Katherine Allen is the founder and CEO of Flo, a SaaS company focused on recruiting and performance management for law firms. The company went through Y-Combinator back in 2019, and raised a $4.2m seed round led by LiveOak Ventures, right here in Austin, a few years later.
By 2024, 70% of students at elite T14 law schools were users, as were almost all of the Vault Top-10 ranked firms in the country.
We first met in 2025 – right around the time she finalized her Series A – through a program I helped run called BoostATX, an invite-only peer group for Austin founders scaling from 7- to 8-figures in revenue.
Back then, Flo was called Flo Recruit, because they were focused on that first step of connecting hires with law firms. About two weeks ago, word came out that they expanded into performance management and officially rebranded as well.
It seemed like the perfect time to check in with a founder spotlight, so without further ado, here’s Katherine…
1. Okay, tell us about your business! What's the backstory? And how did you get your first customer.
Flo started at the University of Texas, born out of a few students who were going through recruiting for full-time jobs.
Then, companies were taking paper resumes at career fairs and taking attendance at receptions for students interested in their roles via paper sign in sheets. As students, we recognized that these manual tracking methods might mean we weren’t getting any credit on our job applications for showing up to the events. When we spoke to the recruiters hosting the events, they confirmed our fear.
So, we set off to build the first version of Flo - a simple way for companies to host and manage their recruiting events and give employees attending events the ability to flag highly interested candidates to the recruitment team hosting the event.
Today, Flo is 100% focused on the legal industry.
We arrived here when an attorney at law firm Jackson Walker donated their time to help us answer a few legal questions. After learning more about what we were building, she introduced us to their Talent team, and Jackson Walker became our very first client!
In partnering with Jackson Walker, we discovered an opportunity -- the legal industry puts deep emphasis on their recruitment and talent strategies because people’s time is central to their business models, yet the systems they were using to attract and grow their talent were outdated and clunky.
In May 2019, the early Flo team made the leap to start working full-time on the business after we graduated from UT Austin. We believed strongly in making in-person recruitment events better for both employers and candidates.
Despite our fervor, 8 months after starting, we hit a wall - COVID hit and no one needed in-person recruiting event software. In Feb 2020, I remember learning that Tom Hanks had COVID, and it hit me - if a celebrity as beloved as Tom Hanks can get this thing, we’re all f@%cked.
For the next 6 months, we listened to clients and prospects and moved as fast as we could to build a virtual interviewing solution. We didn’t have a product yet - we were demo-ing designs - and we didn’t have any clients - so sales prospects’ feedback were who we built the product off of.
After every call, we were changing things, and engineering was building as fast as they could. We worked really hard, and we got really lucky. By the tail end of 2020, it took off with law schools and law firms who needed a way to pivot their talent acquisition to virtual overnight.
Five years have passed since then - and we’ve kept the ethos of listening to clients, hearing market needs, and building to meet the moment. We’ve expanded from point solutions to a full talent ecosystem for lawyers, law schools, law firms, and search firms, and there’s so much more in store.
2. What’s one unconventional decision you made early in your business that you believe set you apart from competitors, and how do you think it shaped your trajectory?
We made an early decision to focus on one industry. It has enabled us to focus on building products
3. What’s one book most people have never even heard of that you think is worth reading. (DIG DEEP - we’re looking for the books you’ll never see on the NYT list)
Hmmmm - I really don’t know! Clearly I haven't been reading enough. Well known, but I love the book “The Hard Thing About Hard Things.” I re-read it when things get hard at Flo.
4. What’s one belief about entrepreneurship you held when you started that you’ve completely abandoned, and what made you change your mind?
Hm - maybe that this was something anything can do? I think you have to be a special kind of crazy and a little naive to start a business. The odds are against you, and it’s really hard, so if you’re doing it for the money, there are faster ways to make it! I think you have to really love building to keep going even when times are not-so-fun.
When I first started Flo, people told me that only crazy people started businesses, but when I was just starting out, I didn’t think I was crazy, so I thought those people were wrong. I look back and understand that believing I could run a business selling software to an industry as risk averse as the legal industry as a 22 year old was pretty crazy by itself.
5. What’s one purchase of less than $1,000 that’s made the biggest impact on your happiness, health, or wealth?
Way over $1,000, but the Eight Sleep is game changing. I can make my bed cozy warm and my partner can have his side be a refrigerator. Good sleep is worth every penny.
6. If you were to recommend one under-the-radar Austin spot to another founder for brainstorming or unwinding, where would it be and why?
Pepita’s in Westlake. A small Mexican place that feels like home.
