Hum-an Stories: Q&A with VP of Sales Chris Reilly
This interview is part of Hum-an Stories, a Q&A series with Hum Capital leadership and employees providing a look under the hood at what drives Hum and its funding platform, the Intelligent Capital Market.
Chris Reilly is one of Hum’s longest tenured employees, starting in August 2020 as one of the company’s first hires focused on origination. Fast forward to now, Chris leads a team of sales representatives who are often potential customers first touchpoint with Hum. Their team is responsible for guiding companies through the ICM and ultimately helping them arrive at the best financing solution for their business.
In this Q&A Chris shares why he joined Hum 2+ years ago, how the origination team has grown, and what is Hum’s biggest differentiator.
Q: Chris, you’ve been at Hum for over 2 years. Why did you decide to initially join the team and what excites you most about what Hum is building?
I was intrigued by what Hum was doing – it was pretty cool to see SpaceX and Tesla investors backing a Fintech company. Once I learned more about Hum’s mission, it made sense. It became clear that we’re not just impacting finance or technology, we’re changing the scale of opportunity and innovation for founders and fundamentally strong businesses. Once I realized that, I realized I found a work home.
Q: Can you share a little bit about the Hum Origination team – what has changed since you started, how has the team grown, and what’s your ultimate vision for the team’s success?
We’ve grown quite a bit over the past 15 months! As the first person on Hum’s Origination team, I’ve been so lucky to welcome 6 additional team members over the past 15 months. Our team’s goal is to make it easy for founders to understand & access all financing options available to their business. The vision of future success will be measured by the financing our companies are able to raise through Hum, and the ease with which they raise – this will always be our North Star.
Q: As someone who is talking to potential customers daily, how would you describe Hum’s biggest differentiator?
The differentiation between Hum and the broader ecosystem of financial advisors, lenders or investors is that Hum’s goals perfectly align with our clients goals. Many of the traditional players in this space have incentives to make sure their product is used, hours are billed, or they want their capital put to work. Hum only wins when our clients win. Founders are increasingly realizing this and we’ve become a very valuable resource for growing businesses raising growth capital.
Q: It’s hard to believe we’re now in Q4 and approaching the end of the year. What would you like Hum’s biggest accomplishment to be known as at the end of 2022?
2022 will go down as the year Hum’s Origination team proved that the old-school way of businesses raising institutional capital is broken. We’ve set up an Origination model that any founder can quickly understand what types of funding they have access to and then pursue their desired capital raise as efficiently as possible. Hum has changed fundraising from “who you know” to “what your business deserves.”
Q: Now for a fun question. What’s your favorite activity to do outside of work?
I’ll typically be lost in the woods hiking with my wife and our little Layla dog with no cell service. Conversely, if I’m not in the woods, I’m very easy to find – I’ll be standing directly over my grill for 6+ hours at a time trying to perfect my BBQ ribs recipe.
