Chief of Staff

I am the CEO of a startup, and we’re working on some really exciting stuff.

It is by no means a sure bet just yet, but we have some great momentum and just finalised a Seed round after coming out of Y-Combinator Winter 21. One of the problems I’m struggling with right now is making sure I am using my time in the best possible way, and that’s why I’d like to hire you.

We are a three person start-up about to hire our 3rd developer and so far it is just me on the business side of things. I need someone that can sweep up the administration of running a business. You help me offload administrative work that is not consistent in volume — so that I can spend more time engaging with customers and hiring awesome people which are the two best things I can do for the company. (great examples of what I need help with include fundraising due diligence, managing our outsourced suppliers, planning a company retreat, etc.)

It is unglamorous work and it will be hard. Basically as hard as being a start-up founder.

How the Role Works

What you get is the opportunity to operate at a high level and gain years of experience in months. You will build a close relationship with the CEO and CTO and be the linchpin that glues the rest of the early team together.

I need someone to partner with, who can be fully trusted with managing my calendar, my email, my phone, my contacts, as well as coordinating aspects of both my professional life. You'll do more and more of the work that I do and in the process learn how to manage and lead a team. My dream is that if I cannot make a meeting, you step in for me no questions asked. Thats how in sync I would like us to be.

I would like to compensate you in the top quartile of the salary range for this position, because I know you will work a lot of hours and carry a lot of my worries as your worries. I work hard to be a good person, but I know you will interact with me in some of my most stressful moments and this might stress you out, too. A good person for this role would be more calm than me.

I would like to compensate you in the top quartile of the salary range for this position and make sure you get equity so that every day our business grows, your wealth grows as well.

I work hard to be a good person, but I know you will interact with me in some of my most stressful moments and this might stress you out, too. A good person for this role would be more calm than me.

I need you to be in the office when I’m in the office, relieving me of administrative work so that I can focus on responsibilities that come with leading the company. Together, we will navigate a time of incredible growth for the business as well as a great deal of personal growth for me as an executive. It’s going to be a rollercoaster ride.

Some of the Things You’ll Do

I am doing many new things now that I wasn’t doing a year ago, so I imagine your role might evolve as well. Here are some things I know I would like to entrust you with managing right away:

• Managing my agenda as a gatekeeper against any waste of time
• Booking professional and personal travel
• Making sure all expenses are properly recorded
• Coordinating lunches and dinners with my senior team, key customers and partners, and other constituents
• Collecting and driving a list of key decisions I need to make each day, such as: things I need to sign, documents to review, important emails, invitations, deadlines, reminders, etc.
• Coordinating events in the office where I am hosting.
• Taking on random tasks that are important to me but difficult to complete in between a day fully booked with meetings

What I’m Like to Work With

I function best in a routine and like to run my day to a schedule. Ideally we check in AM and PM and then get to work in between.

I like to give direct feedback, I will tell you what could be better and I will also tell you what is good. I won’t yell or swear, but I will be brutally honest. If this makes you uncomfortable you’re not going to be happy, so you shouldn’t work for me (I mean, I don’t want to make you unhappy!). If this feels like something you’d prefer, then we’ll probably get along.

I am not interested in doing anything not directly connected to the goals of the company. You will discover very quickly what I think is important and what I think can be ignored. I will be pretty open with you about things I think are worth our attention, and things that aren’t.

The Long Term

I’m cool if you’re not the Chief of Staff forever, but I want someone who will do this job happily and with great focus for at least 1 year. Beyond that, if you discover an aspect of the company you are thrilled about I’d love to promote you into one of our teams and task you with hiring and training your replacement. For the right person you might progress into being the COO, but who knows?

Together, we will build a company and if you want to learn what it’s like to run a company then I invite you to come run a company with me.

Details

Full time role, ideal candidate will already be in Singapore. Salaries are high, with competitive equity.

The Team

I am a former Royal Marine Commando that has built a business in maritime from nothing to 4 million in turnover.

Our CTO has published multiple papers across technology, from Formal verification in cryptocurrencies, human-computer interaction, embedded glucose monitoring to baseline optimization in chemistry and physics. He has also built software and hardware serving hundreds of thousands of users across southeast Asia, in fintech, insurtech, robotics, for companies like National Geographic, Ethereum, and SGX.

Our small dev team has an awesome background, including a team member who was the founding team of a start up with a Billion dollar exit. That is because we are spending the money to hire professionals who operate at a high level. What we are not doing is trying to nickel and dime people and hire people that are just looking for a job. Again this is hard, when they are at work, no one chills out at Greywing.

How to apply

See our CEO, Nick Clarke's, top tips for recording an awesome Loom here.

If you are interested, please reach out with a short Loom video answering the following questions:

1. What should we know about you? Background, capabilities, what you think your strengths are.
2. What interests you about us?
3. Tell us a little about the most memorable project you've worked on. What were the hardest parts? What were the best moments?