The DOGE Boys Get VC Funding to Support Their Latest Enterprise

“DOGE男孩”获得风投支持，开启最新创业项目

Former members of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have launched a startup to, they say, bring “DOGE for the private sector.” Their holding company, called Special, has backing from billionaire Marc Andreessen’s venture capital firm a16z and several other former DOGE members. 所谓的“政府效率部”（DOGE）的前成员们近日创办了一家初创公司，他们称旨在将“DOGE模式引入私营部门”。这家名为“Special”的控股公司获得了亿万富翁马克·安德森（Marc Andreessen）旗下风投公司a16z以及多位DOGE前成员的支持。

In a post on a16z’s Substack, Nate Cavanaugh and Justin Fox, who led DOGE’s efforts at several government agencies, write that their startup will build “an operating system to transform critical American industries with AI,” and claim that “Main Street,” like the federal government, is inefficient. The plan, according to Fox and Cavanaugh, is to “vertically integrate,” buying up businesses in critical sectors and running them using Special’s operating system. Their first target is senior care, with a vertical called FigureHealth. In an interview on TBPN, Cavanaugh said that Special is also looking at “markets like construction, manufacturing, other very labor intensive, highly regulated markets that a lot of the learnings we had from DOGE can then get applied back into the private sector.” 在a16z的Substack博客文章中，曾领导DOGE多个政府机构工作的内特·卡瓦诺（Nate Cavanaugh）和贾斯汀·福克斯（Justin Fox）写道，他们的初创公司将构建“一个利用人工智能改造美国关键行业的操作系统”，并声称“主流商业领域”（Main Street）和联邦政府一样效率低下。据福克斯和卡瓦诺介绍，他们的计划是进行“垂直整合”，收购关键行业的企业，并利用Special的操作系统进行运营。他们的第一个目标是养老护理领域，推出了名为FigureHealth的垂直业务。在接受TBPN采访时，卡瓦诺表示，Special还在关注“建筑、制造等其他劳动密集型且监管严格的市场，我们在DOGE学到的许多经验都可以应用到这些私营部门中。”

Their work also purports to target waste, and cites recent Republican talking points about blue states and fraud. “One needs to look no further than childcare learning centers in Minnesota or hospice businesses in California to find immense waste at the state level from businesses that benefit from taxpayer dollars,” Fox and Cavanaugh write. Allegations of waste and fraud were key to DOGE’s own justification for cutting government contracts, jobs, and even shutting down the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Fraud allegations against Minnesota childcare centers formed the justification for President Donald Trump’s administration to deploy thousands of immigration agents to the state earlier this year. 他们的工作还声称旨在打击浪费，并引用了近期共和党关于“蓝色州”（民主党票仓州）和欺诈行为的论调。福克斯和卡瓦诺写道：“只要看看明尼苏达州的托儿中心或加利福尼亚州的临终关怀企业，就能发现这些受益于纳税人资金的企业在州一级存在巨大的浪费。”关于浪费和欺诈的指控，是DOGE削减政府合同、裁员甚至关闭美国国际开发署（USAID）的核心理由。针对明尼苏达州托儿中心的欺诈指控，也成为了唐纳德·特朗普总统政府今年早些时候向该州部署数千名移民执法人员的理由。

“This pitch relies on DOGE-y tropes, with references to fraud in Minnesota. It’s a very bro-y perspective on government and what the issues are,” says Don Moynihan, a professor of public policy at the University of Michigan. “If you think the biggest issue in the American government is welfare fraud, then that suggests a pretty narrow perspective on the major challenges that we face right now. But that has been the perspective of DOGE, Musk, and the rest of the administration.” 密歇根大学公共政策教授唐·莫伊尼汉（Don Moynihan）表示：“这种推销方式依赖于DOGE式的陈词滥调，并提及明尼苏达州的欺诈问题。这是一种非常‘兄弟会式’（bro-y）的政府观，以及对问题本质的看法。如果你认为美国政府最大的问题是福利欺诈，那么这表明你对我们目前面临的主要挑战有着非常狭隘的视角。但这正是DOGE、马斯克以及政府其他成员的观点。”

With Andreessen Horowitz leading the funding round, Cavanaugh and Fox also say that some of their “DOGE teammates” were backing the venture, including Steve Davis, billionaire Elon Musk’s right-hand man who functioned as the coordinator of DOGE’s operations; Antonio Gracias, founder of Valor Equity Partners and a close Musk associate who was involved with DOGE’s work at the Social Security Administration; Baris Akis, a Turkish national who functioned as an informal recruiter for DOGE; Anthony Armstrong, formerly the chief financial officer at Musk’s xAI; Donald Park, who was part of DOGE’s operations at the Small Business Administration; and Adam Ramada and Brooks Morgan, who founded the Austin-based BANNER VC after leaving DOGE in August 2025. Coinbase founder Brian Armstrong, and Shyam Sankar, the chief technology officer at Palantir, the defense contracting firm cofounded by billionaire and Musk ally Peter Thiel, also participated in the funding round. 在安德森·霍洛维茨（Andreessen Horowitz）领投的同时，卡瓦诺和福克斯还表示，他们的一些“DOGE队友”也为该项目提供了支持，包括亿万富翁埃隆·马斯克的得力助手、曾担任DOGE运营协调员的史蒂夫·戴维斯（Steve Davis）；Valor Equity Partners创始人、马斯克的亲密伙伴、曾参与DOGE在社会保障局工作的安东尼奥·格拉西亚斯（Antonio Gracias）；曾担任DOGE非正式招聘人员的土耳其公民巴里斯·阿基斯（Baris Akis）；马斯克旗下xAI的前首席财务官安东尼·阿姆斯特朗（Anthony Armstrong）；曾参与DOGE在小企业管理局运营的唐纳德·帕克（Donald Park）；以及在2025年8月离开DOGE后创立了奥斯汀BANNER VC的亚当·拉马达（Adam Ramada）和布鲁克斯·摩根（Brooks Morgan）。Coinbase创始人布莱恩·阿姆斯特朗（Brian Armstrong），以及由亿万富翁、马斯克盟友彼得·蒂尔（Peter Thiel）共同创立的国防承包商Palantir的首席技术官希亚姆·桑卡尔（Shyam Sankar）也参与了本轮融资。

