Hire a Chief of Staff
The most undefined title in startups, and the easiest one to hire badly.
Nobody agrees what this job is, including the people applying
- Retained recruiters.
- LinkedIn Recruiter seats.
- Keyword-matched resumes.
- Templated InMails.
Chief of staff can mean an operator who runs the company's cadence, a strategist doing analysis for the founder, a project lead who takes whatever is broken this month, or a glorified executive assistant. All four call themselves the same thing.
Founders usually want a specific one and describe it vaguely, then spend six weeks interviewing people who are excellent at a different version of the job.
The second problem is the exit. Strong chiefs of staff take the role to learn and leave within two years, usually to run a function or start something. That is fine if you plan for it and expensive if you assumed otherwise.
How the agent runs a chief of staff search
It forces the definition first
Intake pins down which version you mean and what they would own in month one. The rest of the search depends entirely on that answer.
It searches the real feeder paths
Consulting, banking, early operators, failed founders and former investors each produce a different flavour. The agent surfaces the ones matching your definition and labels the trade-offs.
Outreach that names the next step
Strong candidates take this role as a springboard. Saying honestly what it leads to gets better replies than pretending it is a destination.
Screening on ambiguity
Your questions go out early: the messiest thing they were handed with no brief, and what they decided without asking.
Questions.
Answered.
Not in the version most founders want. An EA owns your calendar and inbox; a chief of staff owns projects and decisions. Some roles blend both, which is worth being explicit about.
Consultants bring structure and analysis; operators bring execution and context. The right answer depends on whether your problem is thinking or shipping.
Often eighteen to twenty-four months, then a functional role or their own company. Plan the role as a springboard and you get stronger candidates.
If the mess is spread across the company and changes monthly, yes. If it is concentrated in one function, hire a specialist for that function instead.
Hire a Founding Recruiter
The first recruiter builds the hiring machine. They do not just run searches.
Hire a Head of Product
The hire where the founder has to give something up, and usually does not want to.
Superposition for Founders
You should be building your company, not sifting through resumes.
Find your chief of staff.
Tell us what you would hand over in month one and the agent will find people who have owned exactly that.