Almost two weeks after the New York Times reported The Airbnb co -founder, Joe Gebbia announce on x As a starting point, he will take advantage of his design expertise in the context of an effort to revise the notoriously slow and heavy retirement process of the government.
The system could apparently use the help. Chuck Ezell, acting director of the OPM, said in a video testimony Released today – and republished by Gebbia – a week ago, the administration “challenged” the agency to “treat a retiree, from start to finish, digitally, without printing anything on paper”. The deadline? Only a week.
In the same video, an employee of the agency told the cameraman that he has already managed to reduce the process to two days.
Whether this process is evolving or sustainable or even reproducible remains to be seen, but OPM has been under pressure for years to modernize its systems. Last summer, the agency launched a pilot program For a new online retirement application platform in response to continuous concerns concerning the delayed treatment of advantages; The question had drawn attention in 2023, when several legislators published a press releaseUndering the OPM to approach the slow treatment of retirees, some of which were waiting for more than 90 days to receive their advantages.
GEBBIA – A billionaire repeatedly thanks to his Airbnb holdings – still headquarters on the board of directors of the short -term rental giant. Since September 2022, he has also been a member of the board of directors at Tesla.
In his post X on his next steps, Gebbia wrote: “Since I left my operational role at Airbnb in 2022, I am looking for the next digital design challenge. And I can think of some most important than volunteering to improve the user experience within our government. »»
In addition to co-founder Airbnb, Gebbia is the co-founder of Samara, an Airbnb spin-out which builds prefabricated houses that customers can personalize, by choosing arrangements, colors, windows, doors and decks, with Samara saying that it manages the rest, including obtaining associated permits.
Last week, Samara announced that she would donate $ 15 million housing to support Los Angelenos who lost their house in the January fires that caused an estimate 30 billion dollars in lost real estate.
Since Gebbia’s involvement with DOGE has been revealed, some Airbnb hosts have expressed consternation on the platform, with some by saying to the standard of San Francisco that they have fired their lists. “Being in the DC region and seeing the impact that DOGE had on our community and our economy, I just feel like I was no longer a host of Airbnb in good faith,” said a long -standing Airbnb host.
In a statement at the point of sale, Airbnb stressed that Gebbia has not been involved in its daily operations since 2022, with a spokesperson adding: “Airbnb has always been more than the point of view of one person. Our community is made up of millions of hosts and hundreds of millions of guests from all walks of life. »»
