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Join as an operatorFounders Associate and Chief of Staff roles
Founders hire their right hand through people they trust. I run Founders Associate and Chief of Staff searches for early-stage startups across Europe. Join the pool and I introduce you by name.
5 minutes · Always free · Private until you say yes
01 - The short version
Two minutes on who I am, why I started Operator Talent, and what happens after you apply.
02 - The role
Founders Associate and Chief of Staff overlap on almost everything. Both are generalists. Both sit next to the founder. The difference is the size of the problem you get handed.
Zero to one. You take what the company needs this week and get it done.
One to a hundred. You hold the parts of the company the founder can no longer hold.
Most Chiefs of Staff started somewhere like the first card. Two years inside one company beats any outside candidate, and founders promote from that seat. Some founders call this Head of Operations or Operations Manager. Same seat, different title.
03 - How it works
Every application comes to me. Here is what happens after you send yours.
You fill in the form. Name, LinkedIn, what you have run, and what you want next. Five minutes.
Every application comes to me, not to a filter. You get an answer within five working days, either way.
If it is a yes, you get an email to set a password. That is the whole setup. You are in the pool from that moment.
Founders do not browse the pool. I work each search by hand and come to you first. If you say yes, I make the introduction.
Introductions happen when the right search opens. Some people hear from me in a week. Others wait for the company worth waiting for.
04 - The bar
There is a bar. Here is roughly where it sits.
You go wide rather than deep, and you are comfortable being the person who has not done this before and does it anyway.
You notice the pattern in one place and apply it in another, which is most of what this job actually is.
Nobody has to check on you, and you arrive with the answer rather than the problem.
You have no real authority in this role. Communication and reading a room are the whole toolkit.
You make decisions without asking permission, and you would quite like to start something of your own one day.
Where people usually come from
None of this is a checklist. If you have run something real and not one of these titles describes you, apply anyway. Those are usually the profiles I most enjoy reading.
05 - Apply
These seats get filled in days, through a conversation you are not part of. One profile is how you get into it.
5 minutes · Always free · Private until you say yes
For founders
Hiring a Founders Associate or a Chief of Staff? I keep a network of operators I have already met, most of whom never reach the open market. Tell me the profile you need and I will bring back three relevant names, not thirty.