How Emil Michael Champions Women’s Success In The Workplace

Emil Michael is no stranger to helping women shine in their roles, especially when it comes to gaining clout in business. The DPCM Capital CEO helped launch his protégée Katelin Holloway’s career into the Silicon Valley stratosphere with his business expertise. The dynamic duo teamed up in 2012 at Klout, where Emil Michael was COO and Holloway was a human resources executive.

Emil Michael has deemed Holloway, who is based in San Francisco, one of his “favorite humans.” Holloway is an investor and founding partner at Seven Seven Six, a venture capital firm built on software and created with intention by Reddit genius Alexis Ohanian.  

From a career standpoint, Holloway admits she’s had more experience than she can even count, beginning with her earliest days at Pixar Animation Studios and then developing teams as a senior executive at Klout and Reddit. In 2020, she jumped from operator to investor and is now finding joy in supporting sustainable companies that will drive the future. 

In her role at Klout, Holloway recalls what a positive impact Emil Michael had on her career. “You really enabled me and empowered me to grow and learn,” Holloway told Emil Michael during a recent Q&A of their days at Klout. “You sent me back to school so that I could get rid of my imposter syndrome.”

Emil Michael Gets Real About Women’s Challenges With Career and Home Life

Holloway will never forget how supportive Emil Michael was about elevating women in the workplace. She recalls a very vulnerable point in her career where she was trying to graduate to a more senior role but also trying to start a family. She finally became pregnant but unfortunately miscarried during another late night at the office. The next day, Holloway had a board meeting and Emil Michael was concerned that something was off. They went for coffee and a walk and Holloway revealed her tragic news. 

“We sat on the bench there in the park and I was just sobbing. This is where it gets emotional,” Holloway said. “I will never ever forget the kindness that [Emil] shared with both me and (husband) Ben through that time. Of course, it’s a happy ending. I have two beautiful boys. Things all worked out and I eventually did get pregnant again, but you were incredible as a manager, as a friend, and as a mentor. You were so with me through the morning sickness and (having) to leave meetings to go yak in the hall and all of the fun things that our bodies do to us as women. You were  absolutely phenomenal.”

Not only did Holloway power through her trauma, she used it to elevate other women who experienced the same loss. “The first thing I did after I left Klout and I started at a new company was I created a loss of pregnancy leave program,” Holloway said. 

The respect between Emil Michael and Holloway has been nothing but mutual. ​​”Meeting you and the time that we spent together at Klout was absolutely pivotal, really transformational,” Holloway told him during their sitdown. 

Before becoming a venture capitalist icon, Holloway was a public school teacher, but also worked in food service, law enforcement, advertising, hedge funds, real estate, film, and tech.

Holloway says Emil Michael genuinely encouraged her to succeed. “You introduced me to other people that were far more experienced than I was and it really helped me level up,” Holloway said. “It was a really beautiful time we had together.”

During their days at Klout, Emil Michael was fresh from his role as a White House Fellow. Holloway recalls how discovering Emil Michael was her new boss was a defining moment for her personally and professionally. Their mentor/mentee relationship immediately expanded. 

Emil Michael said he still has memories of Holloway being the first person there in the morning and the last to leave at night. 

Engaging in Conversations, Sparking Positive Change for Companies 

“I remember having this debate and problem solving around this many, many times because as we grew, the challenges became different. I think that we were a big part of being on that bleeding edge of creating that company culture,” Holloway said. “I do remember one time, we decided to do away with the term ‘work/life balance,’ and we wanted to reframe it as ‘work/life integration’ and what that might look like in terms of professional development, career development, and personal development. That was helpful for a long time.”

Holloway adds that Emil Michael amped up her knowledge of leadership. 

“I had the learning curve of just leveling up and becoming more senior within an organization as most startups do and the earth was rising beneath my feet,” Holloway said. “It was my job to lose in terms of leadership and experience and opportunity. That is where Emil really leaned in because he had done it himself and he was still in the process of doing that himself. That became the nature of our relationship. Yes, we were still in the nitty-gritty of tactics and the day-to-day problem solving of running an organization together, but the craft side and separating it is really something.”

Emil Michael also introduced Holloway to a key HR executive mentor she remains close to even today.

“I remember meeting her [Margie] for the first time,” Holloway said. “[Emil] took us out for a coffee to make the introduction properly. It really dramatically changed the way I approached my work and she built confidence in me on the craft side. That’s actually a note that I have taken straight out of the Emil mentorship playbook, which is being very generous with your network and understanding that in order to scale mentor relationships over time, you can’t do it on your own. Nine times out of 10, what I’ve learned is that you don’t always know all of the information that they need for either jobs or their specific industry or fill in the blank. I never felt like I couldn’t come to Emil with things because if he didn’t know the answer, he definitely knew someone who did, and he is very generous with his network.”

During the conversation, Emil Michael also revealed that mentorship is not necessarily a one-on-one thing. “You bring their network to the table, then they’re going to be more effective because if they know enough people, their network will bring so much more to bear than just that,” Michael said. 

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