OpenGov co-founder Zach Bookman draws an analogy between excessive government spending and venture capital overfunding startups before they find product-market fit.
“And it's small. It's not ready. It didn't actually have product market fit. You dump a ton of money on it and great things happen. Not usually, actually. All sorts of waste and pockets of waste and weird cultural problems.”
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More from Zach Bookman
Opinion
Bookman: Andreessen Horowitz Acted Like SoftBank a Decade Ago
“They were the soft bank, you know, like, 10, 10, 12 years ago.”
Zach BookmanJan 23, 2025▶ 12:10$2B Gov Tech CEO's Warning for DOGE · Joe Lonsdale
AssertionContradicted
Bookman: 1% of Oracle public sector clients sue and over half dissatisfied
“Some of the stats, Oracle, apparently, one percent of its public sector customers end up in lawsuits. And more than half end up, quote, fully dissatisfied.”
Zach BookmanJan 23, 2025▶ 17:31$2B Gov Tech CEO's Warning for DOGE · Joe Lonsdale
AssertionNot checkable as stated
Bookman: US aid sent shipping containers of laptops to illiterate Afghan councils
“Turns out we bought them a shipping container full of laptops. And he's like, the issue is we don't read and write. This is the type of stuff that was going on all over the place. It's actually good intentions, just preposterous executions.”
Zach BookmanJan 23, 2025▶ 9:03$2B Gov Tech CEO's Warning for DOGE · Joe Lonsdale
Insight
Bookman: Software companies must build systems of record before leveraging network data
“You come for the tool, you stay for the network.
We've got to build the systems of record before we get the data to do the amazing things that we always wanted to do.”
Zach BookmanJan 23, 2025▶ 21:39$2B Gov Tech CEO's Warning for DOGE · Joe Lonsdale
Opinion
Bookman: Aggressive government reform will fail without institutional empathy
“I do think this is an undertaking of extraordinary magnitude, and look, it's going to be extremely contentious, including to, you know, go full Twitter style on various government agencies, but there needs to be a level of, there needs to be a level of empathy…”
Zach BookmanJan 23, 2025▶ 35:35$2B Gov Tech CEO's Warning for DOGE · Joe Lonsdale
Insight
Bookman: Nonprofits cannot build enterprise software at scale
“And it was through that work that actually you and we realized you can't really build technology and software at real scale and get it to the enterprise in a nonprofit context.
You've got to combine the for profit motive to get the very best people with the m…”
Zach BookmanJan 23, 2025▶ 14:01$2B Gov Tech CEO's Warning for DOGE · Joe Lonsdale
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