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Chief of Staff

Also called CoS

A right-hand person to a founder or CEO who drives priorities, runs cross-functional projects, and handles whatever needs doing, extending the leader's capacity across the company.

Why it matters

A good chief of staff frees a founder to focus on the highest-value work by owning execution and coordination behind the scenes. As a company grows past what one leader can hold, the role becomes a force multiplier.

For example

As the company scales, the founder hires a chief of staff to run cross-functional projects and priorities, extending their capacity across the org.

Go deeper

How to Hire a Chief of Staff a16z · article The canonical piece for avoiding exactly the vanity-title trap you warn against. It caps the role at about 20% admin work (so it is not a glorified PA), levels the scope by company size (executive support at 20+, leadership-team support at 75+, stealth-COO at 150+), and hands you a real hiring scorecard via its Mission-Outcomes-Competencies framework so you interview against defined competencies (super organizer, reliable closer, trusted operator) instead of vibes. Open a16z.com →

Related terms

Fractional Executive Org Chart Generalist

Also in Starting Up

See how founders actually handle this on Co-founders, team and legal, part of the Starting Up hub.

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