He’s still only 35, but Daniel Saks already ranks as an accomplished business tycoon. The San Francisco resident co-founded AppDirect and its cloud commerce platform, which has attracted $465 million in funding and currently sports a $1.5 billion valuation — putting it deep into IPO territory. Now the tech wunderkind has spread the silicon love to Los Angeles, significantly upgrading his residential circumstances with the $12 million purchase of an ultra-contemporary mansion set high in the mountains above Beverly Hills.
For better or worse, the new Saks property lies almost immediately outside Beverly Park, L.A.’s most infamously steroidal gated community of monster mansions. In comparison to those behemoths, some of which span more than 30,000 square feet of living space, the Saks property looks positively quaint — just a modest 8,000-square-foot cottage on a .23-acre lot. There are five bedrooms and seven full bathrooms, per the listing, plus a movie theater with plush seating for the homeowner and only 17 of his closest friends.
Still, the property is inarguably slick and loaded with the high-tech amenities required by today’s tycoons. There’s a six-car garage done up like a snazzy auto museum, a European-inspired kitchen with sleek, chic slabs of exotic stone and wood, endless expanses of floor-to-ceiling glass sliders, and a state-of-the-art Control4 automation system that powers audiovisual aspects of the real estate show.
There are not one but two master bedrooms, both of them with long views over the surrounding hills. On the main level, a great room anchored by a massive stone fireplace opens seamlessly to the back patio, where stone decks spill out to a sunken conversation pit with built-in bench seating and a firepit. Adjoining that space is a negative-edge swimming pool with inset spa; other luxe details include an indoor wet bar trimmed in white marble and a mirror-walled gym.
Developed on speculation by a local builder and completed in early 2018, the house essentially sat empty for nearly three years. Along with a change of realtors, the initial $22.8 million asking price eventually tumbled to just under $16 million. The buyers negotiated even further, paying barely half the original pricetag.
Saks founded AppDirect in 2009, when he was just 23. The Harvard grad currently serves as the rapidly-growing startup’s co-CEO, alongside his cofounder Nicolas Desmarais. On the personal front, he’s married to Rachel Saks, the founder and CEO of Salesforce-targeted recruiting firm Hireforce; the couple continue to maintain a luxe apartment in San Francisco’s bustling Mid-Market neighborhood.
Records reveal this is not the couple’s only Los Angeles home; two years ago, they shelled out $5 million for a smaller but similarly contemporary extravaganza in the seaside neighborhood of Venice. That walled and gated oasis contains a courtyard-style plunge pool, glass walls and white oak floors, and 2,000 square feet of lanai decking.
Matt and Josh Altman of the Altman Brothers team at Douglas Elliman held the listing; Bryce Pennel of Compass repped Saks.