Sahil Lavingia was fired from DOGE in less than two months of his joining. Founder of Gumroad , a platform where creators can sell their goods, Lavingia joined the Elon Musk-led task force in March 2025. He was hired as a software engineer for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Lavingia recently published a diary, offering a glimpse inside the program aimed to cut federal spending.
Driven by a desire to code for good, he entered the role hoping to streamline veterans' services and reduce bloated spending through smarter technology. “I just knew I wanted to write code for the federal government. VA's impact is around $350 billion a year, with 473,000 employees,” he writes.
In his diary notes, the engineer narrated how his early days at DOGE were marked by optimism. He proposed and built tools using large language models (LLMs) to review over 90,000 federal contracts, flagging unnecessary spending and helping VA officials prioritize cuts.
But the cracks quickly showed.
‘DOGE was more like having McKinsey volunteers’
Lavingia writes:
“The reality was setting in: DOGE was more like having McKinsey volunteers embedded in agencies rather than the revolutionary force I'd imagined. It was Elon (in the White House), Steven Davis (coordinating), and everyone else scattered across agencies.”
“Meanwhile, the public was seeing news reports of mass firings that seemed cruel and heartless, many assuming DOGE was directly responsible,” he further added.
‘DOGE had no direct authority’
Stating that DOGE had no direct authority, Lavingia said that the “real decisions came from the agency heads appointed by President Trump, who were wise to let DOGE act as the 'fall guy' for unpopular decisions.”
The engineer's biggest disappointment came when, despite building prototypes to improve how veterans file disability claims, he couldn’t get the green light to move them into production.
Interview that got Sahil Lavingia fired
Lavingia’s tenure with DOGE came to an abrupt end on May 9 after he spoke candidly to the press about his experience. He says that his access was revoked without warning.
“I reached out to someone who wrote about Gumroad's recent transition to open source. During the interview, which was then published in Fast Company, I was asked about my experience working at DOGE, which had been revealed publicly as part of a WIRED article. Soon after publication, my access was revoked without warning. My DOGE days were over,” he writes.
Driven by a desire to code for good, he entered the role hoping to streamline veterans' services and reduce bloated spending through smarter technology. “I just knew I wanted to write code for the federal government. VA's impact is around $350 billion a year, with 473,000 employees,” he writes.
In his diary notes, the engineer narrated how his early days at DOGE were marked by optimism. He proposed and built tools using large language models (LLMs) to review over 90,000 federal contracts, flagging unnecessary spending and helping VA officials prioritize cuts.
But the cracks quickly showed.
‘DOGE was more like having McKinsey volunteers’
Lavingia writes:
“The reality was setting in: DOGE was more like having McKinsey volunteers embedded in agencies rather than the revolutionary force I'd imagined. It was Elon (in the White House), Steven Davis (coordinating), and everyone else scattered across agencies.”
“Meanwhile, the public was seeing news reports of mass firings that seemed cruel and heartless, many assuming DOGE was directly responsible,” he further added.
‘DOGE had no direct authority’
Stating that DOGE had no direct authority, Lavingia said that the “real decisions came from the agency heads appointed by President Trump, who were wise to let DOGE act as the 'fall guy' for unpopular decisions.”
The engineer's biggest disappointment came when, despite building prototypes to improve how veterans file disability claims, he couldn’t get the green light to move them into production.
Interview that got Sahil Lavingia fired
Lavingia’s tenure with DOGE came to an abrupt end on May 9 after he spoke candidly to the press about his experience. He says that his access was revoked without warning.
“I reached out to someone who wrote about Gumroad's recent transition to open source. During the interview, which was then published in Fast Company, I was asked about my experience working at DOGE, which had been revealed publicly as part of a WIRED article. Soon after publication, my access was revoked without warning. My DOGE days were over,” he writes.
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