David Oliver Sacks (born May 25, 1972)[1] is an entrepreneur, author and investor in internet technology firms. He is a general partner of Craft Ventures, a venture capital fund he co-founded in late 2017. Additionally, he is a co-host of the All In podcast, alongside Chamath Palihapitiya, Jason Calacanis and David Friedberg.[2] Previously, Sacks was the COO and product leader of PayPal,[1][3] and founder and CEO of Yammer.[4][5] In 2016, he became interim CEO of Zenefits for ten months.[6] In 2017, Sacks co-founded Craft Ventures,[7] an early-stage venture fund. His angel investments include Facebook, Uber, SpaceX, Palantir Technologies, and Airbnb.[8][9][10]
David Sacks | |
|---|---|
 Sacks in 2011 | |
| Born | David Oliver Sacks May 25, 1972 Cape Town, South Africa |
| Education | |
| Occupation | Tech entrepreneur / investor |
| Employer | Craft Ventures |
| Known for | Former CEO of Zenefits, former COO of PayPal and CEO of Yammer |
| Spouse | Jacqueline Tortorice (m. 2007) |
| Children | 3 |
Early life and education
Sacks was born to a Jewish family in Cape Town, South Africa, and immigrated to Tennessee, United States, with his family when he was five.[11][12] Though Sacks did not know he wanted to be an entrepreneur, he did not want to work a profession like his father, who was an endocrinologist. He took inspiration from his grandfather, who started a candy factory in the 1920s.[13]
Sacks attended Memphis University School in Memphis, Tennessee. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in economics from Stanford University in 1994[13] and a Juris Doctor from the University of Chicago Law School in 1998.[14][15][16]
Career
PayPal
In 1999, Sacks left his job as a management consultant for McKinsey & Company to join Max Levchin, Peter Thiel, and Luke Nosek's e-commerce startup Confinity.[17][18] Later that year, Sacks was the inaugural product leader of Confinity's milestone product, and corporate successor, PayPal.[18][19] Upon promotion to Paypal COO, he built many of the company's key teams, and was responsible for product management and design, sales and marketing, business development, international, customer service, fraud operations, and human resources functions.[18][20] PayPal had their initial public offering in February 2002. It was one of the first IPOs after the September 11 attacks. The stock rose more than 54% on the first day.[21] In October 2002, eBay acquired PayPal for $1.5 billion.[22]
Sacks is a member of the so-called "PayPal Mafia", a group of founders and early employees of PayPal who went on to found a series of other successful technology companies. They are often credited with inspiring Web 2.0 and the re-emergence of consumer-focused Internet companies after the dot com bust of 2001.[23][24]
Film producer
Following PayPal's acquisition, Sacks produced and financed the political satire Thank You for Smoking, which premiered at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival, was acquired by Twentieth Century Fox for theatrical release in 2006, and was nominated for two Golden Globes, including ‘Best Motion Picture.’[1]
Sacks developed and produced the 2023 biopic Dalíland about artist Salvador Dalí.[25] Dalíland premiered at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival and was acquired by Magnolia Pictures for theatrical release in 2023.[25]
Geni.com
In 2006, Sacks founded Geni.com, a genealogy website. In 2008, Sacks and co-founder Adam Pisoni spun this internal communications tool into a standalone company called Yammer.[26] Geni was acquired by MyHeritage in 2012.[27]
Yammer
In 2008, Yammer launched the first Enterprise Social Network, a secure solution for internal corporate communication and collaboration,[28] winning the grand prize at TechCrunch50 conference.[29] According to Social Capital,[30] Yammer's viral approach made it among the fastest-growing Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) companies in history, exceeding eight million enterprise users in just four years. Yammer received approximately US$142 million in funding from venture capital firms such as Charles River Ventures, Founders Fund, Emergence Capital Partners, and Goldcrest Investments.[31]
In July 2012, Microsoft acquired Yammer for $1.2 billion as a core part of its cloud/social strategy.[32]
Zenefits
In December 2014, Sacks made a "major investment" in Zenefits.[33] In January 2016, Zenefits' board asked him to step in as interim CEO amidst a "regulatory crisis" regarding the company's licensing compliance.[34] Over the next year, Sacks negotiated a resolution with insurance regulators across the U.S. – receiving praise for "righting the ship".[35] Sacks also revamped[36] Zenefits' product line with an initiative he named "Z2",[37][38] introducing a SaaS business model. Shortly after, PC Magazine noted that Zenefits had become "the best HR software on the market," while Buzzfeed reported the company was losing over $200 million annually.[39][40] After just 10 months in the role, Sacks was succeeded by former Ooyala CEO, Jay Fulcher.[41]
