大衛·奧利弗·薩克斯（英語：David Oliver Sacks；1972年5月25日—）[1]是南非裔美國企業家、作家和網路公司的投資者。他是創投公司Craft Ventures的普通合伙人，在這之前，他則是PayPal的營運長和產品主管[2]（2002年被EBay以15億美元收購[3]），以及Yammer的創始人兼CEO（2012年被微軟用12億美元收購）[4]。2016年，他作為Zenefits的CEO領導著這家公司命運轉變的關鍵點[5]；2017年，他參與共同創立Craft Ventures[6]，此時這家公司還是一個早期的創投公司。他的天使投資人包括Facebook、Uber、SpaceX、Palantir Technologies和Airbnb[7][8][9]。他還是電台節目All In的聯合主持人。[10]
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早年經歷和學業
薩克斯出生於南非開普敦，五歲時舉家移民至田納西州[12] 。薩克斯並不想和他的父親一樣成為一名內分泌學家；他從祖父身上獲得靈感，而他的祖父則於1920年代以一間糖果工廠起家[13]。
薩克斯進入了位於孟菲斯的孟菲斯大學學院就讀。1994年他於史丹佛大學攻讀經濟學並獲得文學學士學位[14]，並於1998年自芝加哥大學法學院取得法律博士學位。[15][16][17]
個人生活
薩克斯於2007年7月7日與妻子賈桂琳·托托里斯（Jacqueline Tortorice）結婚[18]。夫妻兩人共同育有兩個女兒和一個兒子[19]。
職業生涯
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,[來源請求] ClickUp,[49] Pipe,[50] Reddit,[51] SourceGraph[52] and SpaceX.[53][46]
政治立場
薩克斯在大學時就曾與彼得·泰爾合著《多元神話：史丹佛大學的多元文化主義與不寬容政治》（The Diversity Myth: Multiculturalism and the Politics of Intolerance at Stanford）一書，由獨立研究所在1995年出版[54]。該書對於美國高等教育的政治正確現象加以批判，並強調大學校園需要更多的多元智慧[54]。然而2016年時，薩克斯為書中部分章節進行道歉[55]。
根據聯邦選舉委員會的紀錄，薩克斯曾於2012年美國總統選舉時捐款50,000美元給共和黨候選人米特·羅姆尼陣營。2016年，他贊助70,000美元給民主黨候選人希拉蕊·柯林頓的競選團隊。[55]
2022年2月15日，舊金山教育委員會針對三位委員柯林斯（Collins）、莫利加（Moliga）和羅培茲（Lopez）進行罷免，薩克斯是資助罷免案的最大貢獻者[56][57]。他也是共和黨的重要金主，曾與他的前同事兼合夥人凱斯·拉博伊斯為包括J·D·范斯和布雷克·馬斯特斯在內的聯邦參議員候選人發起2022年春季募款活動[58]。
2023年5月24日，時任佛州州長羅恩·迪尚特在Twitter上宣布投入2024年美國總統選舉共和黨初選，薩克斯即擔任其競選活動主持人；他讚揚了迪尚特並捐助50,000美元給競選團隊[59]。之後在同年6月，薩克斯為小羅伯特·法蘭西斯·甘迺迪舉辦了要價10,000美元/盤的募款活動[60]。他也於2024年6月為唐納·川普舉行了1,200萬美元的募款活動，地點就在自己家[61][62]。2024年共和黨全國代表大會上，他被邀請上台演說[63][64]；並最終於總統大選中投票給川普[65]。
自2022年10月以來，薩克斯針對俄羅斯入侵烏克蘭持續發表看法，並對於美國援助烏克蘭一事持反對態度，尤其是軍事上的支援[66]。2024年共和黨全國代表大會期間，薩克斯稱「美國『挑釁』俄羅斯導致烏克蘭被入侵」，並否認是因主張不干預主義遭致黨代表們的噓聲[67]。
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