David Sacks

Who they are

David Sacks is the White House AI & Crypto Czar — PayPal's founding COO, founder of Yammer (sold to Microsoft for $1.2 billion), and co-founder of Glue, an AI workspace chat tool.

Person

David Sacks earned a BA in Economics from Stanford in 1994, then a JD from the University of Chicago Law School in 1998 — he briefly did management consulting at McKinsey before landing at Confinity as founding COO, helping build what became PayPal. After PayPal he founded Geni.com in 2006, a genealogy platform with a social-media twist, then spun out Yammer in 2008 from Geni's internal tooling — Microsoft acquired it for $1.2 billion in 2013. He stepped in as interim CEO at Zenefits in 2016 during its compliance crisis, then co-founded Craft Ventures in 2017, a VC firm built around PayPal Mafia–era operators and repeat unicorn founders. Companies and projects he's started include: Geni.com (genealogy platform), Yammer (enterprise social network, acquired), Craft Ventures (VC firm), Callin (social podcasting platform), and Glue (AI workspace chat tool co-founded with Evan Owen, publicly launched May 2024). He writes at davidsacks.medium.com on SaaS metrics, startup scaling, and unit economics — his essay 'The Cadence' on operating a SaaS startup became a widely cited framework — and has spoken at SaaStr multiple times on org design and growth. The through-line is product-minded operator who builds communication infrastructure, then codifies what he learned into frameworks other founders use.

Company

CFR launched its Future of American Strategy Initiative on May 20, 2026 — the most recent major programmatic move from the organization. Earlier in 2026 it hosted a Securing Ukraine's Future Symposium and released a Task Force Report on U.S. Economic Security focused on accelerating the U.S. lead in tech competition with China, a direct overlap with Sacks's current White House portfolio. CFR also published its Annual Report 2025 and hosted its Council of Councils Fifteenth Annual Conference, signaling continued institutional activity across its research and member-engagement programs. The Business and Geopolitics Initiative remains a core platform connecting over 120 global corporate members with CFR's geopolitical analysis.

Market

CFR is the leading U.S. foreign policy think tank, founded in 1921, with over 5,000 members, more than 70 fellows, and headquarters in New York with offices in Washington, D.C. Its flagship outputs — Foreign Affairs magazine, CFR.org, and an expanding suite of task force reports — compete for influence with institutions like Brookings, CSIS, and the Carnegie Endowment. AI's impact on the global balance of power and intensifying U.S.-China tech competition are driving the sharpest growth in demand for CFR's research right now.

Network

Sacks's closest recurring collaborators are his three All-In podcast co-hosts — Chamath Palihapitiya, Jason Calacanis, and David Friedberg — a forum he's used to shape technology and policy narratives at scale. At Craft Ventures he co-founded the firm with Bill Lee in 2017, and at Glue he co-founded the company with Evan Owen. His longer-running anchor relationship is with Peter Thiel, with whom he co-authored 'The Diversity Myth' in 1995 and has remained associated through the PayPal Mafia network.

Chamath Palihapitiya· Co-host, All-In Podcast
Jason Calacanis· Co-host, All-In Podcast
David Friedberg· Co-host, All-In Podcast
Bill Lee· Co-founder, Craft Ventures
Evan Owen· Co-founder, Glue
Peter Thiel· Co-author, 'The Diversity Myth'; PayPal Mafia associate

How they likely show up

Hybrid role-type pattern across operator, founder, investor, and now government czar → he doesn't stay in one lane; expect him to hold simultaneous views at each layer simultaneously.
Authored 'The Cadence' and speaks regularly at SaaStr on SaaS org design → he thinks in frameworks and will appreciate structured, precise arguments over anecdote-heavy pitches.
Five founded companies across communications infrastructure (Yammer, Glue, Callin) → he returns repeatedly to the same problem space; he's a thesis-driven builder, not an opportunist.
All-In Podcast co-host with a large public platform → comfortable being visible and opinionated; he will engage frankly and expects the same in return.
Moved from PayPal operator to founder to VC to White House czar → each move has been a deliberate escalation of surface area; he values influence over stability.
Public writing signal rated 'thought-leader' — Medium blog, Foreign Policy Research Institute contributions, CFR podcasts on Taiwan → he separates his SaaS-operator persona from his foreign-policy analyst persona; know which one you're talking to.

Conversation tips

→ Know which David Sacks you're meeting — the SaaS operator who wrote 'The Cadence' or the foreign-policy analyst who writes on U.S.-Taiwan relations. They're the same person but he'll engage differently depending on which thread you pull.
→ Reference a specific essay or framework — 'The Cadence,' the SaaS org chart by series, or his CFR work on Taiwan — to signal you've actually read his output, not just his Wikipedia page.
→ If you want to discuss Glue, frame it around the problem (Slack channel fatigue, AI in meetings) rather than the product — he built it from a thesis, not a roadmap.
→ He has a CFR background and a White House role simultaneously; don't conflate his policy views with CFR's institutional positions — he holds his own strong views independently.
→ He responds to precision: specific numbers, named frameworks, concrete policy proposals. Vague questions about 'the future of AI' will land flat.

Toolbox

Openers

Open on Glue — he co-founded an AI workspace chat tool specifically to solve Slack channel fatigue, publicly launched in May 2024 with Evan Owen. It's a pointed product bet from someone who built Yammer, and it signals what he thinks is still broken in enterprise communication.
Mention 'The Cadence' — his Medium essay on operating a SaaS startup became one of the most-cited frameworks in SaaStr circles. It's his own intellectual property and a direct entry point into how he thinks about building companies.
Reference CFR's May 2026 Future of American Strategy Initiative launch alongside his White House AI & Crypto Czar role — the overlap between his government mandate and CFR's new initiative is a live, specific tension worth exploring.

Discovery questions

You built Yammer as an enterprise communication layer, and now Glue is another bet on the same problem with AI — what did Yammer teach you about why enterprise chat keeps failing?
Your CFR work on U.S.-Taiwan relations and your White House AI portfolio now overlap directly — how do you think about AI's role in the cross-strait balance of power in practice, not just in theory?
You've written extensively on SaaS cadence and unit economics from the operator side, then invested in the space at Craft Ventures — what do most founders get wrong when they try to apply your frameworks?

Avoid

Don't treat his government role as his whole identity — he has active companies (Glue), a VC firm (Craft Ventures), a major podcast (All-In), and a forthcoming book on Hans Morgenthau; leading only with 'AI Czar' signals you haven't done the reading.

Make it yours