Last Night in San Francisco: Tech's Lost Promise and the Killing of Bob Lee

Bad Blood meets Burn Book in this exposé about tech icon Bob Lee—and what his life and 2023 murder tell us about San Francisco in the Internet Age

FOR FANS OF GOING INFINITE AND SUPER PUMPED: Sex and drugs, parties and violence, genius coders and VC tycoons—welcome to the rip-roaring world of the American tech industry

The full story of an industry, a city, and two men—one who got everything he ever wanted, one who never got what he thought he deserved—and what happened the night it all came apart.

Like his many peers in the tech industry who had poured into San Francisco over the last two decades, Bob Lee was remaking the world, building the most familiar parts of our digital lives, a lead innovator at one start-up after another, such as Google, Android, Square, and CashApp.

When Lee was found stabbed to death one night on the streets of San Francisco, the city’s many critics knew exactly what it meant. Just like they had been saying, the city was violent, dangerous, and out-of-control. San Francisco was so bent on creating a liberal utopia that it was failing at its most basic tasks—to keep its citizens safe.

It’s a familiar story—familiar and wrong. Bob Lee was a man without limits, and he had a recklessness that led to his triumphs as well as his downfall.