The DOGE Boys are receiving venture capital funding to back their latest project

Former members of So called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) They launched a startup, as they say, to bring… “DOGE for the private sector.” Their holding company, called Special, is backed by the billionaire Marc Andreessen venture capital firm a16z and several former DOGE members.

in job On a16z’s Substack, Nate Kavanaugh and Justin Fox, who have led DOGE efforts at several government agencies, write that their startup will build “an operating system to transform critical US industries using AI,” and they claim that “Main Street,” like the federal government, is ineffective. The plan, according to Fox and Kavanaugh, is to “vertically integrate,” buying companies in critical sectors and running them using their own operating system. Their primary goal is to care for the elderly, with a vertical appeal Shape correctness. in Interview on TBPNKavanaugh said Special is also looking at “markets like construction, manufacturing and other labor-intensive, highly regulated markets that can then apply a lot of the lessons we learned from DOGE back into the private sector.”

Their work also aims to target waste, and cites recent Republican talking points about it Blue states and fraud. “One need look no further than child care education centers in Minnesota or nursing home companies in California to find massive statewide waste from companies profiting off taxpayer dollars,” Fox and Kavanaugh wrote. Allegations of waste and fraud were central to DOGE’s justification for cutting government contracts, jobs, and even closing the company. United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Allegations of fraud against child care centers in Minnesota provided a justification for President Donald Trump’s administration to publicize them Thousands of immigration agents State earlier this year.

“This show relies on DOGE-y tropes, with references to fraud in Minnesota. It’s a very bro-oriented 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 US government is welfare fraud, that suggests a very narrow perspective on the major challenges we face now. But that has been the view of Doug, Musk, and the rest of the administration.”

With Andreessen Horowitz leading the funding round, Kavanaugh and Fox also say that some of their “DOGE teammates” were backing the project, including Steve Davis, billionaire Elon Musk’s right-hand man who served as DOGE’s operations coordinator; Antonio Gracias, founder of Valor Equity Partners and a close associate of Musk who has been involved in DOGE’s work Social Security Administration; Barry’s eyea Turkish national who worked as an unofficial recruiter for DOGE; Anthony Armstrong, former CFO of Musk’s xAI company; Donald Parkwhich was part of DOGE’s operations in Small Business Administration; and Adam Ramada and Brooks Morgan, who founded Austin-based BANNER VC after leaving DOGE in August 2025. Coinbase founder Brian Armstrong, and Shyam Sankar, chief technology officer at Palantir, the defense contractor co-founded by billionaire and Musk ally Peter Thiel, also participated in the funding round.

Kavanaugh and Fox did not respond to requests for comment. Neither did their obvious investors.

While Kavanaugh and Fox were part of DOGE, they led a team Forced seizure From the congressionally funded nonprofit, the United States Institute of Peace (USIP). After being appointed acting director of USIP, Kavanaugh tried to make a gift Building it for the governmenta step that is currently a topic Ongoing court case. Kavanaugh was also named acting director of the Interagency Council on Homelessness. At both institutions, Kavanaugh placed nearly all employees on administrative leave.