Chief of Staff

About the position

First Round is a venture capital firm that works with founders exclusively at the earliest stages of company building, often when all they have is an 'imagine if.' We fill in where we can until the team is filled out, tackling crucial early hiring and equipping those who are great at building product with the skills to sell it, too. By getting the foundational firsts right, we increase the odds of finding extreme product-market fit. Our founders’ 'imagine ifs' have turned into companies like Notion, Roblox, Uber, and Square. We’re looking for an exceptionally sharp, relentless, and highly responsive Chief of Staff to serve as the trusted right hand to Partner Bill Trenchard. If you thrive in fast-paced, high-performance environments, love bringing structure to chaos, and get excited about leveraging AI and automation to improve workflows, this could be the perfect role for you. This role is based in our San Francisco office from Tuesday to Thursday and requires a fierce work ethic, adaptability, and a 'do whatever it takes' mentality—including evenings and weekends when needed.

Responsibilities

• Mastering Bill’s communication & email management—responding within minutes, filtering for priority, and ensuring everything is organized and actionable.
• Serving as a key point of contact—supporting founders, investors, referrers, and other high-value relationships on Bill’s behalf.
• Driving process optimization, automation, and AI integration—leveraging tools like Zapier, Notion, Airtable, Gumloop, and LLMs to make our systems smarter.
• Tracking and maintaining key data in tools like Salesforce—not just logging information, but deeply understanding why we track it and how to use it to drive better investment decisions.
• Preparing Bill for every interaction—assembling briefing books, tracking key conversations, and proactively surfacing important insights.
• Managing partner projects, events, and special initiatives—working behind the scenes to ensure seamless execution.
• Supporting investment diligence & research—occasionally joining founder pitches, conducting market research, and drafting detailed snapshots to help inform investment decisions when needed.

Requirements

• At least 3 years of experience in a Chief of Staff, Business Operations, or similar role.
• Obsessed with making things run faster, smoother, and smarter.
• Relentlessly organized, detail-oriented, and operate with precision and urgency in fast-paced environments.
• Enjoy both high-level strategy and hands-on execution.
• Exceptional communicator with clear and effective written and verbal communication.
• Fascinated by technology and eager to learn about the venture capital industry.

Nice-to-haves

• Experience in fast-moving, high-expectation environments.

Benefits

• Opportunity to work at the center of a leading venture firm.
• Direct impact on how we invest in and support the world’s best founders.