Thanks to DOGE, Gumroad's founder has a second job with the VA

by pulisseon 5/8/2025, 3:34 PMwith 2 comments

by relaxingon 5/8/2025, 5:03 PM

Article title doesn’t do the material justice, there’s some real gems in there.

> Now that he’s there, he says he finds himself surrounded by people who “love their jobs,” who came to the government with a sense of mission driving their work.

> “In a sense, that makes the DOGE agenda a little bit more complicated, because if half the government took [a buyout offer], then we wouldn’t have to do much more,” he says, implying software can replace departing employees. “We’d just basically use software to plug holes. But that’s not what’s happening.”

> Lavingia’s skills with automation, which have helped keep Gumroad lean, are what he hopes to bring to the VA. But when it comes down to it, what he’s found is a machine that largely functions, though it doesn’t make decisions as fast as a startup might.

by duxupon 5/8/2025, 4:01 PM

Years ago I found the original story about Grumroad being bought back by its founder interesting. That was about it.

After that ... I noticed a very consistent stream about news blurbs about him that seem to not really amount to much? Like a media campaign to just keep the name out there in any way possible.