Do I really need (and if so, when) a Chief of Staff?
The latest installment in our role-focused series — next up is the Chief of Staff, an elusive yet often indispensable role for startups. Let’s dive in.
By Anya Brochier. Edited by Justine Guers, Louisa Mesnard & Marc Rougier.
“Call the Chief (of Staff)”
A Chief of Staff (CoS) is a notoriously hard-to-define role. Some associate it with governmental grandeur, thinking of the West Wing, for others it’s an executive assistant with a fancy title. Like all things, the reality of the role is far more nuanced. Oftentimes, a Chief of Staff is hired when a startup’s team has grown and more structure is needed. Their mission can vary depending on the company, its size and who the CoS works with. In tech, while the Chief of Staff role may now seem ubiquitous, this role is a fairly recent addition to a tech organization’s talent pool, especially in Europe. It may be worth asking, why has this role evolved to become a ‘necessary’ part of a startup’s structure — is it truly necessary for every startup at every stage?
Rather than giving a defined definition of the role, it’s far better to first understand the key skills that are needed for the right person to succeed in this role. Most Chiefs of Staff would agree, the three most important skills are adaptability, emotional intelligence and organizational excellence. These skills flow across what the Harvard Business Review seminally refers to as the three levels of Chiefs of Staff: a typology for the layers of complexity that the role can entail. One thing is clear, however: the hiring of a CoS is always in reaction to a need from or a pain point facing a company’s C-level, be it operational or strategic (time management, fire power, etc.). For the purpose of this article, we’ll focus mainly on CEOs hiring CoS.
Typically as Xavier Monty, Chief of Staff at Swile, says in a 2023 Roland Berger report, most CEOs are over solicited, and don’t need to intervene on at least a third of the subjects they are called into. The CEO or founder of an early-stage startup often fits the profile of an over-solicited person. While not a one-size fits all solution for every company, the CoS can be a key hire for CEOs looking to liberate time to lead, and not simply manage.
One thing to keep in mind about the profile of a Chief of Staff: this role typically only lasts 2–3 years — consider that this candidate may eventually be interested in transitioning to another part of the startup as it scales after their tenure ends.
The Evolution
Why has this role emerged as a tech company “essential”? First, the role is less common in Europe compared to the US and therefore expectations about the level of administrative activities vs strategic leadership implicit in the role are not always well-understood. In the US, given the governmental history of the role and the growing omnipresence of CoS in the tech industry, the role has taken on a strategic edge, with a clear differentiation between the role of a CoS and that of an executive assistant or office manager. As the proliferation of this role begins to translate across the Atlantic, for some companies, the CoS role may only encompass administrative tasks, however for others the scope can be wider, including strategic initiatives.
Could the Chief of Staff eventually become a COO? Is it the same role entirely? Before the term of CoS arrived on the scene, many early-stage startups hired a COO to complement the CEO, adding an operational wing to a startup that the CoS could also cover. As mentioned earlier, the CoS is hired in relation to the issues a CEO is facing and can act as the ‘’right hand’ of the CEO. Oftentimes a CEO can refer to the CoS as ‘their’ CoS, given the role’s mandate to expand a CEO’s firepower or capacity. The COO should be an independent C-level executive, with their own hierarchy, running in parallel to the CEO. It’s possible that the CoS could transition into a COO role as the company grows, but at a seed-stage company, it’s likely too much to have a CEO, COO and CoS as the latter can take over some of the roles a COO can handle and vice versa.
With all this in mind, we will show the key considerations to keep in mind when considering hiring a chief of staff. We’ll dive into why a mutual fit is essential and as at Elaia, the early-stage of investment is our main focus today, we’ll explore how the CoS role evolves from a chief without staff to a strategic operator based on a startup (and CEO)’s changing needs.
A match made in (tech) heaven?
When considering hiring a CoS, first begin with the problems that a CEO is facing and whether hiring a CoS would help. The CoS hire can be an excellent way to scale a founder’s capacity! Reminder: the CoS is not a bucket for undesirable tasks, they (are meant to) give the founder/CEO strategic space to take the company to the next level. Nor is a CoS a replacement for each early-stage company’s unique needs for a CTO, CPO or other key senior hire.
There are key considerations for founders to take into account when hiring a CoS this early. Here are a few examples: weigh the cost of a new non-technical hire closely — would this salary be better put towards implementing strong senior leadership in product or tech? However, If the CEO is being pulled in too many directions and tasks are falling behind, an operational hire like the CoS might be the right move to allow for a focus on tech development and product.
Remember, the CoS will work incredibly closely with their CEO so there must be a strong personality fit. The dynamic between a CEO and their CoS is unique, the trust channel goes both ways, for both positive and challenging feedback. The CoS is probably more integrated into the CEO’s day-to-day than anyone else in the team — the CEO needs to have the right personality-fit (or at least accept) for this kind of (helpful) intrusion/addition to their day-to-day. But with giving up a small barrier, leaders have much to gain from having someone onside to debate, listen and grow with.
