He started his Lowercase Capital investment and advisory firm in 2008. He eventually landed on his feet as a lawyer, working as a general counsel for tech firms, then joined Google as head of special initiatives in 2003. Sacca says he got out the debt hole by taking on various jobs he found - from writing contracts to doing voiceovers for an audio book. During his law student years, Sacca had a stock portfolio worth $12 million - only to see it fall to negative $4 million within a matter of weeks. Sacca spoke at a recent USA TODAY #talkingtechLIVE event in Los Angeles, where many of the questions from the crowd concerned how Sacca says he once worked his way out of a $4 million debt. Sacca’s success, he says, has been that he’s always been willing to "challenge conventional thinking," and that resonates with entrepreneurs. Sacca pal Hunter Walk, a former Google co-worker who now, like Sacca, runs an investment fund, says using Twitter to get the message across pays off. Or his thoughts on money sender PayPal: “Hey kids! Ever wondered what the Internet looked and felt like in 1999? Just use week he's turned up the volume to promote his Shark Tank gig, doing Twitter Q&As, live video Periscope sessions and more, to plug the show. “Someone should let him know he's doing it wrong," he said in that tweet. Sacca says fans appreciate that he's not afraid to speak his mind, no matter how high profile or powerful the target. When Amazon’s Jeff Bezos’ became the third-richest American last week thanks to a big stock rise in the company, Sacca attacked Wall Street types who complained about Bezos' business strategy.
Start with his 1.6 million Twitter followers, far more than most celebrity tech investors, with the exception of Shark host Mark Cuban, (3.8 million.) In contrast, venture capitalist Fred Wilson has 515,000 followers and Benchmark Capital's Bill Gurley has 363,000 followers. That track record and maverick style have earned him a permanent slot on the tech speaking circuit and many fans. Trained as a lawyer, Sacca began his Lowercase Capital in 2008. In the technology world, Sacca is something of an indomitable force.įorbes pegs Sacca's net worth at $1.2 billion, with a golden track record for picking hits - he was an early investor in Uber, Twitter, Kickstarter and Instagram. Sacca says he tried working within the system at first, and when that wasn’t working, “I took a shot and called a spade a spade.” USA TODAY reached out to several board members about Sacca, and all declined to comment. It's a name he says he didn't appreciate. His public shaming of the board in an industry that usually holds those kinds of conversations behind boardroom doors didn’t win him friends on the board, some of whom dubbed Sacca the "Unabomber," for his frequent outbursts, according to Vanity Fair. He used his stature and social media presence to very publicly pummel the Twitter board of directors over the company's lack of direction and momentum, first in a 8,559-word manifesto and then repeatedly on Twitter. Ultimately he helped pressure directors to replace CEO Dick Costolo with Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, but not before accusing the board of being "jammed with members who don't own a lot of stock, don't use the product and are in the way." The nation may be getting acquainted with Sacca for the first time, but the former Google employee turned billionaire angel investor is well-known in the technology industry for making sharp investments (Uber and Twitter are two of his large holdings) and for having an even sharper tongue. "He wasn’t intimidated by the other Sharks - he went toe to toe with them." On the set, Sacca, who is partial to embroidered cowboy shirts (he rarely appears in public without them) showed he "really had done his homework,” Newbill says. But Newbill liked Sacca's story and his forthright style, and says he met with Sacca five times to convince him to come on the show.
0 kommentar(er)
