Has anyone noticed the growing number of chief of staff positions in startups / tech companies?

I can't figure out if it's a good role or not. I'm sure, like in consulting, "it depends," but from what I've read you're either an EA who will be stuck there forever or on a "springboard" to the c-suite.

Anyone have experience / insight? It seems like a good role for a generalist advisor who focuses on special projects (i.e. all of us) but curious to hear others' thoughts

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I have a friend who recently took a CoS role. Reports directly to the CEO. It seems like one of those roles that is highly variable depending on the CEO and company.

Some pros:
- involved in very strategic discussions
- full insight into every aspect of the business
- senior title with decent comp

Some cons:
- hard to move around in the organization
- ambiguous responsibilities
- experience is very dependent on how well you jive with the CEO
- very little decision making authority despite “senior” title
- often a lack of respect from senior leaders since you’re typically the youngest in the room

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I would see it as a one-man strategy and bizops function. If you excel here, it will launch your career in the org.

At the same time, there’s no “hard” metric to track your performance here, so you could be sorta lackluster and just be given more admin stuff to do and it turn into a dead-end.

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100% agree with you. One thing that I've seen (and I know I could be wrong here) is that the ones that end up being more like EAs are probably for more junior employees. The ones that are a springboard seem to be for mid-career people.

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Agree with the above on being a launching point. My friend was chief of staff at VC-funded startup and now holds title of “director of product strategy”

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