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The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

20VC: Chris Sacca on Coming Out of Retirement To Unf**k The Planet with Lowercarbon, How Chris Evaluates His Relationship To Money Today, Why We Have Bred a Generation of Ass**** Kids, Do VCs Provide Any Real Value and The True Unfiltered Opinion on Faceb

The Twenty Minute VC (20VC): Venture Capital | Startup Funding | The Pitch

The Twenty Minute VC

Finance, Venturecapital, Tech News, News, Siliconvalley, Technology, Investing, Startups, Business

4.4637 Ratings

🗓️ 11 October 2021

⏱️ 76 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Chris Sacca is the Founder and Chairman @ Lowercase Capital, one of the best performing funds in the history of venture capital with a portfolio including Uber, Stripe, Twitter, Instagram, Twilio, Docker and many more. Despite this incredible success, in 2017, Chris and his wife, Crystal announced they would be stepping back from day to day investing to focus on ongoing efforts to rescue our democracy, heal the planet, promote diversity within venture capital. Earlier this year, they announced Lowercarbon Capital, with $800M AUM, with the mission to back companies that make real money slashing COemissions, and buying us time to unf**k the planet. Fun fact: As a result of his incredible investing success Chris has also been a Shark on Shark Tank and even starred in an episode of Billions.

In Today’s Episode with Chris Sacca You Will Learn:

1.) How Chris made his way into the world of investing having started life as a lawyer? What was his first investment? How did the first Twitter $25K angel check come about?

2.) How does Chris evaluate his own relationship to money and wealth? Why did Chris and Crystal interview some of the wealthiest people? What did they learn from those discussions? How does Chris view the role of luck? Why was it when Chris lacked optimism he lost the most money? How did being $4M in the hole from public markets impact his mindset?

3.) What does it mean for Chris to bring up healthy and happy children? Why does Chris believe today's parenting has bred a generation of asshole kids? In what way is great parenting aligned to great team management? How does Chris give feedback to his teams vs his children? What tone should be used? Should it always be "radical candor"? Should it be immediate?

4.) Does Chris believe that VCs really add any value? What does Chris believe is his secret sauce? Why does Chris believe that as a VC you have to be outspoken and loud about the value you provide? What have been some of the biggest lessons for Chris from sitting on boards and working with Bill Gurley? Why does Chris believe that most VCs are shitty managers?

5.) Why did Chris decide to come back from retirement and found Lowercarbon with Crystal? Why did he not decide to do it all with his own money? Why is now different for climate tech than prior generations of climate tech innovation? How big does Chris want to scale Lowercarbon? Will Chris make more money from climate investing than from tech?

Item’s Mentioned In Today’s Episode with Chris Sacca

Chris’ Favourite Book: Not Fade Away: A Short Life Well Lived, How To Raise an Adult

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Welcome to 20 VC with me, Harry Stebbings. And so am excited about the show today is a very big

0:04.6

understatement. I've wanted to make this show happen for seven years since the very first 20 VC episode.

0:09.4

Our guest is one of the OGs of the investing world and also one of the most awesome and genuine people.

0:14.5

I also have to admit that this episode is not 20 minutes. It's not even close to 20 minutes,

0:18.8

but the conversation was so great. Honestly,

0:20.9

I just thought, fuck it and let's roll with it. And so with that, I'm so thrilled to welcome

0:24.7

Chris Saka, founder and chairman at Lower Case Capital, one of the best performing funds in the

0:29.1

history of venture capital, with a portfolio including the lights of Uber, Stripe, Twitter, Instagram,

0:34.7

Twilio, Docker, and many more incredible companies. Despite this incredible success, in 2017, Chris and his wife, Instagram, Twilio, Docker, and many more incredible companies.

0:41.8

Despite this incredible success, in 2017, Chris and his wife Crystal,

0:46.0

announced they would be stepping back from day-to-day investing to focus on ongoing efforts to rescue our democracy, heal the planet, and promote diversity within venture capital

0:50.2

and technology.

0:51.2

And earlier this year, they announced lower carbon capital with $800 million in assets under management, with the mission to back companies that make real

0:58.8

money-slashing CO2 emissions and buying us time to unfuck the planet. I thought that was probably

1:03.8

one of the coolest mission statements I've heard from a fund. And then fun fact, as a result of his

1:08.1

incredible investing success, Chris has also been a shark on shark tank

1:11.5

and even starred in one of my favorites in an episode of billions, which is incredible. I do also,

1:16.4

they want to say a huge thanky to the main man, Shaq, for helping me prep for this episode.

1:20.4

Shaq, as always, you are the man, and I so appreciate your help. But before we move into the show

1:24.7

today, Mercury is building full-stack banking for startups,

1:28.3

applying under 10 minutes from anywhere for FDIC-insured bank accounts, physical and virtual debit cards,

1:34.3

domestic and international wires, and integrations with gusto, stripe, quickbooks, and plaid, to name a few.

...

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