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Welcome to TheGrill Newsletter: Chris Sacca on Why Twitter Isn’t Facebook

As we prep for this September’s seventh annual TheGrill conference, we recap insights and opinions from last year’s panels on the changing media landscape

Andrew Bernard and Sharon Waxman | May 20, 2016 @ 10:54 AM Last Updated: May 20, 2016 @ 12:59 PM

Chris Sacca speaks during TheWrap's 6th Annual Grill Conference at Montage Beverly Hills on October 5, 2015 in Beverly Hills, California.

“What in the actual f— are you doing, trying to pigeonhole us into the Facebook model?” That was the question that billionaire venture capitalist Chris Sacca posed to Twitter’s board, he told attendees of TheGrill conference last October.

Since October, Twitter has seen its then-$30-per-share stock price fall by more than 50 percent, interim CEO Jack Dorsey confirmed as permanent CEO, and Sacca as confident in the company (and its advantage over Facebook) as ever before.

On May 11 of last year, he tweeted: “Still not sure why Twitter lets Facebook get cross posts. Cutting them off would starve FB of real news content.”

Also Read: TheGrill 2015: Investor Chris Sacca Says Twitter Made 'Fundamental Mistake' During IPO (Video)

Sacca, Twitter’s biggest investor, still blames Twitter’s board for the company’s mishandled IPO filing in 2013, which he says was due to their lack of understanding about Twitter’s unique role as a social media platform.

“In its IPO filing Twitter said, ‘You should measure the growth of this company based on monthly active users who are logged in to the site,'” he said at TheGrill. “I think that was a mistake.”

Though such metrics make sense for Facebook, which requires logging in and having a friend network, Twitter doesn’t require users to create an account and can function without collecting a user’s personal information.

Setting monthly active users as the yardstick for success was further evidence, according to Sacca, that the “bankers and mutual funds” behind the IPO were trying to force Twitter to fit the Facebook model.

Also Read: Twitter's Board Blasted as 'Country Club of Old White Guys' by Company's Biggest Investor (Video)

Sacca has always seen the two social media platforms as distinctly different.

“Facebook is who you used to know, Twitter is who you want to know, and things you want to know more about,” Sacca said.

This characterization speaks to the roles that these social media services have cemented for themselves over the past decade. Twitter is but one of Sacca’s investments in disruptor technologies including Instagram, Uber, Blue Bottle Coffee, and Kickstarter. Since TheGrill, Sacca has also joined the hit ABC show “Shark Tank,” where as one of the sharks he invests in pitches by budding entrepreneurs.

“We have distributed the risk. We have distributed the wealth. And I think we’ve enabled a whole new generation of creators who can succeed without having to necessarily be on magazine covers but be perfectly happy and content,” he said at TheGrill.

It’s easy for him to say; one of the youngest self-made billionaires in the country, Sacca was featured on the cover of Forbes magazine last March.

TheGrill 2015 Exclusive Speaker Portraits (Photos)

  • Maria Bello
    Actor, Activist and Bestselling Author

    Also Read: The Grill 2015: Maria Bello on Pope Francis, Roles After 40 and Her New Digital Venture (Video)

  • Brian Robbins
    CEO, AwesomenessTV and Films

  • Nancy Dubuc
    President & CEO, A+E Networks

    Also Read: TheGrill 2015: A+E CEO Nancy Dubuc Warns of Talent Vacuum Left by TV’s Content Bubble (Video)

  • Ynon Kreiz
    CEO, Maker Studios

    Also Read: Maker Studios CEO Addresses 13-Year-Old YouTube Star Caleb Logan Bratayley’s Death for First Time (Video)

  • Brian Grazer
    Academy Award-Winning producer and Chairman of Imagine Entertainment 

  • Danny Strong
    "Empire" Co-Creator and Executive Producer

  • Ynon Kreiz and Brian Robbins

     

  • Van Toffler
    CEO & Content Creator

  • Jason Hirschhorn
    CEO, REDEF

  • Gail Becker
    President of Strategic Partnerships
    and Global Integration, Edelman

    Also Read: TheGrill 2015: Consumers Trust Online and Traditional Content Creators Equally, According to New Study (Exclusive Video)

  • Robert Kyncl
    Chief Business Officer, YouTube

    Also Read: TheGrill 2015: YouTube’s Robert Kyncl Isn’t Sweating Competition, Touts Site’s ‘Astounding’ Growth (Video)

  • Sharon Waxman
    Founder & CEO, TheWrap

  • Joseph Kapsch
    Executive Editor, TheWrap

  • Ben Silverman
    Founder & Chairman, Electus

  • Nigel Lythgoe
    Executive Producer, "So You Think You Can Dance"

