“Fuck it… I’m just not going to play this traditionally anymore.”
– Chris Sacca
Chris Sacca was recently the cover story of the “Midas Issue” of Forbes Magazine.
The reason: He is a newly-minted billionaire and the proprietor of what will likely be the most successful venture capital fund in history: LOWERCASE I of LOWERCASE Capital.
He’s an early-stage investor in companies like Twitter, Uber, Instagram, Kickstarter, and many more.
In this interview, we discuss unfair advantages, how Chris chooses founders and investments, stories of missed opportunities, the styles that differentiate Wall Street from Silicon Valley investors, and how keg parties can liberate law students from the tyranny of class (Chris completed law school without attending any classes).
Enjoy!
You can find the transcript of this episode here. Transcripts of all episodes can be found here.
- Listen to it on iTunes.
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This episode mentions the incredible Matt Mullenweg. Matt, who’s also been on this podcast, was a lead developer behind WordPress, which runs about 23% of the Internet. You can listen to our booze-infused conversation here, in which we discuss polyphasic sleep, tequila, and building billion-dollar companies like his current gig (stream below or right-click here to download):
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QUESTION(S) OF THE DAY: What’s the best investment advice you ever received? Or worst? Please let me know in the comments.
Scroll below for links and show notes…
Selected Links from the Episode
- A partial list of Chris Sacca’s investments.
- Want to skip an MBA program? Check out Feld Thoughts
- Not Fade Away: A Short Life Well Lived by Laurence Shames and Peter Barton
- Watch Chris Sacca’s commencement speech to University of Minnesota
- I Seem to be a Verb by Buckminster Fuller
- The Magic of Thinking Big by David Schwartz
- The Essential Scratch and Sniff Guide to Becoming a Wine Expert by Richard Betts, Wendy MacNaughton and Crystal English Sacca
- Follow Chris on Twitter – @Sacca
Show Notes
- What is Chris Sacca best known for? [6:10]
- Total Immersion swimming and how to invest like Chris Sacca [8:40]
- Pieces of advice given to Chris Sacca on early-stage investing [11:55]
- What disqualifies startup founders in Sacca’s mind [16:05]
- Travis Kalanick and Nintendo Wii Tennis [18:55]
- Traits of founders for whom success, at massive scale, is predestined [22:00]
- The whales that got away: GoPro, Snapchat, and more [27:40]
- On letting the negative case dominate one’s analysis for whether to invest or not [29:55]
- Differences between venture capitalists and private equity [35:15]
- Books for investing and cultivating emotional intelligence [41:00]
- Thoughts on modeling what it is to be successful [49:30]
- What Chris Sacca’s parents did when he was a kid [53:50]
- What Sacca looks for when hiring [58:25]
- What historical figure Sacca most identifies with? [1:01:15]
- Early collecting habits [1:04:25]
- The story of the prophetic notebook [1:10:10]
- The two differentiators that shifted the nature of Sacca’s business [1:19:10]
- Advice to founders or would-be entrepreneurs [1:27:40]
- Most readily quoted movie [1:31:10]