Sacks was born to a Jewish family in Cape Town, South Africa, and immigrated to Tennessee, United States, with his family when he was five.[11][12] Though Sacks did not know he wanted to be an entrepreneur, he did not want to work a profession like his father, who was an endocrinologist. He took inspiration from his grandfather, who started a candy factory in the 1920s.[13]
In 1999, Sacks left his job as a management consultant for McKinsey & Company to join Max Levchin, Peter Thiel, and Luke Nosek's e-commerce startup Confinity.[17][18] Later that year, Sacks was the inaugural product leader of Confinity's milestone product, and corporate successor, PayPal.[18][19] Upon promotion to Paypal COO, 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.[18][20] 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.[21] In October 2002, eBay acquired PayPal for $1.5 billion.[22]
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 the re-emergence of consumer-focused Internet companies after the dot com bust of 2001.[23][24]
In 2006, Sacks founded Geni.com, a genealogy website. In 2008, Sacks and co-founder Adam Pisoni spun this internal communications tool into a standalone company called Yammer.[26] Geni was acquired by MyHeritage in 2012.[27]
In 2008, Yammer launched the first Enterprise Social Network, a secure solution for internal corporate communication and collaboration,[28] winning the grand prize at TechCrunch50 conference.[29] According to Social Capital,[30] 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.[31]
In July 2012, Microsoft acquired Yammer for $1.2 billion as a core part of its cloud/social strategy.[32]
In December 2014, Sacks made a "major investment" in Zenefits.[33] In January 2016, Zenefits' board asked him to step in as interim CEO amidst a "regulatory crisis" regarding the company's licensing compliance.[34] Over the next year, Sacks negotiated a resolution with insurance regulators across the U.S. – receiving praise for "righting the ship".[35] Sacks also revamped[36] Zenefits' product line with an initiative he named "Z2",[37][38] introducing a SaaS business model. Shortly after, PC Magazine noted that Zenefits had become "the best HR software on the market," while Buzzfeed reported the company was losing over $200 million annually.[39][40] After just 10 months in the role, Sacks was succeeded by former Ooyala CEO, Jay Fulcher.[41]
In 2021, Sacks and his former colleague from Craft, Evan Owen, co-founded workspace chat company called Glue. Their product is an AI tool that could be invoked from specific chats on platforms like Google Meet and Zoom, allowing employees to get AI assistance during conversations. It was launched to the public in May 2024.[52][53]
According to The New Republic, "Sacks is using his wealth and online clout to unite conservatives and former leftists in a reactionary movement against liberalism".[54]
According to the Federal Election Commission, Sacks donated $50,000 to Republican Party candidate Mitt Romney's presidential campaign in 2012. In 2016, he donated nearly $70,000 to Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.[57]
In the 2022 San Francisco Board of Education recall elections of members Collins, Moliga, and Lopez, Sacks gave one of the largest contributions to support the recall.[58][59] He is also a significant booster of Republican candidates, sponsoring a spring 2022 fundraiser for GOP senate hopefuls including J. D. Vance and Blake Masters alongside his former colleague and partner Keith Rabois.[60] In total, Sacks directly gave over $1,000,000 to Senate candidates in 2022.[61]
On June 6, 2024, he posted "Why I’m Backing President Trump" via X. He cited 4 reasons, concluding that Donald Trump "is the President who deserves a second term." He also hosted a campaign fundraiser at his home for Trump that evening, reportedly with some guests paying up to $300,000 to attend.[64][65][66]
Since October 2022, David Sacks has been increasingly commenting on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, typically taking an anti-US involvement in Ukraine, and especially US military funding for Ukraine.[67] Some of his claims include the "US dispatching an Army General to assume de-facto command of the Ukrainian Army".[68] In an article for Newsweek, Sacks argued that continued military support for Ukraine could lead to “Woke War III”.[69] Sacks' posts on X are often countered by the platform's Community Notes, which he believes are subject to being "gamed by the Ukrainian info war op" against him.
During the Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) bank run in March 2023, Sacks advocated for urgent government action to guarantee the deposits of SVB customers. He faced backlash from some who criticized that the very people who eviscerated banking regulations now seek to be shielded from the catastrophe they caused.[70]