Chris Sacca – Hustling to Save the Planet at Lowercarbon (Capital Allocators, EP.321)

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 03:51 Early entrepreneurial endeavors 07:17 Ups and downs of early years 17:28 Early days at Google 21:38 Investing philosophy at Lowercase 28:33 Sourcing founders 30:06 Adding value to startups 35:16 Evaluating entrepreneurs 40:28 Retiring from Lowercase 41:58 Founding Lowercarbon 54:10 Investment process 57:23 Future opportunities 1:01:59 Closing questions Learn More Follow Ted on Twitter at @tseides or LinkedIn Subscribe to the mailing list Access Transcript with Premium Membership