Chris Sacca: “Create value before you ask for value back”

I think what really ended up building a brand for me or a business opportunity for me was just being known as being helpful. I mean, we're really lucky in Silicon Valley that nobody asks you other than at the beginning of a podcast like this, like where you went to school, nobody asks you what your parents do for a living, nobody asks your credential. And instead they're just kind of like, how can you help me right now? Like, I'm in the weeds, I need some help. What's your feedback on this? And if you're insightful and you're helpful, people just grab you and they pull you in. And so I think that's how. If I had one thing that I think has been the secret to the opportunities that have come for me, it's just being helpful.

Yeah, absolutely. It's funny, there's a story I have with Jack Dorsey when Square. And I wanted to get into Square really bad because I loved the idea when I first heard about it. But, I mean, they were well on their way to building a prototype and they had raised a bunch of cash or had started to put together that Angel Syndicate of people doing their first round. There was no room to get in. And so Graham and I actually shot a really awesome little HD video demoing the device. And at the time they didn't have any videos online, blah, blah, blah.

I saw it, I remember it, I.

Showed it to Jack and he's like, holy shit. Like, that's awesome. And I started helping him out with some other things and all of a sudden he's like, you know what, I got a little room for you to get in here because you've been really helpful for launching this product. So, yeah, I agree with that 100%.

I think you're not only helpful, but I think another one of my rules, when people kind of tweet me and say, how do I get into the game, et cetera, I'm just like, create value before you ask for value back. Your story is the epitome of that. You didn't ask any permission. You didn't have a pre existing deal with Jack. He wasn't giving you shares to do that. You're just like, look, I think this is a cool opportunity. I think it's a cool product that you believed in already and it was consistent with your brand and what your audience cares about. And so you're like, I'm gonna put together something here that I think is helpful and I'm not gonna ask anything back in exchange for it. And what it does, it Just opens the door for a much more meaningful relationship and a much more lucrative relationship for you. I mean, is you ended up getting in on that round. It's blown up. So I think that's the formula. Sometimes people write me and ask me for advice and stuff. I'm like, just go to every event you can find, Hobnob anywhere you can find, not just other loudmouth biz devi people or anything like that. But go hang where hackers are hanging. And you'll find they have issues that may come second nature to somebody who's not actually a code writer. And don't ask them for stock up front. Just start helping, you know, just show up. I mean, do you know who Ryan Graves is? He's our GM at Uber. An amazing, amazing entrepreneur. Sheer hustle, right? Right before Travis and Garrett kind of got him to come out and really start the operations, the day to day operations at Uber, where he's now the number two executive, he really wanted a job at Foursquare. And so he'd applied through the main channels. He didn't really get the attention he wanted. So he went around Chicago and He signed up 20 mayor deals. He didn't ask Foursquare for permission. He just went to the venues and said, can you do something for the mayor? Then he went to New York and he presented those mayor deals to Dennis and Tristan and was like, hey, I've been out hustling in Chicago. I just signed you up. 20 big venues with mayor deals. How money is that?

That's awesome.

If somebody shows up in your office with that kind of deal, that guy's gonna get a job interview.