# Diego Berdakin **Diego Berdakin** is a Los Angeles entrepreneur and investor. He co-founded the online retailer [[BeachMint]] in 2010 and the ghost-kitchen company [[CloudKitchens]] in 2016, and he teaches at the University of Southern California's School of Cinematic Arts. **Why he's on the map:** Berdakin was the first donor reported by [[Purple Good Government PAC]], the committee [[David Sacks]] uses for his political giving. He gave $50,000 on January 25, 2022, eight days before Sacks put in his own first money. Only two other outside donors ever gave the committee a large sum: his CloudKitchens co-founder [[Sky Dayton]] and the [[Dohring Family Trust]]. ## Business - **BeachMint.** Berdakin and Myspace co-founder [[Josh Berman]] ran Slingshot Labs, an incubator owned by [[News Corporation]], then left in 2010 to start BeachMint, which sold celebrity-designed jewelry and clothing by subscription. It raised more than $75 million from venture investors. - **CloudKitchens.** He founded the company with Dayton and ran its parent, City Storage Systems. [[Travis Kalanick]] paid $150 million for control in March 2018. Press accounts at the time described Berdakin as an early [[Uber]] investor. He listed CloudKitchens as his employer on campaign-finance filings in 2023 and 2024. - **USC.** He has taught at the School of Cinematic Arts since 2012 and holds its Berdakin Family Chair for Ethics in Media and Technology, which his family's foundation endowed. ## Political giving The $50,000 to Sacks's committee is by far the largest federal contribution in Berdakin's name in [[Federal Election Commission]] records since 2019. His other gifts in those years were much smaller. They include $5,800 to Sen. [[Michael Bennet]] in March 2022 and $6,600 to Rep. [[Ro Khanna]] in March 2023, both Democrats. ## Connections - [[David Sacks]] · [[Purple Good Government PAC]] - [[Sky Dayton]] · [[CloudKitchens]] · [[Travis Kalanick]] - [[BeachMint]] · [[Josh Berman]]