Chris Sacca — A Tribute to the GOAT.

Entering my birthday weekend last year, I was glad to be done with work and enjoy a weekend with my then girlfriend (now amazing wife). I was particularly excited that night because we were going to be watching ABC’s Shark Tank with special guest Chris Sacca. Chris is someone that I highly look up to. Who is this Sacca character you ask? Chris founded Lowercase Capital, one of Silicon Valley’s most successful VC firms, investing in companies like Instagram, Twitter, and Uber. Needless to say, his attention is highly coveted by founders trying to raise money for their companies.

We had just finished dinner when I was scrolling through my Twitter feed and noticed Chris tweet out:

I immediately replied and before I knew it, I received a direct message from Chris asking if I was still up for it and had the setup to do it. Picture a young boy meeting Michael Jordan for the first time…I was freaking out! After managing to compose myself, I got all set up for the live stream, and I saw Chris’s name pop up on the live stream. Within 15 minutes, I had a direct connection to the greatest venture capitalist of all time.

I was so excited that I could hardly sit down to enjoy the show. Jeanna and I kept looking at each other like we had just won the lottery. Once the show was done, I flipped the camera around to say hi to Chris and let him know how cool the experience was for us. To say he’s super cool, nice, and down-to-earth would be like saying the Pope is Catholic. And just like that, one of the most exciting experiences of my life was done, or so I thought.

Shortly after the show I realized that I could directly send Chris a message when there’s thousands of people that would kill for this kind of access. So, I decided to send him a message. I figured the worst thing that could happen is that he would either blow me off or not respond at all. And what do you know, he actually responded. I asked him for some advice pursing investing in Latino entrepreneurs, and he was nice enough to give me his two cents and encouragement to get after it. He is a billionaire and the GOAT, but that doesn’t mean he’s pretentious (can’t speak for all billionaires). Have I mentioned he’s a super nice guy? Anyway, he sent me an awesome Lowercase Capital vest and a handwritten note thanking me for streaming the show for him that night.

Yesterday, Chris announced that he is “hanging up his spurs” and retiring from startup investing. I felt compelled to pay tribute to the person that I look up to most in venture capital and business. The reason I have high respect for Chris is not because he’s a billionaire, but because of a string of tweets I saw a few months prior to the Shark Tank episode:

Chris has incredible grit and drive to accomplish what he wants in life. It’s easy to look at someone like Chris, a billionaire, and think that it was easy for him or just plain luck. But the reality is that he had to hustle and build himself from the bottom up to be at the point now where he’s hanging up the spurs. We can all respect and learn from him.

Thank you, Chris.