USA TODAY International Edition
‘ Shark Tank’ star applauds women leaders
Firms without them ‘ must hate money,’ Chris Sacca says
AUSTIN Billionaire investor Chris Sacca set the irreverent tone early in his Saturday appearance at SXSW Interactive.
Brandishing a six- pack of local Lone Star beer, the Shark Tank star who scored big with early bets on Uber, Instagram and Twitter took the stage saying he was going to share his brew. But with a caveat.
“We’’ ll do this unlike how they do things at Uber, so the women here will get things first,” Sacca said to hoots from the packed ballroom, a dig at the ride- hailing giant’s current woes that include accusations of sexual discrimination.
And from there Sacca was off on a freeform one- hour ramble, blasting the Trump administration, elitist app ideas, sexist tech company culture and even his own myopia.
Sacca said the last time he talked to embattled Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, who now is on the hunt for a second in command to help him guide the company, was in 2011.
Sacca said “nothing shocked me at all” about the blog- post revelations by ex- engineer Susan Fowler, who claimed human resources ignored her complaints about a sexist boss.
Sacca is sure that other companies are “now saying, ‘ This could bite us in the --- too.’ Lessons should trickle down to the industry before it’s too damn late.”
The investor “won’t be shocked if ( Kalanick’s pick for COO) is an amazing woman.”
“There are two reasons to pursue diversity and inclusion,” said Sacca. “One, because you believe one group has benefitted from hundreds of years of discrimination, or two, maybe you don’t like that women make 73 cents on the dollar compared to men.
“But let’s say you’re Scrooge McDuck? Well, companies with women at the helm or high up in the staff, they simply do better. Frankly, if you don’t invest like that, you must hate money.”
Sacca said his own stereotyping almost caused him to miss an investment that he considers one of his best. At a dinner for investors, he found himself seated at a table with a 4- foot- 11, 90- pound Indian woman.
“I thought, ‘ How could this person be a titan of the tech world?’ And then she started talking, I couldn’t stop listening,” he said.
That chance meeting led to his backing Shivani Siroya’s Tala, a smartphone- based micro- finance company that just closed its $ 30 million Series B round for a total raise of $ 44 million. “I’ll never make that mistake ( of stereotyping people) again.”