Silicon Valley used to take a backseat to Washington, D.C. However now, the individuals disrupting know-how have taken the wheel on the highest echelons of presidency. And that’s thanks, in large part, to the Department of Government Efficiency, higher often known as DOGE.
A lot reporting on DOGE has centered on its staffers’ ties to Musk, the billionaire bestie of President Donald Trump. Nevertheless, there’s one other main nexus: the Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and traders who’ve joined its clarion name of slashing authorities spending.
TechCrunch has compiled a complete checklist of the founders and VCs who’ve labored with DOGE, recognized via a mixture of private declarations, courtroom information, and different reporting. Our analysis additionally reveals one beforehand unreported DOGE member, Mike Gonzalez, the previous founding father of an HR startup referred to as TraceHQ.
And Gonzalez is way from the one Silicon Valley founder to discover a new position in public service. Our roster of founders-turned-DOGE staff spans from the co-founder of Airbnb to a man who bought his startup for practically $1 billion — solely to affix DOGE to discover a increased that means after breaking apart together with his girlfriend.
Then there are the VCs. This contingent contains Silicon Valley titan Marc Andreessen — a self-described “unpaid intern” at DOGE — and one man who spent seven years working for Thiel Capital earlier than becoming a member of the highest ranges of presidency.
No matter how you are feeling about DOGE, there’s no query that Silicon Valley’s affect on the federal authorities is stronger than ever. To search out out who’s shaping that future, learn on.
Founders
Nate Cavanaugh
Cavanaugh is the co-founder of two startups: Brainbase, an enterprise SaaS enterprise which he sold in 2022, and FlowFi, which raised $9 million last year to construct a market of finance consultants for entrepreneurs.
He’s a part of a DOGE staff tasked with auditing — some would say dismantling — the USADF and IAF, two U.S. authorities companies that fund growth initiatives in Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean, in accordance to a lawsuit from USADF president Ward Brehm.
Though Cavanaugh has no public historical past of political actions, he appears to Trump backer Peter Thiel for “so much” of his serious about the world and enterprise, he said in an interview with VC agency Differential Ventures.
Stephen Ehikian
Ehikian has sold two companies to Salesforce: Airkit.ai in 2023 and RelateIQ in 2014. Ehikian labored in product at Salesforce twice after the acquisition of his firms, most recently serving as VP of AI merchandise.
Trump appointed Ehikian as performing administrator and deputy administrator of GSA in January. This company is the cornerstone of buying contracts for the federal authorities.
In his position, Ehikian manages GSA’s actual property portfolio and doles out authorities contracts for know-how. He has said that the GSA would terminate leases and lower consulting contracts, and has been firing GSA employees.
California Senator Alex Padilla and New York Congressman Joseph Morelle wrote a letter in March to Ehikian, opposing his work with DOGE on such issues.
Justin Fulcher
Fulcher is the founding father of RingMD, a Singapore-based telehealth startup. Fulcher made headlines in 2013 after the federal government of Singapore funded RingMD with $500,000 when he was solely 21.
Regardless of increasing to a number of nations in Asia, RingMD has since gone bankrupt, according to Forbes.
Fulcher, now 32, was put in by DOGE to supervise reforms on the Veterans Administration (VA), which cut 1,000 staff quickly after DOGE’s arrival.
Joe Gebbia
Gebbia is the billionaire co-founder of Airbnb and Samara, a pre-fab tiny dwelling startup that raised $41 million in 2023. He’s additionally a private buddy of Elon Musk, who had been deliberating shopping for one in every of Samara’s tiny properties final yr, in keeping with Tesla filings.
At DOGE, Gebbia will work as a volunteer within the Workplace of Personnel Administration, he confirmed in a post on X after his involvement was reported by The New York Times. “My first venture at DOGE is enhancing the sluggish and paper-based retirement course of,” Gebbia wrote.
Gebbia is a longtime Democratic donor, however stated he voted for Trump in 2024 and helps Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the brand new well being secretary.
Mike Gonzalez
Gonzalez based HR startup TraceHQ in 2019 and sold it to Paylocity in 2023 for an undisclosed sum. Gonzalez says on his web site that he began his profession as a Fb product supervisor and labored at Zenefits with David Sacks when he was CEO there, all earlier than launching his personal firm.
VC Sacks has joined the Trump administration as its crypto and AI czar. Gonzalez was engaged on the finance staff once they labored collectively at Zenefits.
Gonzalez’s LinkedIn profile beforehand talked about that he joined DOGE full-time earlier this month as a “Senior Advisor” on the U.S. Workplace of Personnel Administration. Shortly after TechCrunch reached out to Gonzalez for remark, the point out of DOGE was faraway from his LinkedIn profile.
