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David SacksEntrepreneur, Author and Investor
Date of Birth: 25.05.1972
Country:  USA |
Content:
- Early Life and Education
- PayPal Career
- Film Producer
- Geni.com and Yammer
- Yammer
- Zenefits
- Angel Investing
- Craft Ventures
- Glue
- The Diversity Myth
- Political Campaign Support
- Recent Political Activity
- Personal Life
Early Life and Education
David Sacks was born into a Jewish family in Cape Town, South Africa, and immigrated to Tennessee, USA, with his family when he was five. Although Sacks did not know he wanted to be an entrepreneur, he did not want to work in a profession like his father, who was an endocrinologist. He drew inspiration from his grandfather, who had started a confectionery factory in the 1920s. Sacks attended the University of Memphis School in Memphis, Tennessee. He received a BA in Economics from Stanford University in 1994 and a JD from the University of Chicago Law School in 1998.
PayPal Career
In 1999, Sacks left his job as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company to join Max Levchin, Peter Thiel, and Luke Nosek's e-commerce startup Confinity. Later that year, Sacks became the first product lead of Confinity's landmark product and PayPal's corporate successor. After rising to the rank of COO of Paypal, he formed 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. PayPal had its 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. In October 2002, eBay acquired PayPal for $1.5 billion. 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 number of other successful technology companies. They are often credited with inspiring Web 2.0 and reviving consumer-focused internet companies after the dot-com crash of 2001.
Film Producer
After the acquisition of PayPal, 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 Globe Awards, including "Best Motion Picture--Musical or Comedy."
Sacks developed and produced the 2023 biographical drama "DaliLand" about artist Salvador Dali. "DaliLand" premiered at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival and was acquired by Magnolia Pictures for theatrical release in 2023.
Geni.com and Yammer
In 2006, Sacks founded Geni.com, a genealogy website. In 2008, Sacks and co-founder Adam Pisoni spun out its internal communications tool into a separate company called Yammer. Geni was acquired by MyHeritage in 2012.
Yammer
In 2008, Yammer launched its early corporate social network, a secure solution for internal corporate communication and collaboration, winning the top prize at the TechCrunch50 conference. According to Social Capital, Yammer's viral approach made it one of the fastest-growing software-as-a-service (SaaS) companies in history, exceeding eight million corporate users in only four years. Yammer received approximately US$142 million in funding from venture capital firms, including Charles River Ventures, Founders Fund, Emergence Capital Partners, and Goldcrest Investments.
Zenefits
In December 2014, Sacks made a "significant investment" in Zenefits. In January 2016, the Zenefits board of directors asked him to step in as interim CEO amidst "regulatory turmoil" regarding the company's compliance with licensing requirements. Over the next year, Sacks negotiated resolutions with insurance regulators across the United States, receiving praise for "right[ing] the ship." Sacks also revamped Zenefits' product line, rolling out an initiative he called "Z2", introducing a SaaS business model. Soon after, PC Magazine noted that Zenefits had become "the best HR software on the market," while Buzzfeed reported that the company was losing over $200 million a year. After only ten months in the position, Sacks was succeeded as CEO by former Ooyala CEO Jay Fulcher.
Angel Investing
Sacks has been investing in technology companies for over two decades. As an angel investor, his investments have included Addepar, Affirm, Airbnb, Clutter, Eventbrite, Facebook, Gusto, Houzz, Intercom, Mixpanel, Opendoor, Palantir Technologies, PayPal, Postmate, ResearchGate, Rumble, Scribd, Slack, SpaceX, SurveyMonkey, ThirdLove, Uber, and Wish.
Craft Ventures
In late 2017, Sacks co-founded Craft Ventures and raised an initial fund of $350 million. According to a Medium post published by the firm in 2021, Craft raised $1.1 billion, bringing its total assets under management to $2 billion. Unicorns in Craft Ventures Fund I and Fund II include Bird, BitGo, ClickUp, Pipe, Reddit, SourceGraph, and SpaceX.
Glue
In 2021, Sacks and former Craft colleague Evan Owen co-founded workplace chat company Glue. Their product is an AI-powered tool that can be summoned from within certain chats on platforms like Google.
The Diversity Myth
After graduating from Stanford, Sacks co-authored the book "The Diversity Myth: Multiculturalism and the Politics of Intolerance at Stanford" with Peter Thiel in 1995, published by the Independent Institute. The book criticizes political correctness in higher education and argues for greater intellectual diversity on university campuses. Writing for Stanford Magazine the following year, he argued against affirmative action in the United States, stating that it had harmed rather than helped "the disadvantaged" and led to increased segregation at Stanford in the name of "diversity."
Political Campaign Support
According to the Federal Election Commission, Sacks donated $50,000 to Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's 2012 campaign. In 2016, he donated nearly $70,000 to Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's campaign.
Recent Political Activity
In 2022, Sacks was involved in supporting the recall of three San Francisco school board members. He has also been active in supporting Republican candidates, co-hosting a fundraiser for Republican Senate candidates including J. D. Vance and Blake Masters in spring 2022 with his former colleague and partner Keith Rabois. In total, Sacks directly gave Senate candidates over $1,000,000 in 2022.
Personal Life
Sacks married Jacqueline Tortorici on July 7, 2007. The couple has two daughters and a son.
