David O. Sacks
| |
|---|---|
Sacks in February 2011.
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| Born |
David Oliver Sacks
May 25, 1972
Cape Town, South Africa
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| Education | Stanford University and University of Chicago Law School |
| Occupation | Tech entrepreneur / investor |
| Known for | Former CEO of Zenefits, Former COO of PayPal and CEO of Yammer |
| Spouse(s) |
Jacqueline Tortorice (m. 2007)
|
| Children | 3 |
David Oliver Sacks (born May 25, 1972) is an entrepreneur and investor in internet technology firms. He is general partner of Craft Ventures, a venture capital fund he co-founded in late 2017. Previously, Sacks was the founding COO and product leader of PayPal (acquired by eBay in 2002 for $1.5 billion) and Founder/CEO of Yammer (acquired by Microsoft in 2012 for $1.2 billion). In 2016, he led the turnaround of Zenefits as interim CEO. In 2017, Sacks co-founded blockchain startup Harbor as an incubation of Craft Ventures. His angel investments include Facebook, Uber, SpaceX, Palantir Technologies, Airbnb and Houzz.
Early life and education
Sacks was born in Cape Town, South Africa, and immigrated to Tennessee with his family when he was 5.
Though Sacks didn't know he wanted to be an entrepreneur, he did not
want to work a profession like his father, who was an endocrinologist.
However, he took inspiration from his grandfather, who started a candy
factory in the 1920s.
Sacks graduated from Stanford University in 1994 and the University of Chicago Law School in 1998.
Career
PayPal
In 1999, Sacks left his job as a management consultant for McKinsey & Company to join e-commerce service PayPal.
As PayPal's COO and product leader, 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.
During his tenure, PayPal grew payment volume from zero to $500 million/month and revenue from zero to $240 million/year. The company introduced business accounts, and expanded into multiple currencies and over 80 countries.
In February 2002, PayPal
went public, it was one of the first IPOs after the September 11, 2001
attacks (ABCO went Public in November 2001). The stock rose more than
54% that first day and closed at $20.09. In October 2002, eBay acquired PayPal for $1.5 billion.
Sacks is a member of the "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 for the re-emergence of consumer-focused
Internet companies after the dot com bust of 2001.
Thank You for Smoking
Following PayPal’s acquisition, Sacks produced and financed the hit movie Thank You For Smoking through his independent production company, Room 9 Entertainment.
Based on Christopher Buckley’s
acclaimed 1994 novel of the same title and adapted for the screen by
director Jason Reitman, Thank You for Smoking is a satirical look at
today's culture of spin. The all-star cast includes Aaron Eckhart, William H. Macy, Sam Elliott, Rob Lowe, Maria Bello, Katie Holmes, Adam Brody, and Robert Duvall.
Thank You for Smoking was nominated for 2 Golden Globes in 2007 for Best Picture and Best Actor in the Comedy/Musical category. The movie also won: Best Screenplay at the Independent Spirit Awards, Audience Awards at both the Munich and Norwegian Film Festivals, Best First Feature at the Toronto Film Critics Association Awards,
Best Adapted Screenplay at the Washington DC Film Critics Association
Awards and the San Diego Film Critics Association Awards, and Top Films
of the Year at the New York Film Critics Online.
Geni.com
In 2006, Sacks founded Geni.com,
a genealogy website that enables family members to collaboratively
build an online family tree. At Geni, he wanted more visibility into
what was going on across the organization, so the team created a
productivity tool to help employees share information. In 2008, Sacks
and co-founder Adam Pisoni spun this internal communications tool into a
standalone company called Yammer. Geni was acquired by MyHeritage in 2012.
Yammer
In 2008,
Yammer launched the first Enterprise Social Network, a secure solution
for internal corporate communication and collaboration, winning the grand prize at TechCrunch50 conference. According to Social Capital,
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.
In July 2012, Microsoft acquired Yammer for $1.2 billion as a core part of its cloud/social strategy. As of May 2018, employees at over 90,000 businesses worldwide use Yammer, including 85% of the Fortune 500 and a significant amount of the Global 2000.
Zenefits
In December 2014, Sacks became a shareholder in Zenefits, making a “major investment,” according to VentureBeat.
In January 2016, Zenefits’ Board asked him to step in as interim CEO
amidst a "regulatory crisis" regarding the company's licensing
compliance.
Over the next year, Sacks negotiated a resolution with insurance
regulators across the U.S. – receiving praise for “righting the ship.” Sacks also revamped Zenefits’ product line with an initiative he named “Z2,” introducing a SaaS business model. Shortly after, PC Magazine would note Zenefits had become “the best HR software on the market.” After a CEO search, Sacks handed the reigns to former Ooyala CEO, Jay Fulcher.
Harbor
In 2017, Sacks incubated a new startup called Harbor to enable the compliant issuance of private securities on the blockchain.
As founding chairman, he brought together a team of former executives
who had worked with him at Yammer and Zenefits to lead the new company.
Investor
Sacks has been investing in technology companies for twenty years. As an angel investor, his investments include Addepar, Affirm, Airbnb, Clutter, Eventbrite, Facebook, Gusto, Houzz, Intercom, Mixpanel, Opendoor, Palantir Technologies, PayPal, Postmates, ResearchGate, Scribd, Slack, SpaceX, SurveyMonkey, ThirdLove, Uber and Wish.
In late 2017, Sacks co-founded Craft Ventures.
It raised an initial fund of $350 million and has invested in companies
including Bird, Bitgo, Cloud9, CloudKitchens, Harbor, Lightning Labs,
Multicoin Capital, and SpaceX.
The Diversity Myth
In college, Sacks was the co-author – with Peter Thiel – of the 1995 book The Diversity Myth: 'Multiculturalism' and the Politics of Intolerance at Stanford, published by The Independent Institute. The book is critical of political correctness in higher education and the consequent dilution of academic rigor. In 2016, Sacks apologized for some of his college writings.
Awards and recognition
- San Francisco Business Times 40 Under 40, David Sacks (2012)
- Workforce Management Game Changers Award, David Sacks (2011)
- San Francisco Business Times Bay Area’s Most Admired CEOs (2011)
Personal life
Born in Cape Town, South Africa, Sacks immigrated with his family to the United States when he was 5 years old.
Sacks attended Memphis University School in Memphis, Tennessee. He earned his B.A. in Economics from Stanford University in 1994 and received a J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School in 1998.
On July 7, 2007, Sacks married Jacqueline Tortorice. The couple has two daughters and one son.