Cavanaugh and Fox did not respond to requests for comment; neither did their apparent investors. 卡瓦诺和福克斯未回应置评请求；他们的投资方也未作回应。

While part of DOGE, Cavanaugh and Fox led the forcible takeover of the Congressionally funded nonprofit the US Institute of Peace. After being installed as USIP’s acting director, Cavanaugh attempted to gift its building to the government, a move that is currently the subject of an ongoing court case. Cavanaugh was also appointed the acting director of the Interagency Council on Homelessness. At both institutions, Cavanaugh put nearly all staff members on administrative leave. 在DOGE任职期间，卡瓦诺和福克斯曾主导强行接管国会资助的非营利组织——美国和平研究所（USIP）。在被任命为USIP代理所长后，卡瓦诺试图将其大楼赠送给政府，这一举动目前正处于法律诉讼中。卡瓦诺还被任命为跨部门无家可归者委员会的代理主任。在这两个机构中，卡瓦诺几乎让所有员工都处于行政休假状态。

The two were also part of the DOGE takeover of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), where whistleblower Dan Berulis claimed that DOGE members had compromised sensitive data and appeared to be exfiltrating it out of the agency. (Cavanaugh and Fox were not named in Berulis’ complaint). Berulis also claimed that after DOGE members accessed the systems, an IP address in Russia attempted to log into the systems. Six days after Berulis filed his whistleblower disclosure to Congress, his car’s break lines were cut. The NLRB’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) is continuing to investigate Berulis’ claims. 两人还参与了DOGE对国家劳资关系委员会（NLRB）的接管。在该机构中，举报人丹·贝鲁利斯（Dan Berulis）声称，DOGE成员泄露了敏感数据，并似乎正在将数据从该机构窃取出去。（卡瓦诺和福克斯未在贝鲁利的投诉中被点名）。贝鲁利斯还声称，在DOGE成员访问系统后，一个俄罗斯的IP地址试图登录这些系统。在贝鲁利斯向国会提交举报披露后的第六天，他的汽车刹车线被切断。NLRB监察长办公室（OIG）目前正在继续调查贝鲁利斯的指控。

In a legal deposition related to their work with DOGE, Fox admitted that he had used an LLM to identify government contracts that used terms like “LGBTQ,” “tribal,” and “BIPOC” that appeared to indicate that they were related to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Fox also revealed that Armstrong, one of Special’s investors, was the father of a friend and a mentor. 在与DOGE工作相关的一份法律证词中，福克斯承认他曾使用大语言模型（LLM）来识别那些使用了“LGBTQ”、“部落”（tribal）和“BIPOC”（黑人、原住民和有色人种）等词汇的政府合同，这些词汇似乎表明合同与多元化、公平和包容性（DEI）有关。福克斯还透露，Special的投资者之一阿姆斯特朗是他一位朋友的父亲，也是他的导师。

Several of DOGE’s other members have also returned to the private sector, from investment firms to established companies. Last month, WIRED reported that former DOGE member Ethan Shaotran, who was one of the young engineers that comprised some of the earliest DOGE teams, is now running a defense tech startup that appears to be positioning itself to receive government contracts. Though Shaotran did not reply to WIRED’s questions about who was funding the startup, in an email viewed by WIRED, he described it as “backed by big names.” DOGE的其他几名成员也已重返私营部门，进入了投资公司或成熟企业。上个月，《连线》（WIRED）报道称，DOGE前成员伊桑·沙奥特兰（Ethan Shaotran）——曾是DOGE早期团队的年轻工程师之一——目前正在经营一家国防科技初创公司，该公司似乎正致力于获取政府合同。尽管沙奥特兰没有回复《连线》关于谁在资助该初创公司的询问，但在《连线》看到的一封电子邮件中，他将其描述为“有大人物支持”。

DOGE, says Moynihan, appeared to have worked as an employment conveyor belt for many of the organization’s affiliates. “It operated effectively as a place for people who wanted to get into venture capital networks to demonstrate their skills and loyalty to the owner class,” he says. 莫伊尼汉表示，DOGE似乎成为了该组织许多关联人员的就业传送带。“它实际上成为了那些想要进入风投网络的人展示其技能和对资产阶级忠诚度的场所，”他说。