The Death of Traditional VC: Why Platform Shifts Demand People-First Investors, with Katelin Holloway of Seven Seven Six
episode
“HR Heretics” | How CPOs, CHROs, Founders, and Boards Build High Performing Companies
22 min
2 speakers
8 chapters
transcribed 18 days ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What is the main focus of this episode and who is the guest?
For today's Essential Heretics 101 feature, we interview Caitlin Holloway, founding partner at 776. Caitlin challenges venture capital orthodoxy, demonstrating why HR professionals should claim checkbook authority over traditional finance backgrounds in early stage investing. Hey everybody, welcome back to the HR Heretics Podcast, where we get into the real talk of company construction. These are the conversations that happen between founders, chief people officers, and board members behind closed doors. Today our episode is with Caitlin Holloway. Caitlin is a partner at seven seven six, the VC firm she and Alexis O'Hanian run together. Caitlin was the former VP of people at Reddit and worked at Clout and Pixar before that.
She's also known to many HR pros because she's the host of a podcast called All Hands from Lattice, which is awesome. Here's our conversation with Caitlin, everybody.
Kaylin, thanks so much for joining us on the show.
Thank you so much for having me. I'm thrilled to be here.
So I I want to just start quickly with your background. You're currently a partner at 776. You were also the head of people at Reddit from like 70 to more than 700. How did you initially get into people in HR?
Uh, that is a good question. So yeah, how did I get into HR? Um, was totally an accident. A lot of the best folks in our industry are people who I think
How did HR “find” Katelin and what made her career path accidental?
we'll say HR found me. It it's almost always HR found me. And I think that part of that is because the world of HR prior to what, fifteen years ago, was so antiquated and it was so not a destination career. But I I think that most people found it on accident because it was they were naturally drawn to or they were in an organization where people were coming to them, people were confiding in them. And so it really was a community role and in internal community role. So prior to getting into the world of tech and the world of HR, I was at Pixar Animation Studios, where I never held an HR position. But what I like to say is I was a client and a very happy client of the HR and people function at Pixar.
What lessons did Katelin take from Pixar University about people development?
And I really credit that team with teaching me so much about what great HR looks like. And so when I eventually left the studio and I did move into tech, it was it was an opportunity to take all of the incredible things that I had learned there as a customer to say, gosh, I love the way they built out their learning and development system. Looking at the Pixar University model, for example, they didn't call it learning and development. It was the Pixar University. And it's funny because it's called PU. And the beauty of that. program was they allowed anybody in the studio, regardless of your role, your title, your tenure, your salary, anything, could attend any course. They they saw that you could develop uh deep relationships and move the business forward and unpack and and discover creative ideas that could then be put into the film or put into a part of the process from all different parts of the organization.
And so for me, that was not We need to have a learning and development uh system. It was How do we live the value? Great ideas come from anywhere.
So Caitlin, you've been working with Alexis Ahania now for I think about nine years. How did you meet Alexis and how has that relationship evolved over time?
Yeah.
How did the Reddit turnaround shape Katelin’s view on founder relationships?
So how I met him was he hired me at Reddit. So during the big turnaround, I think that we first met in twenty fifteen and it was through a recruiter. She kept telling me every time we met 'cause I was actually hiring which is the only reason I was talking with her. And she would you know, pick my brain. I I have this interesting company. I'm having trouble finding the best candidate. It's so unique. And then she would present me with a challenge the company was having. And so in my next weekly sync with her, she knew I was stewing that at Think Video, but she wouldn't tell me the name of the company. And so I've come back thinking about the challenges this organization was facing. I'd be like, Have they thought about this?
Have you s have you have you introduced someone with this profile?
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main focus of this episode and who is the guest?
0:13–1:36
2
How did HR “find” Katelin and what made her career path accidental?
1:36–2:17
3
What lessons did Katelin take from Pixar University about people development?
2:17–3:28
4
How did the Reddit turnaround shape Katelin’s view on founder relationships?
3:28–7:39
5
Why does Katelin argue that early‑stage investing is fundamentally people work?
7:39–14:39
6
How does Seven Seven Six’s product‑and‑people‑first approach differ from traditional VC models?
14:39–16:41
7
What practical steps should HR professionals take to break into venture and build founder relationships?
16:41–19:09
8
What is the “Golden Rule” for helping founders and why do most VCs fail at it?
19:09–22:50
Speakers
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