Leadership

Why Every Startup CEO Needs a Chief of Staff

A growing number of startup CEOs are hiring a Chief of Staff. Here’s why this hire might be the most important one you make this year.

The majority of investors I know have their own personal assistant to help manage their busy schedule and take care of their admin. Until recently, it wasn’t even a question for a startup CEO to have an assistant — startups need to manage their costs more carefully, right?

The trend towards scale-ups hiring a Chief of Staff seemed to come out of nowhere. Isn’t a Chief of Staff the same as a personal assistant anyway? And can’t smart productivity tools, such as AI assistants, achieve the same thing?

Way beyond admin

It’s important to say that the term ‘Chief of Staff’ has no universal definition and the role varies greatly between companies. Some of the roles that are synonymous with Chief of Staff include:

• Executive Assistant (EA)
• Personal Assistant (PA)
• Office Manager
• Head of People
• Assassin (Doug Stamper . . . House of Cards? Oh, come on!)