• Donald Trump has tapped Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead the Department of Government Efficiency.
• The advisory group is aimed at reducing federal spending and cutting waste.
• Several notable tech figures have already been linked to DOGE.

Donald Trump has picked Elon Musk and businessman Vivek Ramaswamy to lead the Department of Government Efficiency, also known as DOGE — and they appear to be tapping into their network of Silicon Valley contacts to make it happen.

The department is set to be an advisory group outside the Trump administration that will seek out ways to cut costs and curb federal spending.

Although Musk has said he wants to cut $2 trillion from the federal budget to make it more efficient, under current law, Congress must approve most budget changes, which limits DOGE's power.

Musk has already reportedly been consulting Silicon Valley leaders about the advisory group. These are the tech figures that have already been linked to DOGE.

Vivek Ramaswamy

Ramaswamy is set to spearhead the DOGE alongside Musk.

The biotech billionaire previously ran for president, launching his bid in February 2023. He later dropped out to support Trump and campaigned for the former president.

Ramaswamy has said DOGE will be "crowdsourcing examples of government waste, fraud, and abuse.

"Americans voted for drastic government reform & they deserve to be part of fixing it," he wrote in a post on X.

Marc Andreessen

The Washington Post reported that the Andreessen Horowitz cofounder has been involved in helping Musk plan the department. Andreessen also discussed Musk and DOGE on a recent episode of Joe Rogan's podcast.

On the podcast, he criticized the "raw administrative power" of independent federal agencies like the SEC, FTC, and CFPB, highlighting Musk's direct business approach as a model for government accountability.

Sriram Krishnan

Sriram Krishnan, a general partner at A16z, has had discussions with Elon Musk about joining DOGE, The Information reported.

Krishnan has a history with Musk, assisting him in the early stage of his Twitter takeover. He's also previously held roles within Big Tech companies, including Twitter, Snap, and Meta.

Krishnan confirmed in an X post on Wednesday that he will be leaving A16z at the end of the year.

"What's next? I'll have more on that in a bit but it's obvious we are living through a unique moment in history," Krishnan wrote. "I'm going to be jumping all into something I've wanted to spend my energy on. More on that in the coming months."

Antonio Gracias

Private equity executive Antonio Gracias has also been linked to the new advisory group.

The Washington Post reported that Gracias, alongside Boring Company President Steve Davis, was among Musk's business associates helping to plan the coming department.

Gracias also assisted Musk with his Twitter deal, helping him line up financing for the $44 billion deal. Gracias was also a director of Tesla from 2007 to 2021.

Travis Kalanick

Musk is also reportedly consulting Uber cofounder and former CEO Travis Kalanick about his plans for DOGE.

Kalanick is one of several tech titans being approached by Musk and Ramaswamy, according to a report from The Washington Post, which cited people familiar with the matter.

Kalanick was CEO of Uber from 2010 to 2017. He stepped down from the board in 2019.

• Marc Andreessen argues against sharing too many personal details at work, urging professionalism.
• His comments come as some pandemic-era norms on remote work and DEI appear to be shifting.
• Experts suggest balancing authenticity with professionalism to maintain workplace harmony.

Marc Andreessen doesn't need to know everything about you.

The famous VC dismissed the notion of "bringing your whole self to work," arguing that certain things aren't appropriate to share in the office and beyond.

"Leave your full self at home where it belongs and act like a professional and a grownup at work and in public," the cofounder and general partner of Andreessen Horowitz wrote in a recent post on X.

Andreessen isn't the first to reject the idea. Yet his remarks come as workplace norms appear to be drifting further from pandemic-era mores around everything from office attire to remote work to diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.

Megan Reitz, coauthor of the book "Speak Out, Listen Up," previously told Business Insider that bringing your whole self to work might sound good — or at least make some workers feel like their bosses care about their people as, well, people. Yet the advice often comes with limits, she said.

"When managers and leaders say, 'Bring your whole self to work,' they're leaving out the terms and conditions," Reitz said.

Those terms might involve sensitive topics like politics. In April, Google fired over two dozen employees who staged sit-ins at the company's California and New York offices.

At the time, CEO Sundar Pichai warned in a memo to employees that some actions weren't appropriate for the office.

"This is a business, and not a place to act in a way that disrupts coworkers or makes them feel unsafe, to attempt to use the company as a personal platform, or to fight over disruptive issues or debate politics," he wrote.

Andreessen's comments follow a contentious US election. On an episode of their podcast, "The Ben and Marc Show," Andreessen and A16z cofounder Ben Horowitz celebrated Donald Trump's reelection. Andreessen said Trump's win was an antidote to the "repression" that he and other crypto industry founders had experienced under President Joe Biden's White House.

An effort to encourage authenticity

The idea of showing up at work with all of your flags flying grew in popularity in the 2010s, Ella Washington, a professor of practice at Georgetown University, has told BI. However, she said, it has to be within reason and in accordance with what's acceptable at an organization.

"It is said in a way that is supposed to encourage authenticity, but the reality is in most workplaces, you can't bring your whole self. You can likely bring your whole professional self," Washington said.

She said that those in charge at work need to define what's acceptable, and then workers can determine whether the organization's stated values comport with their own.

"When it comes to business, it shouldn't be just based on our personal politics. And I know that's difficult for people to say because it's like, 'OK, wait. I can bring my whole self to work, but I can't talk about politics,'" she said.

Jake Telkamp, an assistant professor at the Hull College of Business at Augusta University in Georgia, previously told BI that fraught discussions over politics at work tend to leave people feeling depleted.

That, in turn, can leave them feeling less inclined to help their coworkers, he said. Besides, Telkamp said, the fights aren't likely to change someone's mind.

He said leaders and workers should instead focus on making people feel valued regardless of their background.

"When there was a high level of that, it reduced that negative effect of having liberals and conservatives on a team together," Telkamp said.