The PayPal Mafia is an elite group of early leaders of the thriving financial technology company PayPal. David Sacks is one of them. He is an investor and entrepreneur who is currently the general partner of the venture capital fund named Craft Ventures. He also co-hosts the All-In podcast. As of 2022, David Sacks has an estimated net worth of $200 million.
Youth
David Oliver Sacks was born on May 25, 1972. His birthplace is Cape Town, South Africa, but his family moved to Tennessee, USA when he was five years old.
His father worked as an endocrinologist, but he was more inspired by his grandfather who owned a candy factory in the 1920s, which is why he leaned more into business growing up.
He began his college education at Memphis University School and Sacks later transferred to Stanford University, where he received a bachelor’s degree in economics in 1994. Four years later, he became a doctor of laws at the faculty of law from the University of Chicago.
Join PayPal
Sacks first worked for McKinsey & Company as a management consultant. He left in 1999 to join startup PayPal, working with co-founder Peter Thiel and Max Levchin. He also befriended one of the richest men in the world, Elon Musk.
At PayPal, David Sacks has been hired to become Product Leader and Chief Operating Officer (COO). He was responsible for building many key product designs and teams.
PayPal was bought for $1.5 billion by eBay in 2002. After that, founding members David and other early employees became known as the PayPal Mafia in Silicon Valley.
Other companies
After the PayPal takeover, Sacks used his money to start independent production company Room 9 Entertainment. He developed and financed the film “Thank You for Smoking” in 2005. The following year he launched the genealogy website Geni.com.
In 2008, David launched Yammer, which created Enterprise Social Network, a business communication solution. In 2014, David launched technology company Zenefits. He became an angel investor and invested in several promising cryptocurrencies such as Solana.
His last business venture was Craft Ventures, founded in 2017. Most recently, he co-hosts the All-In podcast alongside Jason Calacanis, David Friedberg and Chamath Palihapitiya.
Net worth and earnings
As the first employee of PayPal, Sacks must have made a lot when the company was sold to eBay. He used his funds to earn more money in other businesses. Perhaps his most successful project is Craft Ventures, which raised $1.1 billion in 2021.
Besides his own companies, he invested early in companies like SpaceX, Facebook and Airbnb. One of his investments, Palantir Technologies, extends into crypto. Although he does not own the company, he is involved in its expansion into crypto. David’s net worth is estimated at $200 million.
Private life
David Sacks married a woman named Jacqueline Tortorice in 2007. The couple were blessed with three children: a son and two daughters. The family is said to live on Broadway Street in San Francisco. They to reside in a Billionaire’s Row home that was purchased for $23.2 million in 2020.
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