Gonzalez has not stated what he’s doing at OPM. However in February he wrote a post on LinkedIn lamenting the state and strategy of the federal price range.
Vinay Hiremath
Hiremath is the co-founder of video recording startup Loom, which was sold to Atlassian in 2023 for $975 million.
In response to a blog post on his private web site titled “I’m wealthy and do not know what to do with my life,” Hiremath says that after breaking apart together with his girlfriend, he determined to “externalize” his feelings by climbing a mountain within the Himalayas. After that, he determined to work for DOGE.
His stint at DOGE lasted a couple of month and concerned making a whole lot of recruiting calls. Hiremath wrote that he was added to Sign teams run by DOGE and “instantly put to work.”
Hiremath praised DOGE’s work as “extraordinarily essential,” however stated he give up the job as he wanted to give attention to himself. He referred to as off plans to maneuver to Washington, D.C. and went to Hawaii as a substitute, his publish states.
Brooks Morgan
Morgan is the co-founder and former CEO of an Austin-based edtech startup referred to as Podium Training, a press release from final yr reveals, though he isn’t at the moment listed as a frontrunner on the corporate’s website.
His social media presence is extraordinarily minimal however he has reportedly been concerned in edtech for effectively over a decade, beforehand working for a long-since acquired firm that supplied a Fb app for faculties.
Morgan is alleged to be concerned in DOGE’s efforts on the Training Division, particularly round efforts to enhance — maybe substitute — a number of the staff there with AI, The New York Times reports.
Kyle Schutt
Schutt is listed by Crunchbase as a co-founder of a Virginia-based software program firm referred to as KAMM, which state information say has been inactive as of late November 2024.
Schutt has additionally labored on WinRed, WIRED reports, a for-profit fundraising web site that says it’s helped increase $1.8 billion for Republican get together candidates since 2023. He additionally served because the CTO at online fundraising platform REVV, additionally utilized by the Republican get together.
He’s a member of DOGE and is now on workers on the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Safety Company, in keeping with an inside workers listing viewed by Politico. He was beforehand on the GSA. He is said to have access to FEMA methods and to have labored for an organization referred to as Outburst Knowledge which hosts a number of Musk-related websites, and hosts components of the DOGE web site.
Ethan Shaotran
Shaotran was beforehand the founding father of Energize.ai, although its web site now not hundreds. He additionally developed a number of iPhone apps, together with a Donald Trump-themed working recreation referred to as “Donald Sprint.”
In 2024, Shaotran told Business Insider that he was a 22-year-old Harvard pc science pupil working solo on his startup, which supplied an AI scheduling assistant and had landed a $100,000 grant from OpenAI.
Shaotran was one in every of a number of DOGE workers named in a lawsuit by federal workers that sought to forestall DOGE staff from accessing federal information, though he was not a defendant.
Shaotran reportedly has a working GSA e-mail handle and requested entry to a decade’s value of GSA information. Shaotran additionally has entry to e-mail methods on the Division of Training and entry to the division’s back-end web site, NBC reported.
Brad Smith
Smith is a longtime healthcare entrepreneur who co-founded the palliative care firm Aspire Well being (later acquired by Anthem) and co-founded CareBridge, which supplies at-home service to Medicaid sufferers (and is said to have struck a deal with Elevance Well being to promote for $2.7 billion).
He additionally co-founded healthcare VC agency Russell Avenue Ventures and served as CEO of Essential Avenue Well being, which provides major care companies to these in rural areas.
Smith led the Heart for Medicare & Medicaid Innovation throughout President Trump’s first time period. He’s stated to be one of many leaders of DOGE, alongside shut Musk ally Steve Davis.
As ABC Information reported, Smith has been an advocate for privatizing facets of Medicaid and Medicare. At DOGE, Smith has requested entry to the payment systems at Medicare, in keeping with The New York Instances.
Jordan Wick
Wick is the co-founder of Y Combinator startup Intercept. He additionally labored as an engineer at Alphabet’s self-driving automobile firm Waymo, he told a podcast in 2024.
He’s among the many DOGE staffers granted in depth entry to the Shopper Monetary Safety Bureau’s information, in keeping with a lawsuit from former USAID contractors which names him (however not as a defendant).
Wick graduated from MIT with a level in pc science in 2019 and likewise has a grasp’s diploma from there, in keeping with an archived version of his web site. He additionally worked at YC-backed logistics startup Flexport.
Enterprise Capitalists
Baris Akis
Akis is a co-founder and president of Silicon Valley VC agency Human Capital.
He reportedly led inquiries into the Treasury Division’s funds methods, The New York Instances reported. He was also named in a lawsuit about DOGE’s legality, though not as a defendant.
Akis is the second hyperlink to DOGE from Human Capital. The VC agency’s former head of expertise, Amanda Scales, is now chief of staff on the highly effective Workplace of Personnel Administration, the federal authorities’s HR division.
