The character arc of David Sacks
A life drawn by Character Arc from the public record
Born on 25 May 1972 in Cape Town. Between then and now sit a Stanford economics degree in 1994, a Juris Doctor in 1998, leaving McKinsey for Confinity in 1999, the PayPal listing in February 2002 and its sale in October 2002, a film at Toronto in 2005, Geni.com in 2006, Yammer spun out in 2008 and sold to Microsoft in July 2012, Craft Ventures in 2017 and a second film in 2023. The line below draws the story so far, in order.
Tap the line to pluck it. Hover or tap any mark for its card. Drawn from the public record of his life; the sources are at the foot of the page.
Who is David Sacks?
The tool was for his own staff.
He was born in Cape Town in 1972, took a bachelor's degree in economics at Stanford University in 1994 and a Juris Doctor at the University of Chicago Law School in 1998. In 1999 he left a job as a management consultant at McKinsey and Company to join Confinity, the startup founded by Max Levchin, Peter Thiel and Luke Nosek. It became PayPal, which had its initial public offering in February 2002 and was acquired by eBay in October that year for 1.5 billion dollars.
What he did next is not what people with that record usually do. He produced and financed the satire Thank You for Smoking, which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2005, was acquired by Twentieth Century Fox for release in 2006 and was nominated for two Golden Globes. He then founded the genealogy website Geni.com in 2006, which MyHeritage acquired in 2012.
Inside Geni, the staff had built themselves a tool for talking to each other. In 2008 he and Adam Pisoni spun it out as its own company, Yammer, which launched the first enterprise social network that year and won the grand prize at the TechCrunch50 conference. Microsoft acquired it in July 2012 for 1.2 billion dollars. He was interim chief executive of Zenefits for ten months in 2016, having made a major investment in it in December 2014, co-founded the early stage fund Craft Ventures in late 2017, and produced the Salvador Dali biopic Daliland, which premiered at Toronto in 2022 and was released in 2023.
The moments
David Sacks's timeline.
The 1990s
Economics at Stanford
Milestone, and it changed his direction. Stanford, where most of the people he later worked with were.
A law degree
Milestone. A law degree, which he has never practised on.
He left McKinsey
Milestone, and it changed everything. Out of consulting, into a company with four people and no product.
The 2000s
PayPal goes public
Milestone, and it changed everything. Public in February, and sold by October.
A film at Toronto
Milestone, and it changed his direction. A film, which is not the next move anybody expected.
Geni.com
Milestone, and it changed his direction. Family trees, built on the web.
Is the internal tool a company
Crossroads, decided.
The paths laid out: spin it out, taken, or keep it internal. Microsoft acquired Yammer in July 2012 for 1.2 billion dollars, and MyHeritage acquired Geni in 2012.
Yammer spun out
Milestone, and it changed everything. A tool his own staff had made for themselves, turned into a company.
The 2010s
Microsoft buys Yammer
Milestone, and it changed everything. One point two billion dollars, for something built by accident.
A major investment
Milestone. Money in, before the job that came with it.
Ten months as chief executive
Milestone, and it changed his direction. An interim job at a company in trouble, taken on purpose.
Craft Ventures
Milestone, and it changed everything. A fund of his own, after twenty years of building.
The 2020s
Daliland released
Milestone. A second film, eighteen years after the first.
The line reaches today still adding to itself, which is why it is drawn now rather than at the end. What it has set moving is the least planned thing on it: the billion dollar company was a thing his own staff built for themselves, and the only decision that mattered was noticing.
Your turn
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His best company started as an internal tool nobody was meant to sell. Yours is already further along than you think, and drawing it takes about five minutes.
David Sacks: frequently asked questions
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Was David Sacks a chief executive?
Where does this timeline of David Sacks's life come from?
More character arcs
Lives that rhyme with his.
Sources
- David O. Sacks, English Wikipedia biography, filed under living people.
- Microsoft acquisition of Yammer, July 2012, and eBay's acquisition of PayPal, October 2002.
- Stanford University and University of Chicago Law School degree records, 1994 and 1998.