Joe Gebbia Joins Elon Musk’s Government Efficiency Department
It has been almost two weeks since The New York Times reported that Joe Gebbia, co-founder of Airbnb, had joined Elon Musk’s “Department of Government Efficiency.” Gebbia recently clarified his role on Thursday, announcing on X that he will be leveraging his design expertise to overhaul the government’s slow and paper-heavy retirement process.
The need for this overhaul is evident as Chuck Ezell, acting director of OPM, revealed in a video testimonial that the administration challenged the agency to process a retiree digitally without printing anything on paper within a week. Remarkably, the agency has already managed to streamline the process to just two days.
OPM has been under scrutiny for years to modernize its systems. Last summer, a pilot program was launched for a new online retirement application platform in response to concerns about delayed benefit processing. Lawmakers had previously urged OPM to address the sluggish processing of retirees, some waiting over 90 days to receive their benefits.
Gebbia, a billionaire and board member of Airbnb and Tesla, expressed his interest in improving the user experience within the government. In addition to co-founding Airbnb, Gebbia is also the co-founder of Samara, a company that builds customizable pre-fabricated homes.
Samara recently announced a $15 million donation of homes to support Los Angelenos affected by the January fires that caused significant real estate losses. However, Gebbia’s involvement with DOGE has led to some backlash from Airbnb hosts, with some pulling their listings in protest.
In response, Airbnb clarified that Gebbia has not been involved in its daily operations since 2022 and emphasized the diversity of its community. Despite the controversy, Gebbia remains committed to improving government efficiency and user experience.