Angel investments
Sacks has been investing in technology companies for twenty years.[42] As an angel investor, his investments include Addepar, Affirm, Airbnb, Clutter, Eventbrite, Facebook, Gusto, Houzz, Intercom, Mixpanel, Opendoor, Palantir Technologies, PayPal, Postmates, ResearchGate, Rumble, Scribd, Slack, SpaceX, SurveyMonkey, ThirdLove, Uber and Wish.[8]
Craft Ventures
In late 2017, Sacks co-founded Craft Ventures and raised an initial fund of $350 million.[43] Craft raised $1.1B in 2021, which brought total assets under management to $2B, according to a Medium post published by the company.[44] Unicorns in Craft Ventures Fund I and Fund II include Bird,[45] BitGo,[citation needed] ClickUp,[46][47] Pipe,[48] Reddit,[49] SourceGraph,[50] and SpaceX.[51][43]
Glue
In 2021, Sacks and his former colleague from Craft, Evan Owen, co-founded workspace chat company called Glue. Their product is an AI tool that could be invoked from specific chats on platforms like Google Meet and Zoom, allowing employees to get AI assistance during conversations. It was launched to the public in May 2024.[52][53]
Political views
According to The New Republic, "Sacks is using his wealth and online clout to unite conservatives and former leftists in a reactionary movement against liberalism".[54]
The Diversity Myth
After graduating from Stanford, Sacks co-authored with Peter Thiel the 1995 book The Diversity Myth: Multiculturalism and the Politics of Intolerance at Stanford, published by the Independent Institute.[55] The book is critical of political correctness in higher education and argues that more intellectual diversity is needed on college campuses.[55] The following year, writing for Stanford Magazine, he argued against affirmative action in the United States, saying that it had hurt the "disadvantaged", not helped them, and had led to increased segregation at Stanford University in the name of "diversity".[56]
Support for political campaigns
According to the Federal Election Commission, Sacks donated $50,000 to Republican Party candidate Mitt Romney's presidential campaign in 2012. In 2016, he donated nearly $70,000 to Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.[57]
In the 2022 San Francisco Board of Education recall elections of members Collins, Moliga, and Lopez, Sacks gave one of the largest contributions to support the recall.[58][59] He is also a significant booster of Republican candidates, sponsoring a spring 2022 fundraiser for GOP senate hopefuls including J. D. Vance and Blake Masters alongside his former colleague and partner Keith Rabois.[60] In total, Sacks directly gave over $1,000,000 to Senate candidates in 2022.[61]
On May 24, 2023, Sacks was the moderator when Ron DeSantis announced his 2024 presidential campaign on Twitter Spaces. He praised DeSantis and donated $50,000 to his campaign.[62] Later in June 2023, Sacks hosted a $10,000/plate fundraiser for Robert F. Kennedy Jr.[63]
On June 6, 2024, he posted "Why I’m Backing President Trump" via X. He cited 4 reasons, concluding that Donald Trump "is the President who deserves a second term." He also hosted a campaign fundraiser at his home for Trump that evening, reportedly with some guests paying up to $300,000 to attend.[64][65][66]
Russian invasion of Ukraine
Since October 2022, David Sacks has been increasingly commenting on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, typically taking an anti-US involvement in Ukraine, and especially US military funding for Ukraine.[67] Some of his claims include the "US dispatching an Army General to assume de-facto command of the Ukrainian Army".[68] In an article for Newsweek, Sacks argued that continued military support for Ukraine could lead to “Woke War III”.[69] Sacks' posts on X are often countered by the platform's Community Notes, which he believes are subject to being "gamed by the Ukrainian info war op" against him.
Silicon Valley Bank bank run
During the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) bank run in March 2023, Sacks advocated for urgent government action to guarantee the deposits of SVB customers. He faced backlash from some who criticized that the very people who eviscerated banking regulations now seek to be shielded from the catastrophe they caused.[70]
Personal life
On July 7, 2007, Sacks married Jacqueline Tortorice.[71] The couple have two daughters and one son.[13]
References
External links
- David O. Sacks at IMDb
- David Sacks on X
Interviews
- "The Way I Work". Inc. November 2011.
- "Why The PayPal 'Mafia' Was So Great: Yammer CEO David Sacks Explains". Business Insider. November 25, 2011.
- "Meet the Boss". San Francisco Chronicle. February 22, 2012.
- "Game Changers". Time. March 30, 2012.
- "VV Show #34 - David O. Sacks, Co-Founder of PayPal and Producer of Thank You For Smoking". Venture Voice. Archived from the original on August 9, 2022. Retrieved September 29, 2006.
- "The Truth About the Big Tech Cartel & Parler, David Sacks on The Rubin Report". Archived from the original on December 19, 2021.