Chris Sacca Net Worth 2024: 40+ Startup Investments In Just 15 Years!

Chris Sacca is one of the most successful venture capitalists in Silicon Valley. He’s the founder of Lowercase Capital, a company that landed massive early investments in startups like Instagram, Twitter, and Uber.

Thanks to his highly successful venture capital funds, his most notable investments, as well as a few TV appearances on Shark Tank, Chris Sacca’s net worth today is estimated at about $1.2 billion.

This article condenses all of the most valuable insights that you can learn from Chris Sacca’s life, career, net worth, and more so that you can be just as successful.

Chris Sacca’s Net Worth 2024: Full Breakdown

Information regarding Sacca’s salaries, return on investments, or even the number of startups he’s invested in is not made public for the most part.

However, we have been able to build a carefully constructed estimate using all of the reputable public sources out there to bring you this breakdown.

5 Fun Facts about Chris Sacca

1. Chris Sacca found a software loophole that turned $12 million into heavy debt, which he later repaid.
2. Sacca’s first angel investment was in Photobucket, which sold for $250 million.
3. He owns a property in Truckee, California, and another in Malibu.
4. Sacca’s investments in Twitter once accounted for 18% of the company.
5. He co-founded Lowercarbon Capital, focusing on solutions for climate change.

Latest News & Updates

Recently, Chris Sacca has been highly focused on climate tech investments.

He is supporting startups focused on addressing climate change through his new fund, “Lowercarbon Capital.” He remains a vocal advocate for innovation in this space and continues to influence the venture capital world by backing early-stage companies that focus on sustainability.

Chris Sacca’s Early Life

Chris Sacca was born on May 12, 1975, in Lockport, New York to Gerald, an attorney, and mother Katherine, a professor. He studied at Lockport High School before his family moved to Buffalo, New York.

In the US, Chris graduated from the Edmund A. Walsh School at the Georgetown University Law Center. He also spent a few semesters studying abroad in Ireland, Spain, and Ecuador.

Chris Sacca graduated magna cum laude with a B.S. in Foreign Service in 1997, earning recognition as an Edmund Evans Memorial Scholar and a Weeks Family Foundation Scholar, alongside his notable contributions as a member of the Tax Lawyer Law Review department.

In 2000, he graduated with a Juris Doctor cum laude from the same university with a degree in Law and Technology.

Chris Sacca Net Worth: Tracing the Journey of the Savvy Venture Capital Investor

A majority of Chris Sacca’s net worth comes from his venture investing in profitable tech startups. However, he didn’t build his fortune straight out of college. In fact, he once was in debt for a whopping $4 million dollars.

Let’s explore his journey, highlighting both the setbacks and the monumental successes that paved the way for his billionaire status.

The Early Chapters in Sacca’s Investment Life

While still in law school, Sacca started investing what funds he had accrued into venture capital. This was a risky time to do so considering that he was also juggling student loans.

Chris used the funds he had to invest in the stock market and found a technical flaw in Online Trading Brokers’ software that he could exploit. He would use this loophole to build a $12 million dollar fortune.

However, Sacca was heavily leveraged when the stock market crashed and the internet bubble popped, absolutely wiping out his investments and putting him in debt.

Chris had a 4 million dollar negative balance to cover though he was able to negotiate the debt to a bit over $1 million, an amount he paid by 2005.

Sacca’s Work in Silicon Valley

Determined to settle his debts and start afresh, Chris Sacca made his way to Silicon Valley, where he landed a job at Fenwick & West, using his law degree to work with various tech startups on mergers, venture capital, and acquisitions.

Notably, his clients included Verisign, Macromedia, and Kleiner Perkins.

Following this role, Sacca founded the Salinger Group. The group’s primary objective was networking, and this particular venture landed him at Speedera Networks, a digital media business.

In Speedera Networks, he was in charge of legal and corporate development efforts, as well as fending off lawsuits from the company’s biggest rival, Akamai.

Corporate Counsel at Google

Sacca’s tenure at Speedera Networks was brief, as he swiftly transitioned to Google in 2003, assuming the role of Head of Special Initiatives.

During his time at Google, he was instrumental in the acquisition of Keyhole which would be essential for the launch of Google Earth, and played a crucial role in the development of Google Ventures, overseeing various other significant projects such as:

• Oregon
• Citywide free Wi-Fi Network
• California
• Mountain View
• 700 MHz & TV White Spaces Spectrum initiatives

The exceptional performance he had at Google placed him among the very first employees who received the Founder’s Award.

Why Chris Sacca Left Google

In 2007, Chris decided to leave Google and focus on being a full-time angel investor.

He undoubtedly earned a massive salary for the job so how did he make this decision after such a great gig?

While at Google, Sacca invested in various ventures as an angel investor. In 2007, he bought a property and moved to Truckee, a town near the Lake Tahoe mountains, where he began his successful venture capital endeavors, frequently brainstorming with entrepreneurs like Travis Kalanick, Brad Feld, and Eric Schmidt.

The first investment he made while still at Google was in Photobucket, a company that was acquired by News Corp in 2007 for a whopping sum of $250 million. He also invested in Twttr, now Twitter, a deal where he spent $25,000 of his savings.

During that period, Twitter was in its early stages as an idea for a microblogging service conceptualized by Evan Williams. Williams approached Sacca with an investment opportunity, and upon accepting, Sacca became one of the first individuals to register on the platform.

Having built a strong network and acquired valuable insights into promising startups, Sacca chose to leave Google in December 2007 to concentrate entirely on venture capital.

