Both titles describe someone who works directly for the founder, and job ads mix them up all the time. Some companies post a "chief of staff / founder's associate" role and let candidates decide which job it is.
That's a mistake, because the two hires solve different problems. One adds hands. The other adds a second brain on the company's operating system. Hiring a junior associate for a chief of staff's problem leaves them lost. Hiring a chief of staff to run errands wastes the most expensive person in the room. This guide explains where each role came from, how they compare, and a quick test for choosing.
Where the founder's associate role came from
The title is most closely tied to Revolut. In an eFinancialCareers report from November 2024, founder Nik Storonsky credits himself with inventing it. He says that when Revolut passed 100 employees, he hired eight associates instead of more experienced executives, mostly young consultants from McKinsey and investment bankers. The Financial Times reported that the move "unnerved" more experienced staff. The team has since grown to about 40.
The same article quotes a former associate at a 40-person company who was "thrown into the pits of hell" on day one with no context. Their work ranged from meeting banks in Nigeria to helping staff set performance targets and arranging meetings with investors and lawyers. That range is typical of the job: wide, fast and assigned from the top.
The chief of staff is an older idea with clearer definitions. Andreessen Horowitz describes a chief of staff who is "most effective when working under a single Executive", calls the role "the control tower", and says it's usually a two to three year commitment.
Founder's associate vs chief of staff compared
| Dimension | Founder's associate | Chief of staff |
|---|---|---|
| Experience | Often 1 to 3 years, per the career accelerator Jumpstart | Varies; a16z lists former consultants, bankers, executive assistants and early operations hires |
| Who sets the work | The founder assigns projects | Shapes what the founder and leadership team work on |
| Typical work | Research, decks, investor lists, partner outreach, one-off projects | Leadership meetings, priorities, board prep, follow-through across teams |
| Authority | Borrowed, and limited to the project | Borrowed from the CEO, but across the whole leadership agenda |
| Main risk | Lost without direction | Pulled into admin or projects with no owner |
| Pay signal | £30k to £50k in the UK (Jumpstart); £60,457 UK median (Salary.com) | $124,557 US average base (Payscale) |
The pay figures aren't directly comparable, and the founder's associate data is thin. The Jumpstart range is quoted secondhand in the eFinancialCareers article. Salary.com's UK figure is dated April 2025 and doesn't describe its sample. Payscale's chief of staff average comes from 1,381 self-reported profiles, with total pay from $74k to $213k, and covers every kind of employer. For a startup chief of staff budget, our chief of staff cost guide goes further.
The same week, done by each
To make the difference concrete, take an invented 30-person startup two months into a seed extension. Here's how each hire might spend the same week.
The founder's associate
- Builds a list of 60 investors who led similar rounds, with a warm path to each.
- Cleans up the data room folders and checks that every contract is the signed version.
- Calls five customers to line up reference calls for diligence.
- Writes a two-page teardown of a competitor's new pricing.
The chief of staff
- Decides with the CEO which two projects pause so the raise gets enough founder time.
- Runs the weekly leadership meeting and chases the three decisions it produced.
- Prepares the board update and flags the hiring plan that no longer fits the cash.
- Notices that sales and product are working from different launch dates, and gets one agreed.
Everything on the associate's list could be written down by the founder on Monday morning. Almost nothing on the chief of staff's list could, because spotting the problem is part of the job.
Which one to hire first
Use one question: can you write next week's task list for this person? If you can, and the problem is that you have no time to do the tasks, hire a founder's associate. If you can't, because the real problem is that too many things compete for your attention and nobody is joining them up, you want a chief of staff.
Stage matters too. a16z describes the chief of staff at a company of 20 or more people as executive support for one leader, growing into support for the whole leadership team at about 75 people. Below 20, a chief of staff often has too little leadership structure to run, and a sharp associate with clear direction gives more for the money. Read when startups need a chief of staff for the signals in more detail.
Some founders hire an associate first and promote them. That can work when the associate has been learning the operating side, not just running projects. Treat it as a new job with a new scope, not a title change.
There's a third answer that gets overlooked. If most of what you want off your plate is calendar, inbox, travel and expenses, neither role fits. That's an executive assistant's job, and it's cheaper and better done by someone who wants to do it. A sharp associate given a week of scheduling will start looking for a new job, and a chief of staff stuck there is worse. Write down the ten things you'd hand over first, and count how many are admin.
Signs you hired the wrong one
- The associate keeps asking what to do next. You hired for hands and needed judgment. Either give them a written weekly brief or change the role.
- The chief of staff spends most days on scheduling and errands. a16z suggests admin and personal tasks should be no more than about 20% of the role. Above that, an executive assistant would cost less and do it better.
- Senior staff take orders from a 24-year-old. The Revolut story shows the friction this can cause. An associate can carry the founder's request, but shouldn't overrule a department head.
- The chief of staff isn't in the room. If they don't see the leadership meeting, the board pack or the hard conversations, they can't do the job. That's a founder habit to fix, not a hiring problem.
- Nobody owns the operating rhythm. Neither hire has made meetings, priorities or follow-up any more predictable after six months.
Where software fits
Part of both jobs is assembling information: what's overdue, what changed overnight, which deal went quiet. Software can now take some of that. The Nautis AI Chief of Staff builds a briefing every morning at 7:00 am from tasks, pipeline, runway, meetings and approvals, grouped into sections such as Priorities, Blockers and Pipeline. Anything it wants to change goes to the Approval Center first, and capabilities default to Ask every time. Task Boards and Notes hold the projects an associate would run.
None of that replaces the human parts: judging which project to drop, handling a tense conversation, or building trust with the team. Our guide on AI vs a human chief of staff covers that line. The role page on founder's associates describes the job itself at each stage.
FAQ
Is a founder's associate a junior chief of staff?
Roughly, but the jobs differ in kind as well as seniority. An associate executes projects the founder assigns. A chief of staff shapes the founder's agenda and the leadership rhythm, which needs more experience and more context.
How much does a founder's associate earn?
Published data is thin. Jumpstart, a UK career accelerator, puts the average at £30k to £50k, as quoted by eFinancialCareers. Salary.com gives a UK median of £60,457 as of April 2025. Neither source covers equity, so ask candidates what they expect.
Can a founder's associate become a chief of staff?
Yes, if they've learned how the company runs and not just how to finish projects. Promote them into a written new scope with access to leadership meetings. Without that, the title changes and the job doesn't.
Does a startup need a founder's associate vs chief of staff, or both?
Most early startups need one at most. Pick the associate if you can direct their work, and the chief of staff if you need someone to organize yours. Having both makes sense once the leadership team is large enough to keep a chief of staff busy.