Marc Andreessen is a Silicon Valley billionaire, a prominent venture capitalist…and a headhunter? It seems so. Last week, the Washington Post reported Andreessen was recruiting talent for the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a first-of-its-kind appointment from President-elect Donald Trump. On Thursday, the Financial Times, citing people familiar with the matter, reported that Andreessen is interviewing and identifying candidates.
Andreessen has no formal role, the Financial Times reported. He is suggesting candidates and even offering up people from his own circle, as Musk and his cochair Vivek Ramaswamy (a former Republican presidential primary candidate himself) begin hiring in their quest to cut costs and deregulate. Andreessen’s task is to bring in top-tier candidates, according to the Financial Times, so he’s not simply sifting through résumés, which might be a bit mundane for one of the most influential people in the worlds of venture and technology. Andreessen Horowitz, his venture capital firm also known as a16z, did not immediately respond to Fortune’s request for comment.
Andreessen isn’t the only tech billionaire to appear as a proponent of DOGE. Amazon founder and executive chairman Jeff Bezos announced on Wednesday at the New York Times DealBook Summit that he was supportive of at least one aim of the endeavor that could resolve economic challenges: reducing regulation. It could be the key to driving innovation that will increase gross domestic product and thereby reduce the “gigantic” national debt, said Bezos during his talk with DealBook’s Andrew Ross Sorkin.
“These are real problems, real long-term problems. And the way you get out of them is by outgrowing them,” said Bezos. “You’re going to solve the problem of the national debt by making it a smaller percentage of GDP—not by shrinking the national debt, but by growing the GDP. You have to grow the denominator.”
Bezos said he wanted to help Trump with that if he can.
As for Andreessen, he threw his support behind Trump this election cycle. It shocked some because he’d backed Democratic candidates before; he chose to support Hillary Clinton over Trump, the first time he ran eight years ago. This summer, however, Andreessen shelled out $2.5 million to a pro-Trump super political action committee and an additional $844,600 to a Trump joint fundraising committee, according to data from the Federal Election Commission. The Financial Times reported that Andreessen has been spending some time at Mar-a-Lago, the center of the political universe and Trump’s personal residence.
He has ties to Musk, too, who was a surrogate for the Trump/Vance ticket before he was tapped to lead the advisory body. Andreessen has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in Musk’s startups, such as xAI and SpaceX, and backed his $44 billion takeover of X, according to the Financial Times. The Silicon Valley duo turned unofficial Trump cabinet members even made appearances on Joe Rogan’s podcast in the same month.
In November, the department of government efficiency on Musk’s social media platform said: “We are very grateful to the thousands of Americans who have expressed interest in helping us at DOGE. We don’t need more part-time idea generators. We need super high-IQ small-government revolutionaries willing to work 80+ hours per week on unglamorous cost-cutting. If that’s you, DM this account with your CV. Elon & Vivek will review the top 1% of applicants.”
With Andreessen in the mix, maybe there are some things to consider. His venture capital firm, based on a brief review of discussions on Glassdoor, is said to ask applicants how they’ll make an impact at a16z, their greatest challenge, examples of their experiences that apply to the role, what companies in the VC’s portfolio they’re interested in, among others.
Based on personal comments Andreessen has made, we know he doesn’t value the idea of bringing your whole self to work. “The one thing you should never, ever, ever do is bring your full self. Leave your full self at home where it belongs and act like a professional and a grownup at work and in public,” he recently wrote on X. That seems in line with some of Musk’s rhetoric, and after all, the two believe it’s time to build.
What we know about the Department of Government Efficiency thus far mostly comes from Musk and Ramaswamy, to the tune of cutting $2 trillion from the federal budget, snipping regulations, slashing federal workforce headcount, ending remote work for some, and getting rid of daylight savings time. Oh, and they want to make it all happen by July 4, 2026.
