Dave Goldberg, CEO of online survey startup SurveyMonkey and husband of Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, died suddenly Friday evening. He was 47.

“We are heartbroken by this news,” a Facebook spokesperson told Mashable on Saturday.

Goldberg, who also leaves behind a young daughter and son, was a longstanding, respected figure among Silicon Valley's elite. A Harvard University graduate who majored in history, Goldberg had served as CEO of SurveyMonkey since 2009. He also served as an advisor to TPG Capital, one of the world's largest private-equity firms.

The cause of his death has yet to be publicly announced.

Mark Zuckerberg notified Facebook employees via Facebook post:

The outpouring of grief for Goldberg on Saturday morning has been swift from those who knew him. Many of Goldberg's friends took to Twitter or wrote on his Facebook timeline to pay their respects.

Heartbreaking. One of the truly great people on the planet, Dave was of almost unimaginably remarkable character. https://t.co/cgUSFTxBHm — dick costolo (@dickc) May 2, 2015

Love your family + your friends. Be thoughtful. Work hard. Strive to improve. Help others. Dave Goldberg aced all of these. Love ya Goldie. — Jason Hirschhorn (@JasonHirschhorn) May 2, 2015

My friend @davegoldberg kindest, most generous, loving father, loyal husband, great ceo, & sweetest friend. May his memory be a blessing. — Marc Benioff (@Benioff) May 2, 2015

My thoughts and prayers are with @sherylsandberg and her family on this sad day. — Melinda Gates (@melindagates) May 2, 2015

SurveyMonkey expressed condolences in a short statement, as well.

"Dave’s genius, courage and leadership were overshadowed only by his compassion, friendship and heart," the statement reads. "His greatest love was for his family. Our sympathy goes out to them and to all who were touched by this extraordinary man. We are all heartbroken."

Raised in Minneapolis, Goldberg graduated from Harvard with plans to attend law school. But instead, the self-proclaimed music lover eventually took a job as director of marketing strategy and new business development with Capitol Records, where he brainstormed new potential revenue streams, which included persuading management to release its Beatles catalog on CD.

He joined Yahoo in 2001, after the company acquired a startup Goldberg co-founded seven years earlier called Launch Media for a reported $12 million. Launch, as he liked to put it, focused on delivering music and music-related content online. At Yahoo, Goldberg served as head of music for nearly six years, where he earned his fair share of admirers.

"While incredibly accomplished, Dave was always humble, imaginative and genuinely interested in connecting with people around him," wrote Ashwin Navin, CEO and founder of the San Francisco-based startup Samba TV, on Goldberg's Facebook timeline.

Afterwards, Goldberg jumped around for two years before landing at SurveyMonkey in 2009. The online survey company, which has about 500 employees and raised nearly $1.2 billion — a mix of venture-backed capital and debt financing — earned $62 million on $113 million in revenues in 2013, Goldberg said during a Business Insider interview this April.

In the dedication for Lean In, which Sandberg published in 2013, she highlighted Goldberg's influence on her life.

"Dave is my best friend, closest advisor, dedicated coparent, and the love of my life," Sandberg wrote then. "We both knew that my writing this book would come primarily at the expense of our time together, and so writing Lean In was as much his decision as mine. He supported me every step of the way, as he always does, with patience, great insight, humor, and love."

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged Goldberg's death with a short, eloquent post and reshared photos posted by Goldberg's brother Robert Goldberg.

"No words can express the depth of loss we feel, but we want his children to learn how much he meant to all of you," Zuckerberg wrote.

Updated at 3:28 p.m. ET to include more biographical information. Updated at 5:50 p.m. ET to include SurveyMonkey's statement.