Former Google Search Ads strategy leader will help Caprae develop leadership talent, strengthen its management bench, and build the organizational infrastructure behind its continued growth
LOS ANGELES, CA / ACCESS Newswire / September 15, 2026 / Caprae Capital today announced that Eric Nehrlich, executive coach and former Chief of Staff for Google’s Search Ads organization, has joined the firm as Interim Chief of Staff.
Nehrlich has worked with Caprae Founder Kevin Hong and members of the company’s leadership team for several months. The expanded role formalizes that relationship and gives him a broader mandate across leadership development, organizational design, hiring, and portfolio-company execution.
Nehrlich spent more than a decade at Google, including six years as Chief of Staff leading business strategy and operations for the Search Ads product organization as it grew past $100 billion in revenue. He operated without direct reports, relying on influence, analytical rigor, and cross-functional leadership.
His background includes degrees from MIT, Stanford, and Columbia, executive coaching certifications, and authorship of You Have A Choice: Beyond Hard Work to Meaningful Impact.
A Relationship That Started Before Caprae
Nehrlich first worked with Hong while Hong was leading a search-fund-backed company. They stayed in touch after Hong left, and Nehrlich became an early believer in Caprae when Hong first pitched him the concept.
One early conversation stood out.
Hong told him:
“I don’t build companies. I build cults.”
Nehrlich said the statement captured something he had seen before in people who ultimately changed industries rather than simply building companies.
Eric Nehrlich, Interim Chief of Staff at Caprae Capital, said:
“When Kevin said, ‘I don’t build companies, I build cults,’ I knew he thought about organizations differently. I have worked with people who genuinely disrupted industries, and I saw that same instinct in him. When he later pitched me Caprae, I was sold very quickly.”
“Why Not Just Be More You?”
For Hong, Nehrlich’s impact began with a very different piece of advice.
Kevin Hong, Founder of Caprae Capital, said:
“Eric was the first person in my life who basically told me, ‘You seem to be doing just fine. Why not just be more you?’”
Hong said the comment challenged years of trying to fit other people’s expectations.
“Parents, teachers, professors, friends, investors, board members. Almost everybody at some point told me to tone it down. People may find it hard to believe, but I spent a lot of my life trying to fit into someone else’s version of what the best version of me should look like.”
