Founder Sahil Lavingia says he was booted from DOGE after just 55 days

Sahil Lavingia has published a diary recounting his time as a member of Elon Musk’s DOGE workforce. It’s a short read — Lavingia’s DOGE stint lasted just 55 days — but it is does provide new details on the temporary government organization formed by President Trump’s executive order. Lavingia is a well-known name in Silicon Valley from his days as an early employee of Pinterest, to his current gig as founder of Gumroad, a platform where creators can sell their goods. He’s also a well-known seed and angel investor. He joined DOGE as a software engineer for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) in mid-March, he wrote. What stands out from his account is his surprise that the 473,000-employee government agency had strict rules on who could be targeted in a layoff; and he quickly learned that all things at the VA were not as inefficient as he imagined. He also lamented that DOGE itself isn’t a well-oiled machine. As a volunteer who had a salary of $0, he was immediately tasked with id ... Read full article.