A debate between former Zenefits co-founders David Sacks and Parker Conrad has sparked outrage from members of the Silicon Valley elite.
Last week, various businessmen went to war online after Craft Ventures’ co-founder David Oliver Sacks, 52, criticised Democratic Party candidate Kamala Harris.
He accused the US Vice President of ‘staging a coup’ to replace President Joe Biden as head of the Democrats.
“One candidate survived assassination,” he wrote, referring to the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. “The other staged a coup. Your choice, America.”
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In a subsequent post, he alleged that: “Democrat propagandists have been talking about a fake coup for over 3 years so now they’re frantic to deny that a real one has occurred.
“President-elect Biden was in no danger of being deposed on January 6, 2021, but he was actually deposed as Democratic Party nominee on July 21, 2024, despite his repeated insistence that he didn’t want to go.”
He claimed that this wasn’t a ‘voluntary abdication’ but was instead a ‘political hit’ and thus a ‘coup in [his] book’.
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These politically fuelled messages have apparently caused a flurry online, with the result being Sacks’ alleged past career moves being dredged up by former colleagues
One of which is 44-year-old Rippling CEO Conrad, who retweeted Sack’s latter post and wrote: “Let me tell you, coups are this man’s speciality.”
The latter co-founded Zenefits with Sacks in September 2012 and served as CEO until his resignation in 2016.
Conrad left the company after it was discovered Zenefits had used unlicensed brokers to sell health insurance in multiple states, as per Buzzfeed News.
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Conrad and Zenefits eventually settled the SEC investigation and paid fines without admitting fault, reports TechCrunch.
Sacks - who was COO - meanwhile was cleared of wrongdoing and quickly replaced Conrad as CEO.
In response to Conrad, the South African businessman wrote: “You were sanctioned by the SEC. Nobody else, only you.
“But you’ve spent the last decade trying to shift the blame onto others for your own poor ethics.”
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Following Condrad’s quip, other Silicon Valley entrepreneurs have weighed in on the argument.
Paul Graham was quick to rush to Conrad’s defense and wrote: “Do you really want the full story of what you did to Parker to be told publicly?
“Because it’s the worst case of an investor maltreating a founder that I’ve ever heard, and I’ve heard practically all of them.”
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“I was talking recently to another investor about whether you’re most evil person in Silicon Valley,” he continued via social media.
“He thought about it for a few seconds, and agreed that he couldn’t think of anyone worse.”
Meanwhile, Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince said that he ‘doesn’t know’ if Sacks is the ‘most evil person in SV’ because there is ‘lots of competition’.
AI investor Siri Srinivas added: “I really really hate bullying and pile-ons except when it’s well-deserved,” while Ilhar Mahaniok, a managing partner at VC firm Geek Ventures, said: “I’m glad that finally David Sacks is getting the treatment he deserves.”
UNILAD Tech has contacted David Sacks for further comment.