Fahim Saleh

Fahim Saleh (ফাহীম সালেহ; December 12, 1986 – July 13, 2020) was a Bangladeshi-American entrepreneur and computer programmer who founded Gokada in Nigeria, Pathao and JoBike. Saleh was also a founding partner of Adventure Capital, a Manhattan-based venture capital firm.

Biography
Saleh was born in Saudi Arabia, to Bangladeshi parents who frequently relocated for work, before settling in Rochester, New York. He taught himself to program at a young age, and created a variety of online projects such as a website for his family, a teenage social platform and a prank dial service, PrankDial, after his graduation from Bentley University. When he had grown older, Saleh said that he wanted to create something that "adds legitimate value to humanity". He created his first company while still in high school. He used income from PrankDial to fund his further ventures. PrankDial was somewhat controversial because it was abused as a tool for harassment.

He went on to found the ride company Pathao, which was popular in Bangladesh and Nepal, in 2015. The company was valued at $100 million. In 2018, Saleh also founded Nigerian Gokada, a Nigerian ride-hail startup for motorbike taxis, that had millions of dollars in funding and gained a lot of traction in the country. The company faced a setback after authorities in Lagos banned motorbike taxis in 2020. Fahim also invested in another ride-sharing company named Picap in Colombia.

Friends called Saleh the "Elon Musk of the developing world". Complex estimated his net worth to be $150 million.

Death
On July 14, 2020, Saleh was found dead in his luxury apartment on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Police stated that he was killed the day before.

On the night of July 13, neighbors heard yelling from Saleh's unit and contacted his sister. After her attempts to contact him failed, she visited his condo on July 14 and found a grisly scene. She called the police, who found Saleh's torso next to an electric saw, and his head and limbs in garbage bags elsewhere in the apartment. An autopsy report from the Chief Medical Examiner concluded that Saleh died from multiple stab wounds. Detectives classified this case as a homicide. A police source told The New York Times that Saleh was followed by a man dressed in black into the key-secured elevator that led to his apartment on the seventh floor. Security footage depicted Saleh struggling out of the elevator and onto his apartment floor. Detectives suspect that the killer fled the scene through the backdoor after Saleh's sister arrived looking for him, according to another police source.

On July 17, Saleh's personal assistant, 21-year-old Tyrese Devon Haspil, was arrested and charged with murder, since Haspil had been the prime suspect of murder with incriminating surveillance videos that show him using the tech CEO's credit card after the murder and buying cleaning supplies, electric saw at Home Depot. However Haspil has pleaded not guilty. The case against Haspil was adjourned until January 11, 2021. In early 2024, Haspil stated that he will present an insanity defense for his trial to a Manhattan jury, alleging he suffered from "extreme emotional disturbance." His case is represented by Legal Aid Society lawyer Sam Roberts. If he is able to convince the jury, his charges could possibly be reduced to manslaughter, which carries a sentence of 5 to 20 years, as opposed to 20 years to life for murder. Haspil is expected to be sentenced on September 10.

Reactions
His death caused shock and sympathy from the tech community. Pathao and Gokada praised him after his death; Gokada called him "A great leader, inspiration and positive light for all of us" in its tweet. Many in the tech community pay tribute to Fahim Saleh, including an AI successor site to PrankDial, CandyCall, which has a footnote that reads 'RIP Fahim Saleh'.