Chris Sacca.
An accomplished venture investor, private equity principal, company advisor, and entrepreneur, Chris manages a portfolio of over fifty consumer web, mobile, and wireless technology start- ups as well as an array of mature enterprises through his holding company, Lowercase Capital. While primarily known for its investments in seed and early stage technology companies, Lowercase has quietly become one of the largest venture funds in the United States.
Previously, Chris served as Head of Special Initiatives at Google Inc. In that role, among other responsibilities, he founded and headed up the alternative access and wireless divisions. His most visible projects include Google’s 700MHz and TV white spaces spectrum initiatives, the company’s groundbreaking data center in Oregon and Google’s free citywide WiFi network in Mountain View, CA. Chris also spearheaded many of Google’s business development and M&A transactions and was on the founding team of the company’s New Business Development organization.
Before joining Google, Chris held a number of executive roles at one of the world’s largest streaming and digital media distribution companies, Speedera Networks (acquired by Akamai Technologies), and was ultimately responsible for their legal and corporate development efforts. Prior to Speedera, Chris was an attorney with the Silicon Valley law firm of Fenwick & West where he handled venture capital, mergers & acquisitions, and licensing transactions for technology clients such as Macromedia, VeriSign, and Kleiner Perkins. In 2008, Chris worked on President Barack Obama’s campaign as a Telecommunications, Media, and Technology advisor, a speaking surrogate, a field office volunteer, and as Co-Chair of Finance and a Trustee of the Presidential Inaugural Committee.
The Wall Street Journal cited Chris as “possibly the most influential businessman in America.” In 2011, Chris was the youngest member of the coveted Forbes “Midas List” recognizing the country’s top technology investors. Chris is a fixture in the Silicon Valley startup community, in part for the kind of fruitful and fun collaborations with early stage companies for which he was named of the top 10 angel investors in the country by BusinessWeek, and in part for his unforgettable cowboy shirts which recently earned him a spot on GQ’s ”Worst Dressed List”.
Chris was recently recognized as a Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute, annually selecting 20 of the world’s most promising leaders and public servants under the age of 45 and he also serves as an Associate Fellow of the Said Business School at Oxford University.
Chris regularly appears on television, radio, and in print and has been featured in BusinessWeek, Fortune, Fast Company, and on CNBC, BBC, CNN, FOX, and NPR as an expert in the realms of entrepreneurism, venture capital, and disruptive technologies. In parallel with his frequent keynotes at technology industry events, Chris is perennially hired by many of the world’s largest companies, financial institutions, universities, and governments to speak about innovation, workplace design, and business strategy in a digital era.
Chris graduated cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center where he was a member of The Tax Lawyer law review and was honored as the school’s Philip A. Ryan and Ralph J. Gilbert Memorial Scholar. He also graduated cum laude from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University and was an Edmund Evans Memorial Scholar as well as a Weeks Family Foundation Scholar. During his studies, Chris attended university at each of the Universidad Católica del Ecuador in Quito, Ecuador, University College Cork, in Cork, Ireland, and the Universidad Complutense in Madrid, Spain. Long before that, beginning in 6th grade, Chris attended the State University of New York at Buffalo for six years of graduate- level mathematics classes wearing thick glasses, awkward braces, and knowing the entire time that technology and computers would be passions of his for life.
Always taught by his parents the importance of giving back to those who need our help, Chris dedicates much of his time to helping charity:water, the Tony Hawk Foundation, and Lance Armstrong’s LIVESTRONG Foundation and, if you spend any time with him, he will likely rope you into doing your part as well. When not on the road for his companies, or huddled up in the cramped apartments and coffeeshops where his entrepreneurs often write their code, Chris lives with his family in Truckee, California, is an avid alpine and nordic skier of the Sierra, surfer and kitesurfer of the California coast, two-time Ironman triathlete, and he has bicycled coast-to-coast across the United States of America.
