A startup founder reportedly jumped to her death from the top of NYC rooftop bar 230 Fifth
Faigy Mayer, 30, was the founder and CEO of Appton, a New York-based app development startup.
Mayer had developed a number of iOS apps, including NYCTips, a New York restaurant tip calculator, a parking app called Carma, and an app called ExpenseTracker, according to her LinkedIn page.
Mayer graduated with her bachelor's degree in accounting from Touro College, received a master's in accounting from Brooklyn College, and recently earned a certificate in Data Science Specialization from Johns Hopkins University.
On Monday, Mayer was said to have sprinted toward a shrubbery-lined ledge of the terrace at 230 Fifth's rooftop bar, climbed up, and jumped to her death around 6:45 pm, the Post reports. It's unclear whether Mayer had come to the roof to jump or if she had been a guest at the bar earlier in the evening.
Authorities identified Mayer by a purse and backpack she left behind at the rooftop bar, according to the Post. Police told the Post that Mayer died at the scene.
"There was a big corporate party up there and she kind of ran through them [the partygoers] and jumped," one witness told the Post.
Police sources say the death was likely deliberate, a suicide. If Mayer did commit suicide, she would unfortunately not be the first startup founder to do so. Founder suicides are sometimes outliers of the tech industry's quiet battle with depression, exacerbated by the stress of starting a company and trying to change the world. A study by Dr. Michael Freeman, a clinical professor at UCSF and an entrepreneur, was one of the first to link higher rates of mental health issues to entrepreneurship.
Of the 242 entrepreneurs he surveyed, 49% reported having a mental-health condition. Depression was the No. 1 reported condition among them and was present in 30% of all entrepreneurs, followed by ADHD (29%) and anxiety problems (27%).
That's a much higher percentage than the US population at large, where only about 7% identify as depressed. It's not clear whether or not Mayer suffered from depression.
Business Insider has reached out to the NYPD about the incident and will update this story accordingly.