked on Android for Google before McKelvey and Dorsey recruited him to join Square. He first built out its main payments product, then created the Cash App.
Dorsey shared a photo Wednesday of the first Cash App transaction Lee sent him in 2013: US$4 in honor of Square’s upcoming fourth birthday.
“I remember him showing it to me and being so proud. He said ‘I’m going to give it to everyone,’” McKelvey said. “Bob wanted all people to have access to tools that only rich people had, and I remember how he basically hacked the financial system to make it happen.”
Lee continued to focus on payments, first as an investor and adviser to crypto startup MobileCoin and then as its chief product officer. He helped launch its non-custodial crypto wallet to support private payments – a dream of his, the company said.
“Bob was made for the new world,” said Joshua Goldbard, MobileCoin’s CEO. “He was the quintessential creator, leader, and consummate hacker.”
McKelvey recalled his efforts away from coding as well, such as during the early days of Square when the team would occasionally spend afternoons walking around its offices in the San Francisco Chronicle building and cleaning up the streets.
“He was literally a guy who used to get his teams excited to go pick up trash,” McKelvey said. “Bob Lee is one of the reasons San Francisco became the tech success it became.”
Lee had lived in St. Louis and throughout the Bay Area before relocating to Miami in October. Friends have said that he was only visiting the city when he was stabbed.
Lee’s murder has renewed criticism and calls for action on reducing crime in the city. San Francisco’s District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said so far no arrests have been made.
“There’s a habit we all have to aggrandize people after they all die and use superlatives in retrospect, but if Bob Lee was sitting next to me right now, I would say the same thing,” McKelvey said. “That man had just tremendous ability and great energy, and he should be alive. It’s just surreal.” – Bloomberg
