Capital Allocators – Inside the Institutional Investment Industry · Ted Seides – Allocator and Asset Management Expert

Katelin Holloway – Human Side of Venture Investing at 776

·1 hr 11 min·5 clips

Katelin Holloway argues early-stage investing is about people and systems, asking why more HR experts aren't in boardrooms.

Ted Seides introduces Caitlin Holloway as she traces her path from HR into venture investing. She describes early-stage investing as a close fit for the people-and-culture work she had already been doing inside organizations. After a decade as an HR executive helping companies through inception, hyper growth, blitz scaling, and eventual exit, she argues that the same instincts can carry over to backing and supporting a portfolio. She also raises the question of why more people with her background are not on the other side of the boardroom table. The conversation then breaks the job into straightforward buckets: sourcing, community, network, and servicing. Sourcing maps to recruiting, while servicing reflects the long-running work of helping people reach their potential. From there, the episode turns to 776's Cerebro. Holloway says it holds the firm's calls, support requests, and the evidence of the work, and that founders can set parameters and ask for what they need. AI helps, but the human component remains. The goal is to unlock doors for portfolio companies in ways a small team could not scale by hand, while also making the help the firm provides more visible and efficient.

As heard by us

Venture is framed as sourcing, servicing, and human judgment under uncertainty.

Caitlin Holloway's discussion treats early-stage investing as work done under pressure, where people and systems have to function through uncertainty and distress.

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Why you'd press play

You get early-stage investing translated through HR, sourcing, and founder support.

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