The technology CEO who was beheaded and dismembered in his Lower East Side apartment was a rising businessman, who loved his adoptive home in New York City.
Born in Saudi Arabia to a Bangladeshi family, Fahim Saleh moved before his family finally settled in Rochester, New York, according to a 2016 blog post. He attended elementary school in Poughkeepsie, then studied at the University of Bentley in Massachusetts.
But it was the Big Apple that captured her heart.
The tragic 33-year-old player tweeted a nightly photo of his luxurious apartment building on East Houston Street, where police discovered his unmade body strewn in trash bags on Tuesday in his seventh-floor apartment.
“My home,” wrote the venture capitalist with a heart emoji in December after recently moving into the $ 2.25 million two-bedroom, two-bathroom condo.
He filled his Twitter with inspiring business quotes and posts about his motorcycle startup, Gokada, along with signs that he was optimistic about the future.
“I have a very good feeling about 2020,” Saleh tweeted on June 2.
Describing himself on LinkedIn as “an investor who finds things,” Saleh graduated from Bentley with a bachelor’s degree in computer science and information science in 2009.
He founded Gokada, the Nigerian-based motorcycle ridesharing company, in 2018 and took over as CEO last year. He recently assisted Gorkada’s transition to delivery service.
He also launched venture capital firm Adventure Capital in 2018 and served as CEO at KickBack Apps, an entertainment app company.
Saleh co-founded passenger transport company Pathao in his parents’ home country of Bangladesh in 2015, calling it the “best-funded startup in Bangladesh, recently valued at more than $ 100MM.”
He also said he was an investor in Picap, Colombia’s largest motorcycle travel company.
A lifelong friend described Saleh as “the Elon Musk of the developing world.”
“It was like the Energizer Bunny,” said the friend. “He played the ukulele … he was so full of ideas.”
In November Saleh tweeted about his experience doing business in Nigeria after a meeting with Nigerian authorities, who took away his passport.
“Nigerian immigration officers forcibly took me to the office,” he wrote. “Have all the work permits, but not for me. Paper copies are not enough … What a lost day. So much for foreign investment?
The next day, he clarified, “The reason I am taking Twitter is because these past events are different from my general experience of the country.
“It is when you experience something unexpected that evokes [sic] outrage, “he said.” Nigerians are generous people who work hard and the country is full of so much potential. “
In February, he posted a YouTube video defending his struggling company.
Saleh was last seen around 1:40 pm Monday in his apartment building. Surveillance video showed him entering an elevator, which opens directly into his apartment, and his alleged killer also entered with a bag in hand, sources said.
As soon as the doors to Saleh’s apartment open, the suspect can be seen attacking him.
A source said the murder seemed “professional”, noting that there was almost no blood in the apartment, that it had not been looted.
Gokada released a statement about Saleh’s death on Twitter.
“We are saddened to inform you of the sudden and tragic loss of our founder and CEO, Fahim Saleh. Fahim was a great leader, inspiration and positive light for all of us, ”said the company. “Fahim’s vision and belief in us will be with us forever, and we will greatly miss him. Thank you for your understanding as we get through this. “
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