Chris Sacca latest Google angel investor
Another Google guy has started investing in start-ups, though this time he is not likely to leave Google anytime soon to do this full-time.
Chris Sacca, a dealmaker at Google and overseer of Google’s WiFi project in San Francisco, says on his blog What is Left that he has invested in popular photo-sharing company, Photobucket — noteworthy, since he’s backing a competitor to Google’s own photo site, Picasa.
But then Sacca isn’t a meek guy. He’s been griping in public about San Francisco officials who have been slowing down Google’s efforts to install its WiFi network there. He complained that the talks on the final contract have stalled, and that officials have requested free computers and a share in revenues — both unreasonable demands. “The WiFi project will happen,” he told us last night. “It has worked in Mountain View and will eventually work in SF. Every now and then we need to remember that we are all building these systems for the people who visit our community training sessions and ask, “What’s a browser?,” he said. “When we think of those disenfranchised folks, everyone moves faster and with the deserving end user in mind.”
Will frustration with SF force Sacca to exit Google to launch an angel career, similar to ex-Google Aydin Senkut, who has been investing all over the place, and rivaling angel Ron Conway as chief sponsor of Web 2.0 companies? No. Sacca said in an email: “I wish I had the ammo that Aydin has. However, I joined Google in 2003 and therefore my investment in Photobucket makes no rational sense with respect to my net worth. 
“
Next Story: Bigtime Web 2.0 angel investor Reid Hoffman adjusts how he invests
Previous Story: Intermolecular, a secretive nanotech company, raises $27.62M
About the Author, Matt Marshall
Matt launched VentureBeat in September of 2006, with the realization that no one else was covering the entrepreneurial and tech innovation scene with the velocity or depth that he was. Prior to founding VentureBeat, he covered venture capital for the San Jose Mercury News from 2001 to 2006. In 2002, Matt was awarded "Journalist of the Year" by the Northern California Society of Professional Journalists. Prior to working at the Merc, he was a correspondent for the Wall Street Journal in Bonn, Germany from 1995 to 1998, and a writer for the Washington Post in 1994. Matt holds a PhD in Government and an MA in German and European Studies from Georgetown University. In addition to VentureBeat, Matt is also the Executive Producer of DEMO, the leading launchpad event for emerging technologies.
