Tristan O’Tierney, who helped found payments firm Square before leaving the company in 2013, died on Feb. 23. O’Tierney was 35, and held positions at other tech firms prior to arriving at Square, CNBC reported.
A spokesperson for the company told CNBC, “Tristan was part of Square’s founding story, and we are deeply saddened by his passing,” adding that “our thoughts are with his family and friends.”
The co-founder worked for Square for almost four and a half years. In recent times, he was a Los Angeles freelance photographer, and it was reported that his Instagram account highlighted his landscape photography ability.
O’Tierney, who graduated with a computer science degree from the Rochester Institute of Technology, lived in New York after a childhood in different states. He was born in Alaska, on a naval base in Adak.
Before working for VMware, Apple and Tapulous, he was a software engineer for Yahoo, according to the San Francisco Chornicle. At the beginning of 2009, Co-founders Jim McKelvey and Jack Dorsey tapped O’Tierney to create the company’s original mobile payment app. It was reported in 2014 that Dorsey had originally looked to have O’Tierney work on a journal-keeping app called Log, prior to Square (first named Squirrel.)
Square Founding Designer Robert Andersen said on a Twitter post, “Saddened to hear of @tristan’s passing over the weekend. I still remember building the first Square app together all of those years ago. He was always excited to build something new.”
Upon leaving the company in 2013, O’Tierney wrote on Twitter, “Today was my last day at @Square. It’s been an incredible four years.”
At the time, it was reported that O’Tierney created the Obama 2008 iPhone app. It was also said that former VP of International Alyssa Cutright, VP of Partnership Alex Petrov and COO Keith Rabois had recently left the company.
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