By Callie, Talent Scout for the Marketing and Generalist streams at Jumpstart. Updated September 2026.I get the same email most weeks: "I'd be a great founder's associate, I'm just not sure what one actually does." Fair question, because the title is doing a lot of work. At a five-person company it means fundraising decks and customer calls. At a thirty-person company it means running the operating rhythm the founder no longer has time for. Same title, genuinely different jobs, and part of my role is matching you to the right one.
Chief of staff is the more senior version, and it's less about doing the tasks yourself and more about making sure the right things get done by the right people, on time, in a company that doesn't have layers of management yet to catch what slips.
What actually fills the week
Strip away the job title and the pattern repeats across every brief I take from a founder: something needs owning that doesn't have an owner. That's it. In practice it splits roughly into four buckets.
- Getting the founder out of the operational weeds. Board packs, investor updates, the hiring pipeline, the process that broke when headcount doubled. You're the person who notices it's broken before the founder does.
- Turning ambiguity into a plan. A founder says "we need to fix onboarding" and walks off to a fundraising call. You're the one who turns that into a scoped piece of work with a deadline.
- Sitting across functions. You'll be in a room with an engineer in the morning and a candidate for a sales role in the afternoon, and you need to sound credible in both conversations.
- Owning at least one number. Even in the loosest version of this role, founders want you accountable for something measurable within the first three months, not just "helping out".
Roles like this we've filled
These are real briefs and real salaries from candidates placed through my streams.
What it pays
Founder's associate roles through my Generalist stream typically land between £30k and £60k, most with equity or a bonus attached. Chief of staff roles sit higher, usually £40k to £75k, because they ask for more prior ownership before you start. The company's stage moves the number more than the title does: a Series A company with a board to report to pays more than a three-person pre-seed team, even for a similar scope of work.
If you're weighing this against a corporate salary, be honest with yourself about the gap and honest with me about your number on the call. I'd rather tell you a role isn't a fit than have you accept something that doesn't work for you six months in.
Who gets picked
Founders read for a handful of things, and they read fast because they're doing this hiring on top of an already-full week.
- Evidence you finished something without someone checking in on you every day. It doesn't need to be startup experience.
- Comfort saying "I don't know, I'll find out" rather than guessing to look competent.
- The ability to write a clear page. So much of this job is turning a messy conversation into something someone else can act on.
- A specific reason for that company. "I want startup experience" gets you nowhere in a founder's inbox. Knowing what the company does and why it matters to you gets a reply.
Think you'd fit one of these? Book a 15-minute call with me. I'll tell you honestly whether you're ready and which live roles suit you.
Book a generalist call →Getting ready before you apply
Go back through your last two years and pull out every example where you owned an outcome rather than a task, whatever the setting. A process you fixed at a summer job counts as much as a project at a top firm if you can describe what changed because you were there. Put those on your CV instead of your responsibilities.
Then, on Jumpstart, you'll record a sixty-second video pitch within a day of our call. Treat it like the job: say one clear thing, don't pad it out, land it before the clock runs out. Founders watch that before they read anything else you've sent them.
How working with me actually goes
Book a 15-minute call. If it's a fit, you're on the platform with a profile and video pitch within 24 hours, and founders start pitching their roles to you on video before you ever apply. About 80% of candidates who hit that 24-hour window land a role within four to six weeks. It costs candidates nothing. I can't place anyone who needs visa sponsorship or who's in full-time study, so please don't book if either applies to you.