Billionaire Slack and Flickr founders search for child, 16, missing in San Francisco’s notorious Tenderloin district

Mint Butterfield is the child of two prominent tech entrepreneurs: Stewart Butterfield, co-founder and CEO of cloud-based communication software Slack and Caterina Fake, co-founder of Flickr

Mint Butterfield, 16, was reported missing on Monday morning after they were last seen in the Bolinas area of San Francisco (Marin County Sheriff's Office)

The billionaire tech entrepreneurs who co-founded Slack and Flickr are desperately searching for their 16-year-old child who is feared to have gone missing in the notorious Tenderloin district of San Francisco.

Mint Butterfield, who uses they/them pronouns, was last seen at 10pm on Sunday in the coastal community of Bolinas, according to Deputy K Walther of the Marin County Sheriff’s Office.

The teenager was reported missing at around 8.30am the following morning by their mother, Marin County Sheriff Sgt Adam Schermerhorn confirmed to The San Fransisco Standard.

A missing persons alert was posted on Nextdoor, with authorities warning that they believe Mint could be in the Tenderloin district.

Mint is the child of two prominent tech entrepreneurs: Stewart Butterfield, the co-founder and CEO of cloud-based communication software Slack and Caterina Fake, who co-founded Flickr with Mr Butterfield.

The sheriff’s office said on the Nextdoor post that Mint is five feet tall, weighs around 100 pounds, and has brown/reddish curly hair and pierced eyebrows.

Mint Butterfield, 16, was reported missing on Monday morning after they were last seen in the Bolinas area of San Francisco (Marin County Sheriff’s Office)

They were last seen wearing a black sweatshirt, flannel pyjama pants and black boots, and possibly carrying a gray suitcase with them, the sheriff’s office added.

“It is believed Mint headed to the San Francisco area after running away,” Deputy Walther wrote in the post.

Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield speaking on stage at the WIRED25 Summit in 2019 (Getty Images for WIRED)

Sgt Schermerhorn told the San Fransisco Chronicle that Mint has been known to frequent the Tenderloin area prior to their disappearance.

Matt Dorsey, a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, also reiterated on X that the missing teen was believed to “be in or around the Tenderloin neighborhood”.

The neighbourhood is notorious for drug-related issues and crime.

Flicker co-founder Caterina Fake speaks onstage during Vanity Fair’s Founders Fair in New York in 2017 (Getty Images for Vanity Fair)

San Fransisco Mayor London Breed declared an official state of emergency in the Tenderloin district in 2021 to try to tackle the epidemic of people dying of drug overdoses in the area.

The sheriff’s office and the San Fransisco Police Department detectives are working to locate the 16-year-old.

Anyone with information regarding Mint’s whereabouts is asked to contact the Marin County Sheriff’s Office.

The Independent has contacted Marin County Sheriff’s Office and the San Fransisco Police Department for further information.