Mark Cuban offers to fund government tech unit that was cut in the middle of the night

Billionaire investor Mark Cuban waded into the newest authorities tech shake-up on Saturday, posting an sudden provide of assist for newly laid-off federal staff on the social community Bluesky.

His message, which rapidly gained traction, urged the displaced engineers and designers to show the upheaval to their benefit.

“If you happen to labored for 18F and bought fired, Group collectively to start out a consulting firm,” wrote Cuban. “It’s only a matter of time earlier than DOGE wants you to repair the mess they inevitably created. They must rent your organization as a contractor to repair it. However in your phrases. I’m completely satisfied to speculate and/or assist.”

Cuban’s provide got here after the federal government’s Common Providers Administration (GSA) abruptly gutted its 18F expertise unit, which helps different authorities companies construct, purchase, and share tech merchandise. Per Politico, the layoffs affected roughly 70 people who discovered the information round 1 a.m. Jap time on Saturday. Amongst different issues, the unit had reportedly constructed Login.gov, a safe and personal approach for the general public to entry companies at authorities companies, together with Social Safety and the Division of Veterans Affairs.

The early-morning layoffs tie to a Trump administration directive to shrink the federal workforce and slash spending on the behest of Elon Musk’s Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE). The cuts weren’t a primary for 18F; in response to Politico, two dozen extra 18F staff have been laid off in February when GSA lower probationary staffers.

These impacted within the wee hours of Saturday morning also received emails late Friday from DOGE with the topic line, “What did you do final week? Half II.”

In keeping with Politico, the emails — prompting staff to checklist their weekly accomplishments by Monday — have been broadly distributed throughout a number of companies, together with the State Division, the IRS, and the NIH.

Within the wake of those new layoffs, Cuban’s proposal presents an intriguing risk: may the very staff pushed out of presidency assist reshape the way forward for civic tech on their very own phrases? As DOGE strikes to dismantle companies, even Musk has acknowledged fallout tied to the velocity with which his workforce is shifting. On Wednesday, Musk shared that, “For instance, with USAID, one of many issues we accidentally canceled — very briefly — was Ebola prevention.” (Public well being consultants have since mentioned the federal government’s assist has not been fully restored.)

The query now could be whether or not some share of the federal government’s rising variety of displaced former staff will seize the second, banding collectively to construct the startups that might at some point promote their experience again to the federal government. If that’s the case, it could characterize a hanging twist within the administration’s efforts to shrink the general public workforce.

If Cuban has his approach, at the least one such unit could discover itself inside a personal firm the federal government has no selection however to depend on. One other Bluesky person even had a branding concept for the startup, telling Cuban, “Title the brand new firm 18FU.”