©2025 Pivotal Ventures
- Erin Harkless Moore leads investments at Pivotal Ventures, focusing on social progress.Moore values work-life balance, exercise, and aligning personal values with professional work.Working with Melinda French Gates has taught her to invest in and nurture her relationships.
I became the managing director of investments for Pivotal Ventures in August 2020 after more than a decade of working in finance and investing at Cambridge Associates, Goldman Sachs, and Summit Rock Advisors.
As part of Melinda French Gates' company focused on accelerating social progress, my work centers on getting more resources and capital to those who need it most, especially women.
I start my day by setting goals and catching up on the news
I'm up between 5:30 and 6 a.m. I take a few quiet moments to reflect, review my calendar, set goals, and plan what I need to accomplish. I exercise three to four times a week.
I usually have about an hour to myself before my two kids get up, so I read the news, catch up on the headlines of the day, and go through my inbox.
I'm subscribed to way too many newsletters — tech and venture investment news and mailing lists from prominent fund managers — just to get a sense of the macro environment. I tee up a bunch of emails so when I do get to the office, I can schedule or fire those off and head straight into meetings.
When my kids and spouse get up, we have breakfast together, and I hear about what they're looking forward to in their day. I walk them to school, which gives me a nice bridge from morning into work mode.
No two days are the same, but they typically involve meetings
I travel a lot for work, so I don't always spend time in D.C., but I typically arrive at the office around 9 a.m. and take the first 30 minutes to get my coffee, check in with my team, and feel the energy of the office.
My day often includes internal meetings with the team of over 150 people, where we might review our pipeline of deals, companies we're tracking, fund managers in the market, and portfolio construction.
I also meet with fund managers and founders, hearing about their visions for their firms and businesses. I have a lot of conversations with peers, other investors sharing notes and intel on what they're seeing in the market, what funds they're tracking, and how they're thinking about the current environment.
Melinda's taught me a lot about the value of trusting your team and building and nurturing relationships
Melinda is busy, so we don't get to work together every day, but she sets and is very much involved in setting the strategic frame for our work and the strategy. I really respect that she puts a lot of trust in her team. Once we've landed on where we want to go, she gives us a lot of trust to execute.
She wants to understand who the founders are that Pivotal is working with, what the fund managers are building, and what they're doing. We're updating her monthly and quarterly with insights from the portfolio and what we're hearing and seeing. She's really collaborative.
I've learned valuable leadership lessons from Melinda, particularly how much she invests in relationships. We were recently at the Upfront Summit for investors, entrepreneurs, and leading technology voices, where she spoke. Melinda carved out time to meet with some of our partners. She could've easily given her remarks and headed out to the next thing, but she made space and time to ask questions and get to know the fund managers deploying capital for Pivotal.
This approach strengthens our bonds, and I've taken something from how she shows up in the world — the importance of relationships and listening to understand what motivates people.
I wrap up my day at 5 p.m. to be present for my kids and personal relationships
I'm intentional about locking the 'work' and 'home' puzzle pieces together as best as I can. I've found that if you don't do that, then you'll look up at the end of the year and say, "Wow, I didn't take a trip for myself, or with my family, or to go see friends."
I try to wrap up my day by blocking my calendar from 5 p.m. for transition time to close out emails. I'll sometimes check emails when the kids are in bed.
When traveling for work, staying connected with my children is a priority. I'm intentional about making time to call them.
Exercise and fitness are important to me
Through exercise, I built a community. I would go to Solid Core and see the same people, who would become friends.
I also like to carve out time to go for a walk. I have some very good friends from both college and other parts of life who live in D.C., so we'll go for walks together.
Reading is also important to me. I read both fiction and nonfiction. I carve out time for that in the evenings or on the weekends when I'm traveling.
My husband and I try to host a dinner party every other month. I'm also known as the brunch captain among some of my girlfriends, as I just love food, too. It's equal parts about the food as well as the fellowship. I get a lot of joy from being in community, so even if it means I have to plan it, I'm happy to plan.
I'm always on a journey to harmonize my values with my work
After nearly 20 years in finance and investing, I've been on a journey to harmonize my values with my work.
At one of my first jobs, a pretty senior person told me, "That's great, but you can do the impact later." That just never resonated with me.
It's important to be authentic to yourself. If you really know what you're good at and what you like, try to get to that overlap in the Venn diagram; that's when you'll accelerate and really have success and meaning in your career.
