Our latest guest on CLIMB by VSC, is Katelin Holloway,  an investor and founding partner of the venture capital firm Seven Seven Six. Prior to becoming a founding partner alongside Alexis Ohanian, Katelin was the former head of people and culture at Reddit, and an investor at Initialized Capital. At Seven Seven Six, Katelin is focused on helping her companies build inclusive company cultures, working with founders to make that a part of each startup from day one. In this episode we discuss:
(0:01) Introduction to Katelin Holloway and her experience spanning companies like Pixar and Reddit before founding Seven Seven Six
(5:32) How did Seven Seven Six decide upon their areas or categories of investment interest?
(8:23) What kind of ClimateTech companies or categories is Katelin and Seven Seven Six is drawn to invest in?
(12:05) Can consumers have an impact on climate change? Are consumer-centric solutions investable within climate innovation?
(15:14) Katelin shares what excited her about DroneSeed, her climate investment
(18:06) Key differences when building in climate tech startups vs. those in general tech
(22:46) What  CEOs and founders can do to make sure their companies don't have a clashes between 'climate' and 'tech' within their company
(25:46) What are some pitfalls or mistakes Katelin sees from founders building in Climate Tech?
(29:06) What stands out to Katelin about a climate tech founder? What makes a successful climate tech founder?
(32:38) What Katelin thinks about VCs hesitance to back companies that work with governments (or with long sales cycles)?
(36:11)  Katelin shares the story behind Seven Seven Six Fellowship and the climate initiative led by Elizabeth Garvin
(38:35) Advice to young people and young professionals who are interested in climate innovation?
(41:05) Final thoughts & key takeaways from our episode today
About VSC Ventures:
For 20 years, our award-winning PR agency VSC has worked with innovative startups on positioning, messaging, and awareness and we are bringing that same expertise to help climate startups with storytelling and narrative building. Last year, general partners Vijay Chattha and Jay Kapoor raised a $21M fund to co-invest in the most promising startups alongside leading climate funds.
Through the conversations on our show CLIMB by VSC, we're excited to share what we're doing at VSC and VSC Ventures on climate innovation with companies like Ample, Actual, Sesame Solar, Synop, Vibrant Planet, and Zume among many others.