Airbnb Cofounder Says He Needs to Apply His ‘Designer Mind’ to DOGE

• Joe Gebbia is a cofounder and former chief product officer of Airbnb.
• On Thursday, Gebbia stated he had joined Elon Musk’s authorities effectivity fee, DOGE.
• Gebbia additionally sits on Tesla’s board.

Joe Gebbia, the cofounder and former chief product officer of Airbnb, stated on Thursday that he can be part of Elon Musk’s authorities effectivity fee, DOGE.

“Excited to share I am bringing my designer mind and start-up spirit into the federal government,” Gebbia wrote in an X submit on Thursday.

Gebbia wrote in his submit that his first undertaking at DOGE will probably be to enhance the “sluggish and paper-based retirement course of” for federal staff. Musk had beforehand complained about how retirement functions had been being processed manually and utilizing paper data.

Musk advised reporters at a press convention within the Oval Workplace on February 11 that he was advised that solely a most of 10,000 federal staff may retire each month due to the guide course of.

“Properly, as a result of all of the retirement paperwork is guide, on paper. It is manually calculated then written down on a chunk of paper, then it goes down a mine,” Musk stated.

“Yeah, there is a limestone mine the place we retailer all of the retirement paperwork,” Musk added.

Musk was referring to a transformed mine in Boyers, Pennsylvania. The mine was initially owned by US Metal and has been used to retailer authorities data because the Nineteen Sixties.

The Workplace of Personnel Administration’s then-chief info officer, Man Cavallo, stated in an interview with Federal Information Community final yr that it could take “a few years” to exchange the paper-based system with an internet platform they had been testing.

“Since leaving my working function at Airbnb in 2022, I have been searching for the subsequent digital design problem. And I can consider few extra necessary ones than volunteering to enhance the consumer expertise inside our authorities,” Gebbia wrote in his X submit on Thursday.

Gebbia’s submit got here hooked up with a video from the OPM, which stated that the company had processed a complete retirement utility digitally for the primary time. Chuck Ezell, the OPM’s appearing director, stated within the video that the appliance was processed inside per week. The method would take 64 days on common if performed manually.

“If anybody else in good standing needs to assist design stunning, user-friendly digital merchandise, attain out,” Gebbia added.

“Thanks!” Musk wrote in response to Gebbia’s submit.

Representatives for DOGE didn’t reply to a request for remark from Enterprise Insider.

That is the primary time Gebbia has confirmed his involvement with DOGE. On February 13, The New York Instances reported that Gebbia was set to hitch DOGE, although Gebbia declined to remark when approached by the Instances.

It’s unclear if Gebbia will probably be paid for his work at DOGE. Earlier this month, the White Home stated that Musk is a “particular authorities worker” and is not paid for his service.

Gebbia has a great relationship with Musk and has been a Tesla board member since 2022. In June, Gebbia advised Reuters in an interview that Musk had mentioned shopping for a house from his startup, Samara.

On January 19, a day earlier than President Donald Trump’s inauguration, Gebbia stated in an X submit that he had voted for Trump regardless that he had been voting for the Democrats his “complete life.” The Democratic Celebration “aren’t the identical celebration they was once,” Gebbia wrote.

“Like your vogue sense, they’ve misplaced their method. Hopefully they’re going to make an effort to win folks like me again,” he added.