Dave Goldberg, the CEO of SurveyMonkey has died unexpectedly on Friday, May 1 at the age of 47. Goldberg is the husband of Sheryl Sandberg, the COO of Facebook.

The news of Dave Goldberg's death was confirmed by his brother, Robert Goldberg via Facebook.  Robert's Facebook post mentions their loss of an "amazing husband, father, brother, son and friend" but did not give details on the cause of death.

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He continued to say that the family wishes that their privacy be respected as they try to cope with their grief and asks people to post pictures and memories of Dave Goldberg on his Facebook page.

Dave Goldberg is successful entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and technology and music industry executive who successfully ran several online consumer businesses.

Along with Bob Roback, they co-founded LAUNCH Media in 1995, an online music site with a print and CD-ROM disk magazine. In 2001, Yahoo! acquired LAUNCH Media for US$12 million.

LAUNCH.com includes LAUNCHcast, an Internet Radio service that was later integrated into Yahoo! Music.  LAUNCH magazine provides video live performances, interviews, and special music video segments as well as s interactive music magazine features.

Dave Goldberg was also the CEO of SurveyMonkey, an online survey development cloud based company, founded by Ryan Finley in 1999. Named in Forbes Unicorn List in 2015, SurveyMonkey contains free, customizable surveys, back-end programs that include data analysis, brand management, sample selection, and consumer marketing.

Its clients include Facebook, Samsung, Virgin America, Kraft Foods, and Salesforce.com among others.

On Dave Goldberg's Facebook page, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg wrote how amazing he was and continued to say that his thoughts and prayers are with the family. Dick Costolo, CEO of Twitter CEO tweeted that Goldberg was one of the greatest people on the planet with a "remarkable character."

In a statement, SurveyMonkey said that they are heartbroken and that Dave was a genius with great courage and leadership with compassion and heart.

Dave Goldberg and Sheryl Sandberg met in 1996 and they immediately became friends. They married in 2004 and have two children.

TagsDave Goldberg, Sheryl Sandberg, SurveyMonkey, Dave Goldberg death