Former PayPal Exec to Create Family Tree for the World
By Ina Steiner
AuctionBytes.com
January 17, 2007

Former PayPal COO David O. Sacks has launched a new website, Geni.com, whose mission is to create a family tree of the entire world. A press release states the site is among the first to apply "web 2.0" principles of social media, mass collaboration, and user-generated content to genealogy. The company's CTO and co-founder is Alan Braverman, who previously founded Xoom, an international online money transfer site.

After PayPal's sale to eBay, Sacks founded Room 9 Entertainment, a Los Angeles-based production/finance company, for which he continues to serve as CEO. He produced the feature film "Thank you for Smoking." Sacks is also developing a TV spin-off to the movie with NBC, and other movies are in the works.

Geni, Inc. is financially backed by venture capital firm Founders Fund in San Francisco, which was founded by former PayPal CEO Peter Thiel.