Chris Sacca might be the best venture capitalist most people outside of Silicon Valley had never heard of until he showed up on Shark Tank wearing a cowboy shirt. That became kind of his thing. The cowboy shirts and the absurdly good investment track record.
He grew up in Lockport, New York, and went to Georgetown for law school. Before starting his own fund he worked at Google during the early days, which gave him a front-row seat to what hypergrowth looks like. He took that experience and founded Lowercase Capital, a venture fund that made early bets on Twitter, Uber, Instagram, Kickstarter, and Twilio. The returns on those investments were enormous.
On Shark Tank he was a guest shark and immediately stood out. He's got this energy that's part tech bro, part cowboy, part genuinely smart investor. He gets excited about founders who think big and he's not afraid to make aggressive offers when he sees something he likes. He also has a good radar for when someone is just riding a trend versus building something real.
Sacca eventually stepped back from active venture investing to focus on climate and other interests, but his track record speaks for itself. When people talk about the best early-stage tech investors of the 2010s, he's in the conversation every time.
Notable stuff:
- Founded Lowercase Capital, early investor in Twitter, Uber, and Instagram
- One of the most successful venture investors of the 2010s
- Guest shark known for his cowboy shirts and aggressive deal-making
- Named to Time's "100 Most Influential People" list