Justine Guers, Chief of Staff at Elaia and former CoS at scaleup, LumApps, specifies, this process crucially begins at the interview stage. Candidates shouldn’t solely try to understand the role that the CEO needs the CoS for, but also ask “What am I going to learn? How will I progress?” By taking an active position in defining the responsibilities of the role, the CoS can build a respectful two-way relationship from the beginning. “Have as many interviews as possible” says Justine, “especially with people from the rest of the team. If you can get along with the people that the leader has hired, it’s a good indication of the kinds of dynamics you can expect both in this role and with the CEO. She adds, Once you’re in the role, it’s often more difficult to make the fit work if not established pre-hiring.”
The Chief of Staff Without Staff
Picture this, you’re an early-stage company who just raised an initial round of funding (congratulations!). You have big hopes, aspirations and a technology to distill into a product (see our handy article on the role of the CPO for deep tech companies). Your team might not even have its first non-technical hire yet. Why would you think about hiring a Chief of Staff?
This is where the ironically titled role of the Chief of Staff with no staff comes into play. Why hire a Chief of Staff if there is barely any staff?
In this earlier stage, it’s first important for the CEO to assess the need for a CoS — if the CEO is both the technical lead and operational leader of the company, a CoS might be able to help with facilitating communication and project management between the CEO’s operational tasks and the technical and product demands that are core to a seed-funded startup.
Commonly, at this early-stage (less than 30 people), the Chief of Staff takes on a hybrid role of executive assistant, fire(wo)man and chief of staff, merging both the administrative capacities of managing the CEO’s time, while also being able to take on strategic and financial roles within a company. The term ‘wearing many hats’ applies to all stages of the CoS role, but is perhaps most pertinent at this early stage of a company where the CoS might transition from being the first sales hire, to an initial product project manager, to fetching coffee during a board meeting
Scaling Companies, Scaling Responsibilities
As companies scale, the main opportunity (and therefore challenge) facing a company is how to prepare a foundation for the company to grow. A scaling company’s headcount can quickly multiply alongside the CEO’s to-do list. According to Ingrid Delval, Chief of Staff at AQEMIA (a Gen AI powered drug discovery company and Elaia portfolio company that recently raised its Series A), the hire of a CoS at this stage is truly to be a “Strategic extension of the CEO.”
Often at the Series A round, the CEO is being pulled in many directions. Hiring a CoS, says Ingrid, can “Help a leader be able to pull their head above water, breathe and strategize — in effect, liberating mental space to be able to focus on growth.”
As the team expands, the Chief of Staff’s role as a cross-team communicator and project manager becomes increasingly vital. They can serve as a pivotal collaborator and trusted liaison, fostering open communication channels throughout the executive team. The Chief of Staff can play a crucial role in cultivating a culture of transparency and constructive collaboration across teams. Working closely with other C-level executives, they navigate operational endeavors, support the CEO’s decision-making process, and contribute significantly to the company’s overall effectiveness. Given the emphasis on a tight relationship between the CEO and CoS in this stage of a company, Ingrid, like Justine, warns that during the interview process, it’s important for a CEO and CoS candidate to be able to quickly build a trusted relationship and personality fit, otherwise the new CoS can easily be misaligned once inside the company.”
Later-stage companies often hire a Chief of Staff to focus on optimizing and scaling the business further. Oftentimes, the decision to hire a CoS at this stage is in response to longstanding problems facing the CEO. At this stage, the C-level team is likely hired and the role of CoS as ‘fire(wo)man” is less needed and the CoS role focuses more on special strategic projects. Many in the CoS role would argue that at this point, the CoS hire can often come too late.
In a post-Series A company, the Chief of Staff role can take on a new dimension, often with its own special projects or initiatives beyond working hand-in-hand with the CEO. As the company grows, the role of the CoS can also expand to include more strategic planning, special projects and being a key player in steering the company through rapid growth phases. For the CoS to be effective in this more strategic evolution, says Justine, the CEO must position the CoS internally carefully, reminding other C-levels of the CoS’s responsibilities and access to the CEO so as to facilitate collaboration and integration. In a rapidly scaling company, the CoS role evolves from administrative right-hand to a strategic and necessary member of the management team.
It’s all in the timing
As with any hire in an early-stage company, resources, timing and need are key determinants. For CEOs looking to hire a Chief of Staff, timing may inform need. Whether Seed, Series A or beyond, it’s important to remember that the impetus for hiring a CoS should come when the CEO finds that they cannot focus on the top-tier priorities because lesser priorities and benign project management are taking too much time and energy. At earlier stages, these may range from fire fighting to classic administration, but as a company grows, the list of top-tier priorities will expand. The timely hire of a CoS may allow for the CEO to delegate these lower-tier strategic and operational activities while retaining big-picture oversight.
As always, a new hire is reflective of each startup’s unique needs; just because a competitor has a Chief of Staff, does not mean you need one. However, these ‘Swiss army knife roles’ can be indispensable to companies facing rapid growth and shifting priorities.
