Captivate TalentTalent Pool was a one-day event I ran in London for 25 VC talent partners. Events are outside my typical wheelhouse, but when I leaned into the content and community principles I know work, the pieces came together. That's what led to the proudest moment of my career to date.
The job to be done:
Instead of running this as a sales cycle play, I flipped the primary focus to trust.
We're building the services side of a recruiting business, so the goal was never to convince someone to hire us today. It's "be the name they think of the day they finally have an open job posting." That's a slower game, but it pays to be patient.
I focused on VC talent partners as our attendees. This is a high-leverage move, there are typically only one or two talent people per firm, but they refer recruiters into every portfolio company they touch. A recommendation from an investor closes faster than anything we could pitch ourselves, because it skips the whole price-shopping stage and comes with trust already built in.
The talent and recruiting side of the VC world is also chronically underserved. Talent partners get bolted onto bigger VC events as a side room for talent. Nobody builds anything specifically for them. That gap was the whole opening.
Structure & strategy:
The story of this event isn't complete without the pivot, as with many great events. Our original plan was a two-day retreat in Croatia. Perfect on paper, but it kept hitting walls. Instead of pushing through on pure scrappiness, I stopped and asked why. The answer wasn't fun to admit: we hadn't earned the right to ask this group for two days of their time yet.
So I brought my CEO a third option instead of the usual force-it-or-cancel-it choice. Scale it down. Redefine what success looks like. Go meet the audience where they already were, London, one day. Once we made that swap, everything started to click.
What made it special:
Everything about the event was intentional and themed around Talent Pool, the name itself, down to the swag. LLBean totes I shipped over and packed a whole duffel bag with, since they don't exist in the UK. Custom name-printed notebooks. Fountain pens people got genuinely attached to. I built the event and swag to be something people kept thinking about long after it was over.
We also got creative with the programming. I added a personal coaching workshop instead of only tactical content, because these are people whose entire job is caring about other people's careers. They almost never get space to think about their own. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive on that move.
I also use AI automations to create a live running list of attendees with notes like who's late, who's leaving early, who's stepping out for a call. Super important for an intimate group and a pain to track manually. I also walked the whole day in advance as if I were a guest, checking for friction points like building entry, coat check, Wi-Fi, coffee, a quiet room for calls. That's what let me focus on the people instead of the logistics.
Two memorable moments:
1. One attendee had emailed that she could no longer attend due to a scheduling conflict. Day of, her meeting cancelled and she immediately hopped a train to catch one session. That's when you know you've built something worthwhile!
2. Our happy hour after the event was jam packed. A real sign that people were having enough fun to extend the day.
Outcomes and what's next:
The immediate outcomes were hitting the attendance we wanted, followed by immediate feedback that the event and content were valuable and worth attendees' time.
The longer-arc outcome is a real content and relationship flywheel. Dinner guests became podcast guests, became event speakers, and now want to talk about their own companies on the mic. That's the start of a community we'll keep benefiting from.
Full ROI will take time to prove out, but the early signs are there. We've earned the right to bring back the original Croatia retreat next year, and this time the same group is saying yes enthusiastically instead of hitting walls. Near-term, the job is staying warm with these relationships until we're back in London this fall.
