Scott Kupor is the Director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management and has achieved some of the most important reforms in DC in only a couple years. How has he reduced the size of the federal government for the first time in generations? How is he bringing merit back to the civil service? And what is he doing to incentivize and make it easier for our best minds to serve in government?
Before joining the Trump administration, Scott was employee number one at Andreessen Horowitz. As Managing Partner, he helped build it into one of the world’s largest venture firms. He’s also the author of the bestselling “Secrets of Sand Hill Road: Venture Capital and How to Get It.” In 2024, he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as Director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, where he’s responsible for more than two million civil service employees and the policies governing their hiring, firing, and retention.
Recorded before a live audience at the University of Austin, we begin with Scott’s unlikely path to DC and the incentive problem at the root of government dysfunction. Learn how a consent decree over four decades ago killed entrance exams for federal jobs, and how Scott got it overturned — merit is coming back! He also explains how he executed the largest peacetime reduction in the federal workforce since 1930, while eliminating degree and experience requirements so we can get our top talent into government regardless of their background. Finally, Scott dives into the launch of the U.S. Tech Force and his effort to recruit an elite corps of software engineers to make government competent and functional again. He ends with his pitch to young Americans: if you want to take on some of the most complex problems that impact millions of your fellow citizens, there’s no better place than the U.S. government.
(00:00) Episode intro
(01:40) Why leave tech to be attacked in DC?
(06:27) Biggest federal workforce reduction in modern history
(08:45) How the left killed merit-based hiring
(14:40) How Scott is bringing merit back to DC
(15:50) Lessons from DOGE
(18:20) Hidden costs of outdated systems; billions wasted
(23:40) Building a U.S. Tech Force and hiring for skills
(26:20) Eliminating degree requirement to get the best talent
(27:16) Why should a young talented person serve in government?
(30:28) Optimism for DC; rejecting the blackpill