Three years later, he launched his own venture capital firm called Lowercase Capital.

The Success of Lowercase Capital

Launched in 2010, Lowercase Capital became profitable almost immediately. Sacca’s venture capital firm invested in profitable businesses like Instagram, Twilio, Uber, and WordPress, among others.

One of their early funds, Lowercase Ventures Fund I, started with over $8 million in seed investments for companies like Uber, Instagram, Twitter, Docker, Style Seat, and Optimizely.

In addition to startups in the tech industry, Lowercase also invested in other ventures, including a restaurant in Truckee, and the Blue Bottle Coffee Company.

After his $25,000 investment in Twitter, Sacca also took part in a financing round for the company in 2007, investing a portion of $5 million. He took a very active role in his company’s investments.

He handled venture capital investments, but also attended meetings at Uber and Twitter, and acted as an adviser during the companies’ formative years.

He was clearly a massive fan of Twitter, saying to Yahoo! Finance that:

”It was one of my children and I needed to defend it at all costs.”

In 2010, Sacca opened an investment fund worth $1 billion used to buy blocks of Twitter shares from stockholders. By 2011, his company had purchased $400 million worth of shares.

By 2013, Sacca had invested almost 18% of Twitter, totaling around $1 billion in value.

Today, Chris Saca has sold all of his shares. “I haven’t owned TWTR for almost a couple of years” – he says. “When they failed to get Ev involved again, I lost hope. Love the service, hate the stock”.

In 2013, Chris Sacca became partners with Matt Mazzeo. Mazzeo was heading Lowercase Stampede, an early-stage fund out of Los Angeles.

By 2015, Lowercase owned 4% of Uber and had investments in Automattic, the company behind WordPress. They also invested in companies like Instagram, Slack, Medium, and Kickstarter during their partnership.

Matt was a partner at Coatue Management. He left the company when Sacca announced that he was retiring from VC in 2017.

Sacca announced that he was retiring from venture capital and would focus on his family, his podcast, and TV appearances.

Thanks to all these smart investments in his portfolio, Sacca built a reputation as a smart American venture investor, and Fortune labeled his firm as one of the most successful venture capital funds in the world.

He remains the Chairman of Lowercase Capital even today, even though he stepped back from his active role at the company. The performance made him one of the youngest mentions in the Forbes Midas List in 2011.

Chris Sacca is worth $1.2 billion, up from pretty much nothing just 9 years ago: http://t.co/FhwBkr9uAf #MidasList pic.twitter.com/So7AaxYTCX

— Forbes (@Forbes) March 25, 2015

TV Appearances

Chris Sacca has never been one to shy away from public appearances.

He spent many years appearing on TV, as well as speaking on various podcasts. In 2015, he joined Shark Tank as a guest judge where he remained for two Emmy Award-winning seasons, right alongside Kevin O’Leary and Mark Cuban.

His most notable Shark Tank investment was the $100,000 in Rent Like a Champion for a 5% stake. He left Shark Tank after the eighth season of the show.

In 2016, Chris Sacca was a co-star in the first episode of Alex, Inc., an ABC series.

Politics

In addition to these appearances, Sacca was also involved in the 2008 presidential election, working for Barack Obama’s campaign.

He worked as a legal advisor, a speaking surrogate, an office volunteer, and a Trustee of the Presidential Inaugural Committee. He was the Co-Chair of Tech for Obama during his reelection campaign in 2012, as well as a National Finance Committee member.

Philanthropy

Chris Sacca is one of the most successful venture capitalists and his wealth made it possible for him to actively engage in various philanthropic endeavors of his choice.

For starters, he allocated $350 million to developing solutions like carbon removal and nuclear fusion to tackle climate change. Together with his wife, Crystal English Sacca, he founded Lowercarbon Capital, a firm that promotes environmental and social causes.

What Else Does Chris Sacca Invest In?

Aside from his venture capital fund investments, Chris Sacca has made notable forays into other investment avenues, including real estate and cryptocurrencies.

Real Estate

In 2013, Chris Sacca bought a Mediterranean villa in Los Angeles, in the South Bay for $6.3 million.

In 2014, he bought a 3,400-square-foot property on La Costa Beach for $1.1 million.

He also has his property in Truckee, California, which he bought for $415,000, as well as another house right next to it that he bought in 2009 for $631,000.

Cryptocurrency

Chris Sacca is a known crypto investor, too. He has investments in Bitcoin and Ethereum, among many others. He also invests in NFTs.

While the details surrounding his exact crypto investments aren’t public information, Chris Sacca is an advocate for blockchain and crypto.

In a podcast interview with Tim Ferriss, he shared that he has a ‘broad basket’ in investments, including major coins like Bitcoin and Ethereum, as well as small coins he calls ‘shitcoin lottery tickets’.

What Can We Learn From Chris Sacca’s Success?

Chris Sacca’s triumphs (and failures) offer us valuable insights for investments and business.

His relentless pursuit of success and fortune, even at times when it seems impossible, is proof that you can do anything you set your mind to, as long as you are dedicated, talented, and persistent.

,Chris Sacca puts an emphasis on flexibility in strategies and calculated risk-taking.

Yes, he invests in businesses with only a bit of history – or none at all. However, his many successful investments go to show that he carefully planned his venture investing moves.

Chris Sacca embraces failure as a stepping stone. At one point, he had over a million in debt, but that didn’t convince him to stop pursuing his investment passion.

By embracing his principles of adaptability and persistence, we can form a newfound resilience in business.