Ex-DOGE startup – Former DOGE officials behind a new startup called Special say they want to bring “DOGE for the private sector” by building an AI “operating system” and vertically integrating businesses, starting with senior care. The effort is backed by a16z and other former
On paper, the pitch is simple: take what the so-called Department of Government Efficiency did inside government and bring it to the companies people rely on every day. In practice, it comes with names, money, and a familiar argument about “waste” that already reshaped real budgets and real lives.
Former members of DOGE have launched a startup with that goal. Their holding company is called Special. and it has backing from billionaire Marc Andreessen’s venture capital firm a16z plus several other former DOGE members. In a post on a16z’s Substack. Nate Cavanaugh and Justin Fox—who led DOGE’s efforts at several government agencies—outline a plan they describe as “DOGE for the private sector.”.
Cavanaugh and Fox write that Special will build “an operating system to transform critical American industries with AI. ” arguing that “Main Street. ” like the federal government. is inefficient. Their strategy. as described by 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, through a vertical called FigureHealth.
They also say their work will focus on waste. In their post. they cite recent Republican talking points about blue states and fraud. pointing to childcare learning centers in Minnesota and hospice businesses in California as examples of “immense waste at the state level from businesses that benefit from taxpayer dollars.”.
That argument did not stay confined to rhetoric during DOGE’s own rise. The allegations of waste and fraud were central to DOGE’s justification for cutting government contracts and jobs. and even for shutting down the US Agency for International Development (USAID). Fraud allegations involving Minnesota childcare centers also formed part of the rationale for President Donald Trump’s administration to deploy thousands of immigration agents to the state earlier this year.
Don Moynihan, a professor of public policy at the University of Michigan, pushes back sharply on the framing. “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,” Moynihan said. He adds that if the biggest problem in the American government is framed as welfare fraud. “that suggests a pretty narrow perspective on the major challenges that we face right now.” In his view. that narrow lens has been the approach of DOGE. Musk. and the rest of the administration.
The funding effort is led by Andreessen Horowitz. Alongside a16z. Cavanaugh and Fox say several “DOGE teammates” backed the venture. including Steve Davis—described as billionaire Elon Musk’s right-hand man who functioned as coordinator of DOGE’s operations; Antonio Gracias. founder of Valor Equity Partners and a close Musk associate 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 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.
The round also includes Coinbase founder Brian Armstrong and Shyam Sankar, the chief technology officer at Palantir, the defense contracting firm co-founded by billionaire and Musk ally Peter Thiel.
Cavanaugh and Fox did not respond to requests for comment, and neither did their apparent investors.
The DOGE story around Cavanaugh also reaches beyond this funding announcement. While part of DOGE, Cavanaugh and Fox led the forcible takeover of the Congressionally-funded nonprofit US Institute of Peace (USIP). After being installed as USIP’s acting director, Cavanaugh attempted to gift its building to the government. That move is currently the subject of an ongoing court case. Cavanaugh was also appointed the acting director of the Interagency Council on Homelessness. and at both institutions. Cavanaugh put nearly all staff members on administrative leave.
In an interview on TBPN, Cavanaugh said 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.”
For Special’s backers, the promise is transformation—an AI operating system tied to an aggressive ownership model. For critics. it’s the same argument returning in a different outfit: a fraud-and-waste narrative that has already helped justify disruption in government. now aiming to run critical industries from the top down.
DOGE Special a16z Andreessen Horowitz Nate Cavanaugh Justin Fox AI operating system vertical integration FigureHealth senior care cybersecurity startups Palantir Coinbase Marc Andreessen