- Fahim Saleh, a 33-year-old businessman, was found dismembered in his Manhattan apartment this week.
- Founder of shared transportation and delivery technology, Saleh was on a mission to bring jobs and opportunities to the developing country.
- Saleh’s social media gives the world an inside look at his close family, his hobbies, and his jet-set lifestyle.
- Her murder, which police said seemed like “professional work,” could have been financially motivated.
- Visit the Insider home page for more stories.
Fahim Saleh was in fifth grade when he launched his first “business”.
He and his young friend would sell candy they bought in bulk at the local dollar store in their schoolyard in New York State. After three weeks, the school principal closed its operation, but by then they had already raised $ 150, he recounted in a video last year.
More than 20 years and several successful startups later, the 33-year-old entrepreneur’s life was cut short on Tuesday when he was found dismembered in his luxurious apartment in New York City, in what officials said looked like a “professional work”. ”
But as news of Saleh continues to make the headlines, those who knew him say that the young man was more than his success or his horrible death.
He was a proud brother and son who valued relationships with his family, friends, and the dog Laila.
“Fahim is more than what you are reading. It is much more,” his family told The Daily Beast in a statement. “His brilliant and innovative mind took everyone on his world on a journey and made sure not to leave anyone behind.”
Police are investigating the murder of Fahim Saleh in Manhattan.
Reuters
A son of Bangladeshi Americans to immigrants, Saleh worked on projects to ‘change countries’ in the developing world
Fahim Saleh was born in Saudi Arabia to Bangladeshi parents and raised in New York State.
His entrepreneurial spirit flourished in his teens when he started developing a network of social media apps from his parents’ home. In 2006, Saleh’s first company, Wizteen, Inc., earned more than $ 400,000, according to old tax returns Saleh shared on Instagram. He was a high school student at the time.
In 2010, after graduating from Bentley University in Massachusetts, Saleh launched TapFury, a company responsible for the PrankDial app, which allowed people to make anonymous phone calls.
Although lucrative, the app also caught Saleh in a legal battle after the deputy director of the New Jersey Hudson County Jail used it to catch two of his officers by secretly recording their conversation and using it against them, according to filing documents. in federal court in New Jersey.
Prison official Kirk Eady was finally sentenced to 21 months in prison for wiretapping in 2015. When Eady was released, he sued Saleh in a case that is still pending.
Despite that, Saleh founded co-founder Pathao, a motorcycle transport service in Bangladesh, and then Gokada, a similar company in Lagos, Nigeria.
In Lagos, Gokada launched a fleet of 1,000 “riders” equipped with brand name motorcycles and safety gear to provide transportation to the locals through an app.
In February, due to policy changes in Lagos, Gokada was forced to abandon taxi services to provide delivery services.
In the last video that Saleh posted on YouTube, he talked about how the ban on sharing motorcycle trips like Gokada was disrupting his mission to provide jobs for locals in Nigeria.
“It has definitely been a hard blow,” Saleh said in the video, adding that it is the work of entrepreneurs that “changes countries.”
“The Gokada drivers weren’t there just because they wanted to make money. They were there because they had families, they had children, they had dreams,” Saleh said.
In a Medium post, Ahmed Fahad wrote about Saleh as his mentor and eventual business partner in Pathao.
Fahad said the two worked hard to succeed together and Saleh taught him several difficult lessons over the years.
While Saleh’s stubborn personality was “often polarizing,” Fahad called him a role model.
“Over the years, I got to know his many … human flaws,” he wrote. “But when I think of Fahim Saleh tonight … I remember his indomitable will. His utter and utter disregard for the status quo. And his extreme and disorderly approach to making things happen. I remember a man who changed things and people.” .
—Gokada – We deliver now (@GokadaNG) July 15, 2020
Saleh’s social media gave the world an inside look at his jet-oriented family life
Saleh did not shy away from giving the world an inside look at his life, success, and family.
In 2016, he posted a YouTube video in which he and his two sisters, Riff and Ruby, arrived at his parents’ modest apartment and told their father over the phone that they needed to bring them cash for their Uber.
When he came out, Saleh surprised him by giving him a new Tesla Model S for Father’s Day.
Saleh’s public profiles on Instagram and YouTube shared an insight into the young tech tycoon’s life with the world.
Between jet-set photos between business trips and vacations, working out, and playing the ukulele, Saleh’s Instagram told the story of a close family from Bangladesh and the United States.
Eight months ago, Saleh proudly shared a nightly photo of the 10-story brick and glass apartment building where he had a $ 2 million apartment on the seventh floor.
A horizontal sign spanning more than three floors prominently displayed “265 East Houston Street,” the address where one of her sisters made an unexpected visit Tuesday and made the horrible discovery of her death.
My house ♥ ️ #nyc
Saleh’s sister may have interrupted the killer’s plan to destroy his body.
On Tuesday afternoon, after not hearing from her Saleh for a day, her sister paid a visit to her apartment.
When he arrived around 3:30 pm, he discovered his dismembered body. An electric saw was still connected, the New York Times reported.
Surveillance video seen by police shows that the killer, dressed in black and wearing a mask, had followed Saleh to an elevator a day earlier.
Detectives told The Daily Beast that Saleh seemed uncomfortable when the man seemed to not know how to use the building’s elevator and the two had exchanged words.
When Saleh arrived at his seventh-floor apartment, the man followed, trapping him, according to the Daily Beast.
Using what police believe was an electric pistol, the killer demobilized Saleh and at some point stabbed him multiple times, Daily Beast reported.
The killer probably waited overnight before using the saw to dismember Saleh, police told the Daily Beast.
Detectives suspect the murder may be due to a financial dispute, The Daily Beast reported.
Her sister’s visit seemed to interrupt what police believe was an attempt to destroy the body and leave no evidence of Saleh’s death.
Laila was found alive in the apartment, according to the New York Times.
“There are no words or actions to bring us comfort, except for the capture of the person who exhibited nothing less than evil about our loved one,” the family statement told the Daily Beast. “We need and urge the New York police and other members of the police to work diligently to get to the bottom of this horrible crime and bring justice to Fahim.”