  • David Lyle
    President, PactUS

  • Allison Grodner
    "Big Brother" Executive Producer

  • Will Palmer
    Co-Founder & Chief Executive, Movio

  • Chris Sacca
    Founder & Chairman, Lowercase Capital 

  • Andrew Glasgow
    SVP, Viacom Scratch

    Also Read: TheGrill 2015: Viacom Scratch SVP Andrew Glasgow on Navigating Consumers’ Short Attention Spans (Video)

  • Josh Goldstine
    President, Worldwide Marketing, Universal Pictures

  • Paul Yanover
    President, Fandango

    Also Read: TheGrill 2015: Universal, Skydance, IMAX Executives Agree Data Is Key to Higher Movie Ticket Sales (Video)

  • Rick Hess
    Founder & Co-Managing Partner, Evolution Media Capital

  • Jesse Jacobs
    President, The Chernin Group

  • Aaron Levie
    Chief Executive Officer, Co-Founder & Chairman, BOX

  • Jon Erlichman
    Co-Creator, Parachute TV

    Also Read: TheWrap’s 2015 Innovators List: 13 Change Agents Who Are Driving Hollywood Forward

     

    Also Read: TheWrap’s 2015 Innovators List: 13 Change Agents Who Are Driving Hollywood Forward (Photos)

  • Alex Winter
    Director, “Smosh: The Movie”

    Also Read: TheWrap’s 2015 Innovators List: 13 Change Agents Who Are Driving Hollywood Forward

  • Perrin Chiles
    CEO & Co-Founder, Adaptive Studios

    Also Read: TheGrill 2015: Van Toffler, Perrin Chiles to Adapt Sara Benincasa’s Book ‘DC Trip’ (Exclusive)

  • Steven Haft
    SVP Innovation, Time Inc.

    Also Read: The Scene at TheGrill 2015: TheWrap’s Media Leadership Conference (Photos)

  • Lloyd Braun
    Founder & CEO, Whalerock Industries

    Also Read: TheGrill 2015: Whalerock’s Lloyd Braun Argues Live Ratings Reveal ‘A Tiny Piece of the Picture’ (Video)

  • Brian Weinstein
    Head of Corporate Finance Group, CAA

    Also Read: TheGrill 2015: Finance Experts Tout PewDiePie and Power of Social Media Influencers

  • Mark Terbeek
    Partner at Greycroft Partners

  • Christian Meinberger
    SVP, Content Programming & Production, Studio71

  • Sanjay Sharma
    President & COO, All Def Digital

  • Steven Amato
    CEO & Chief Content Officer, Contend

  • Joseph Atkinson
    US Advisory Leader for the Entertainment,
    Media & Communications Practice, PwC

  • Roger Pollock
    SVP & Head of International Marketing, IMAX Corporation

  • Paul Yanover & Josh Goldstine

  • Adam Smith
    President, Entertainment, at United Entertainment Group (UEG)

  • Dana Goldberg
    CCO, Skydance Media

  • Keith Clinkscales
    CEO, REVOLT Media & TV

  • Will Lee
    Digital Editorial Director, People.com & EW.com

    Also Read: The Scene at TheGrill 2015: TheWrap’s Media Leadership Conference (Photos)

  • Tobias Bauckhage
    CEO & Co-Founder, Moviepilot

  • Penney Finkelman Cox & Sandra Rabins 
    Co-Presidents, Original Force Animation

  • Dawn Ostroff 
    President,
    Condé Nast Entertainment

  • Julia Boorstin 
    Senior Media & Entertainment Correspondent, CNBC

  • Elan Lee
    Co-Creator, Exploding Kittens

1 of 47

Brian Robbins, Ynon Kreiz, Ben Silverman, Brian Grazer, Danny Strong, Dawn Ostroff, Nancy Dubuc, Nigel Lythgoe among featured speakers at TheWrap’s annual media leadership conference

Maria Bello
Actor, Activist and Bestselling Author

Also Read: The Grill 2015: Maria Bello on Pope Francis, Roles After 40 and Her New Digital Venture (Video)

View In Gallery

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At a time of unprecedented change and shifting business models, the entertainment industry is hungry for thought leadership. TheWrap believes that the conversation about where and how entertainment will meet the challenge of the digital age needs to be centered in Hollywood.

Conceived in an effort to create a high level forum for discussing the transformational forces in our changing entertainment industry, TheGrill has brought together a community of leaders from across the entertainment economy from disciplines including media, entertainment, finance and technology.

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