As co-founder of Craft Ventures, David Sacks is a major backer of AI, SaaS, and infrastructure startups. That not only makes him a central voice in tech and investing, but also gives him real sway over which companies get the capital and momentum to scale. It also gives him some serious political influence. Sacks is used to being a big-time player as he’s one of the OGs of what some people call the “PayPal Mafia” network. That is a nickname given to the unusually influential group of founders, executives, and early employees who built PayPal in the late 1990s and early 2000s and then went on to create other broad swaths of the tech industry. Sacks and those that remain in this cabal still shape much of Silicon Valley’s culture and deal flow today. In 2025, that network has become deeply embedded in the AI boom, and Sacks sits right in the middle of it.
On top of that, his podcasting and media presence have made him a high-visibility commentator whose opinions can shift narratives on tech policy, regulation, and the startup ecosystem.
