Sahil Lavingia Shares Lessons from Short Stint at Government Tech Initiative DOGE

Sahil Lavingia, founder of Gumroad and a noted Silicon Valley entrepreneur, recently shared his brief yet insightful experience working for DOGE, a temporary government tech initiative created by an executive order from President Trump. He joined as a volunteer software engineer with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), where he worked for 55 days. Despite his enthusiasm for helping modernize government systems, he encountered bureaucratic constraints and was surprised by the efficiency of some existing processes. Tasked with identifying inefficiencies and recommending layoffs, Lavingia found that rules protecting veterans and seniority complicated what he thought would be straightforward cost-cutting. His role, advisory in nature and lacking direct authority, was often used by agency heads to deflect criticism for unpopular decisions. Lavingia’s contributions included tools for scanning documents for politically sensitive terms and leveraging LLMs to analyze contracts, although none of his projects reached production. He criticized the lack of coordination within DOGE and was ultimately dismissed after speaking with a reporter. Reflecting on his experience, he noted the VA was more functional than he had expected, highlighting the disconnect between Silicon Valley’s expectations and the reality of government work.