Chris Sacca, a heavyweight in the tech world as an early investor in major companies like Twitter, Uber, Instagram, Twilio, and Kickstarter, is going to try his hand at acting in a new comedy pilot for ABC formerly called Start Up, Deadline reports.
The former lawyer and Google employee, who currently owns his own venture capital firm Lowercase Capital, will appear as himself in the pilot episode of the series, which will star and be directed by Zach Braff (Scrubs). The premise: Braff’s character, Alex, a mid-30s husband and father of two, decides to upend his life by quitting his job to start up his own business. Michael Imperioli (The Sopranos) has also been cast as Alex’s slick-yet- unemployed cousin Eddie, with whom the young father ends up partnering for his new venture. The series is based on the podcast Start Up by Alex Blumberg of Gimlet Media. In real life, Sacca is an investor in that company.
While this will mark Sacca’s first “acting” gig, he isn’t a stranger to the small screen. He has appeared as a guest “shark” in several episodes of ABC venture-capital reality TV series Shark Tank since season 7, alongside regular cast member and fellow tech giant Mark Cuban, and continues to appear sporadically through the current season. In an episode that aired in February, Sacca and fellow shark Lori Greiner invested in a company called Toymail, which makes a stuffed animal toy that connects to an app, allowing parents to send and accept voices messages to and from their kids remotely.
Following his stint at Google, where Sacca served as head of special initiatives and was one of the founding members of the company’s New Business Development organization, he started Lowercase Capital in 2007. He appeared to have a good eye for startups with potential, as his track record shows. His first investment, Photobucket, was sold to Fox’s News Corp. In 2015, Sacca was named third on Forbes magazine’s Midas list, which celebrates tech’s smartest investors. According to the publication, his net worth at that time was $1.2 billion.
Should Start Up get a full pickup, Sacca and his signature cowboy shirts will likely continue to appear in a recurring role.