Marc Andreessen
Andreessen is the co-founder of outstanding VC agency Andreessen Horowitz. He famously backed Trump for president in 2024, regardless of previously endorsing Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Andreessen described himself as an “unpaid intern” for DOGE in a podcast with the Hoover Institution earlier this yr, reportedly serving to recruit for DOGE’s early hires, the FT reported.
Within the Hoover Establishment podcast, Andreessen described former a16z managing associate Scott Kupor — and incoming OPM head — as “very aligned” with DOGE’s mission.
Antonio Gracias
Gracias is the founder and CEO of Valor Fairness Companions, and a longtime close associate of Elon Musk. Valor has invested in a who’s who of buzzy startups (together with Anduril, Dataminr, Eight Sleep, and Reddit) however is especially identified for backing Musk firms like SpaceX, Neuralink, SolarCity, The Boring Firm, and Tesla.
Gracias is effectively often known as a Tesla board member from 2007 to 2021, on the board previous to its IPO in addition to when Tesla bought the Musk-controlled company SolarCity for $2.6 billion.
On a February episode of the VC All-In Podcast, Gracias stated that he was working with DOGE. “I’m not there full-time,” he stated. “I’m out and in a bit bit and making an attempt to assist the place I can.” He additionally talked about that DOGE had 80-plus full-time individuals at the moment.
He’s apparently now working with DOGE’s efforts on the Social Safety Administration, The New York Instances reported, and is one in every of 9 DOGE associates there. Different Valor workers are additionally a part of the Social Safety crew, the NYT studies.
Michael Kratsios
Till lately, Michael Kratsios served as managing director at Scale AI, the info labeling startup that began working with the Pentagon final yr to check and consider AI instruments for the navy.
From 2010 to 2017, Kratsios labored for Thiel Capital, the workplace that manages VC Peter Thiel’s many investments, per his LinkedIn; Thiel was one in every of Trump’s early backers in 2016. Kratsios also served as CTO of the U.S. throughout Trump’s first administration.
Kratsios helped lead efforts to workers DOGE in late 2024 by conducting interviews of potential workers, Bloomberg reported.
He’s Trump’s pick to steer the Workplace of Science and Know-how Coverage. Throughout his confirmation hearing, Kratsios responded to questions on mass firings of federal staff by saying he believes it’s affordable for the present administration to guage present expertise.
Scott Kupor
Kupor is a managing associate at VC agency Andreessen Horowitz, and was a16z’s first worker. He serves on the boards of a variety of a16z investments. He’s additionally a former chairman of the Nationwide Enterprise Capital Affiliation — the VC trade’s lobbying group.
Trump announced in December 2024 that he picked Kupor to function the director of the Workplace of Personnel Administration. The identical day, Kupor confirmed that he was serving to DOGE.
Because the federal authorities’s HR division, the OPM has grow to be floor zero for DOGE’s mission to slash the federal workforce. DOGE staff are utilizing OPM’s information and pc methods to acquire details about federal staff throughout companies, in keeping with a CNN report.
Shaun Maguire
Maguire is a associate at Sequoia Capital and previously co-founded cyber agency Expanse, which was sold to Palo Alto Networks for $800 million in 2020.
Maguire has reportedly helped display screen potential candidates for DOGE. He’s a frequent and vocal supporter of DOGE on X.
Maguire is an outspoken supporter of President Trump, and announced that he donated $300,000 to his marketing campaign final summer season.
Adam Ramada
Ramada was beforehand a managing director at SpringTide Capital, the place he was a part of a $12 million deal to fund the probiotic drink company ZBiotics. His agency also invested in a SpaceX provider final yr.
He was recognized as a member of DOGE in a temporary restraining order after the American Federation of Lecturers sought to dam DOGE’s entry to privileged info. The restraining order was later denied by a federal choose.
In a signed declaration, Ramada stated he began working for DOGE in January, assigned to audit contracts and applications on the Division of Training for waste, similar to federal pupil loans. President Trump, a critic of the Division of Training, recently signed an govt order to begin its closure very quickly.
In another declaration, Ramada, who can be listed as a GSA employee, stated he was assigned to the Labor Division, too, to “enhance its info know-how and information group system.”
Amanda Scales
Scales labored for 2 and half years at Silicon Valley VC agency Human Capital, advising the agency’s portfolio firms on expertise and HR, in keeping with her her LinkedIn profile. Her boss at Human Capital, its co-founder Baris Akis, served as a DOGE advisor.
Scales is now chief of workers on the Workplace of Personnel Administration, the federal authorities’s highly effective human assets division, in keeping with an OPM memo.
Scales beforehand labored on expertise at Uber earlier than becoming a member of Human Capital, in keeping with her LinkedIn.