大卫·奥利弗·萨克斯（英语：David Oliver Sacks；1972年5月25日—）[1]是南非裔美国企业家、作家和网络公司的投资者。他是创投公司Craft Ventures的普通合伙人，在这之前，他则是PayPal的营运长和产品主管[2]（2002年被EBay以15亿美元收购[3]），以及Yammer的创始人兼CEO（2012年被微软用12亿美元收购）[4]。2016年，他作为Zenefits的CEO领导着这家公司命运转变的关键点[5]；2017年，他参与共同创立Craft Ventures[6]，此时这家公司还是一个早期的创投公司。他的天使投资人包括Facebook、Uber、SpaceX、Palantir Technologies和Airbnb[7][8][9]。他还是电台节目All In的联合主持人。[10]
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2024年12月，他被时任美国总统当选人唐纳德·特朗普宣布即将出任第二次特朗普政府的新职务“AI和加密货币沙皇”[11]。
早年经历和学业
萨克斯出生于南非开普敦，五岁时举家移民至田纳西州[12] 。萨克斯并不想和他的父亲一样成为一名内分泌学家；他从祖父身上获得灵感，而他的祖父则于1920年代以一间糖果工厂起家[13]。
萨克斯进入了位于孟菲斯的孟菲斯大学学院就读。1994年他于斯坦福大学攻读经济学并获得文学学士学位[14]，并于1998年自芝加哥大学法学院取得法律博士学位。[15][16][17]
个人生活
萨克斯于2007年7月7日与妻子杰奎琳·托托里斯（Jacqueline Tortorice）结婚[18]。夫妻两人共同育有两个女儿和一个儿子[19]。
职业生涯
PayPal
In 1999, Sacks left his job as a management consultant for McKinsey & Company to join e-commerce service PayPal, which had been co-founded the year before by Max Levchin and Peter Thiel.[1] 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.[20]
During his tenure, PayPal grew payment volume from zero to $3.5 billion per year and revenue from zero to over $100 million in 2001.[21] The company introduced business accounts, and expanded into multiple currencies and over 80 countries.
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.[22] In October 2002, eBay acquired PayPal for $1.5 billion.[23]
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 for the re-emergence of consumer-focused Internet companies after the dot com bust of 2001.[24][25]
Thank You for Smoking
Following PayPal's acquisition, Sacks produced and financed the movie Thank You for Smoking through his independent production company, Room 9 Entertainment.[1]
Based on Christopher Buckley's 1994 novel of the same title and adapted for the screen by director Jason Reitman, Thank You for Smoking is a satirical look at the culture of spin. The cast included Aaron Eckhart, William H. Macy, Sam Elliott, Rob Lowe, Maria Bello, Katie Holmes, Adam Brody, and Robert Duvall.[26]
Thank You for Smoking was nominated for two 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.[27][28]
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.[29] Geni was acquired by MyHeritage in 2012.[30]
Yammer
In 2008, Yammer launched the first Enterprise Social Network, a secure solution for internal corporate communication and collaboration,[31] winning the grand prize at TechCrunch50 conference.[32] According to Social Capital,[33] 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.[34]
In July 2012, Microsoft acquired Yammer for $1.2 billion as a core part of its cloud/social strategy.[35]
Zenefits
In December 2014, Sacks made a "major investment" in Zenefits.[36] In January 2016, Zenefits' board asked him to step in as interim CEO amidst a "regulatory crisis" regarding the company's licensing compliance.[37] Over the next year, Sacks negotiated a resolution with insurance regulators across the U.S. – receiving praise for "righting the ship".[38] Sacks also revamped[39] Zenefits' product line with an initiative he named "Z2",[40][41] introducing a SaaS business model. Shortly after, PC Magazine would note Zenefits had become "the best HR software on the market".[42] Sacks was succeeded by former Ooyala CEO, Jay Fulcher.[43]
Angel investments
Sacks has been investing in technology companies for twenty years.[44] As an angel investor, his investments include Addepar, Affirm, Airbnb, Bird, Clutter, Eventbrite, Facebook, Gusto, Houzz, Intercom, Mixpanel, Opendoor, Palantir Technologies, PayPal, Postmates, ResearchGate, Scribd, Slack, SpaceX, SurveyMonkey, ThirdLove, Uber and Wish.[45]
Craft Ventures
In late 2017, Sacks co-founded Craft Ventures and raised an initial fund of $350 million.[46] Craft raised $1.1B in 2021, which brought total assets under management to $2B, according to a Medium post published by the company.[47] Unicorns in Craft Ventures Fund I and Fund II include Bird,[48] BitGo,[来源请求] ClickUp,[49] Pipe,[50] Reddit,[51] SourceGraph[52] and SpaceX.[53][46]
政治立场
萨克斯在大学时就曾与彼得·泰尔合著《多元神话：斯坦福大学的多元文化主义与不宽容政治》（The Diversity Myth: Multiculturalism and the Politics of Intolerance at Stanford）一书，由独立研究所在1995年出版[54]。该书对于美国高等教育的政治正确现象加以批判，并强调大学校园需要更多的多元智慧[54]。然而2016年时，萨克斯为书中部分章节进行道歉[55]。
根据联邦选举委员会的纪录，萨克斯曾于2012年美国总统选举时捐款50,000美元给共和党候选人米特·罗姆尼阵营。2016年，他赞助70,000美元给民主党候选人希拉莉·克林顿的竞选团队。[55]
2022年2月15日，旧金山教育委员会针对三位委员柯林斯（Collins）、莫利加（Moliga）和洛佩斯（Lopez）进行罢免，萨克斯是资助罢免案的最大贡献者[56][57]。他也是共和党的重要金主，曾与他的前同事兼合伙人凯斯·拉博伊斯为包括J·D·万斯和布雷克·马斯特斯在内的联邦参议员候选人发起2022年春季募款活动[58]。
2023年5月24日，时任佛州州长罗恩·德桑蒂斯在Twitter上宣布投入2024年美国总统选举共和党初选，萨克斯即担任其竞选活动主持人；他赞扬了德桑蒂斯并捐助50,000美元给竞选团队[59]。之后在同年6月，萨克斯为小罗伯特·法兰西斯·肯尼迪举办了要价10,000美元/盘的募款活动[60]。他也于2024年6月为唐纳德·特朗普举行了1,200万美元的募款活动，地点就在自己家[61][62]。2024年共和党全国代表大会上，他被邀请上台演说[63][64]；并最终于总统大选中投票给特朗普[65]。
自2022年10月以来，萨克斯针对俄罗斯入侵乌克兰持续发表看法，并对于美国援助乌克兰一事持反对态度，尤其是军事上的支援[66]。2024年共和党全国代表大会期间，萨克斯称“美国‘挑衅’俄罗斯导致乌克兰被入侵”，并否认是因主张不干预主义遭致党代表们的嘘声[67]。
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