Chris Sacca is one of the most accomplished venture investors of the last half century. He founded Lowercase Capital in 2010 and made seed stage investments in Twitter, Uber, Instagram, Blue Bottle Coffee, and Stripe. Lowercase’s first fund famously became one of the highest returning venture funds in history and landed Chris at #2 on the Midas List in 2017. After retiring together with his wife Crystal that year, they came back to the business to found Lowercarbon Capital to fund “kickass companies that make money slashing carbon emissions.” Lowercarbon manages in excess of $2 billion of outside capital, excluding its largest investor – Chris and Crystal.

Our conversation covers Chris’s humble upbringing, early entrepreneurial endeavors, and ups and downs in his early professional years. We cover his transition to Google, foundations of his investing philosophy at Lowercase, and work today at Lowercarbon. Along the way, Chris shares his sourcing of deals, evaluation of founders, and work with portfolio companies. He is a gifted storyteller and a walking case-study on grit.

Show Notes
03:03 Early entrepreneurial endeavors
06:29 Ups and downs of early years
16:40 Early days at Google
20:50 Investing philosophy at Lowercase
27:45 Sourcing founders
29:18 Adding value to startups
34:28 Evaluating entrepreneurs
39:40 Retiring from Lowercase
41:10 Founding Lowercarbon
53:22 Investment process
56:35 Future opportunities
1:01:11 Closing questions