Building a Founder's Office from the Ground Up
Identify the common challenges faced by founders and how a specialised team can remove these pressures
Hello, I am Saurabh Tandon and welcome to the free weekly edition of More than Buzzwords.
Today’s newsletter is relevant for people looking to grow their careers at a chief of staff, founder’s office executives, strategy managers. Very useful for CEO’s and Founders as we deep dive into the various stages of why this vertical is needed, what results are expected and How I can help build this vertical for you.
Important topics that we will be discussing in this newsletter
Common problems faced by CEOs and Founders
Skills and Attributes required in founder’s office
Common projects and value add by founder’s office
KRA and KPI structure
How I build this vertical with my clients
Let’s dive in!
Amidst the fast-paced nature of startup life, where every day throws new challenges and opportunities your way, how often do you feel like you're being pulled in a million directions?
I know, it can be an unforgiving environment, making it all too easy to get tangled up in the minutiae—managing teams, tackling immediate issues, and putting out fires—while your big-picture vision starts to fade into the background.
So, in a fast-paced enterprise, where things transpire at a breakneck speed, that’s the last thing you want ---- losing sight of your strategic vision.
Plus if you are a founder/CEO, below will sound very familiar
My mind is distracted by an abundance of small initiatives, which results in lack of focus on long term vision
I have either a very small or ineffective leadership team. My most exceptional employee is rated at 30 out of 100 on my scale
A significant number of cross-functional projects are overlooked, and their status remains consistently poor from week to week
My critical projects are just my sole priority, and no one else volunteers to make these projects a success
There is no single source of truth, with unstandardised data and teams spending a great deal of time extracting & organising simple datasets
Reviews and meetings are time-consuming and yield no definitive results; duties and responsibilities are not delegated appropriately
I face High levels of burnout
Lack of Independent market research or customer feedback makes me rely on the teams' advice
Disengaged direct reportees due to lack of focused time given by founders
Enter Founder's Office - Self-sufficient and vital support system
It's not just about handling administrative tasks; a Founder's Office plays a highly versatile and crucial role in creating structure amid chaos.
What’s more?
Besides taking on independent projects, they standardize reporting formats and manage stakeholder communications to keep you and your team aligned and informed.
Plus, they establish protocols for meetings to make them more productive and agenda-focused.
You win half the battle right there, don’t you?
As Greg and Taylor from Personal Math put it:
“I need progress speed, not perfection. I need a plan to align around. I need someone willing to make judgment calls or decisions with imperfect information. And I need a narrative to get others engaged. So I need a high-output generalist.”
In my opinion, the hallmark of a generalist lies in their ability to blend five key skills. They typically excel in two or three while demonstrating competence in the others.
These essential skills include:
Seek out individuals who can confidently kick off projects even when some details are off the radar.
How organised are they with agendas, meetings, and daily plans to begin with?
Do they have the knack for pinpointing needle-moving tasks amidst noise and distractions? Gauge their ability to innovate with minimal resources. Can they keep their nerves steady under pressure, maintaining unflinching focus on the task at hand, or do they succumb to it?
The ideal candidate will navigate uncharted waters with ease, demonstrating a proactive approach to problem-solving that ensures their contributions drive meaningful impact within the team
Deepdive: Role of Founders Office
A. Super-prioritisation, Optimisation & Decision-Making
One of the primary responsibilities is to become the champion of the Eisenhower Matrix, enabling prioritisation of the founder’s time.
Juggling various responsibilities is the second nature of generalists. They can quickly identify which tasks are urgent and important versus those that can wait for a while or be delegated.
By nailing the art of prioritization, they transform chaos into clarity in the snap of a finger, ensuring every minute spent aligns with the startup's big vision.
It’s not just about getting things done; it’s about getting the right things done fast!
This involves:
Founder’s calendar optimisation and aligning leadership teams’ bandwidth around it. This clearly goes beyond just scheduling and coordinating meetings; it requires making informed decisions about prioritisation and the relevance of meetings
Effective task tracking: We often hear founders spending around two-thirds of their time on tasks like tracking updates and following up—tasks that could be easily delegated. Nothing beats an email update over an avoidable meeting; it saves everyone’s time
Bringing structure to non-planned ad-hoc activities & converting it to a planned ones leads to greater productivity. And hence Founder’s Office!
The Founder's Office is comfortable with data-driven decision-making and highly analytical, using spreadsheets and other analytics tools to inform their choices.
They have years of hands-on experience in driving outcomes where influence and consensus-building are key, they are well-equipped to navigate complex situations
B. Cross-Functional Project Management
The second major task is cross-functional project management for strategic initiatives.
Some of the initiatives include:
Aligning all team members to CEO’s vision
Setting Annual Operating plan, goals & monthly targets
Getting qualitative insights from the performance tracking reports
Synergising goals between different departments working on the same project
Preventing teams from working in silos and improving timely communication
This role requires cultivating excellent working relationships with functional heads within the startup team. It goes beyond simply taking updates or nudging others; they contribute intellectually to problem-solving and ensure that projects get completed effectively.
By facilitating open communication and aligning goals across departments, they ensure that teams are synchronised and focused on delivering strategic initiatives with clarity and purpose.
C. Dash-boarding and Corporate Analytics
The third key function is to establish and own a proper Management Information System (MIS) process and reporting cadence for the startup. Reporting and data gathering are often ad-hoc, unstructured, and incomplete—in all domains- sales, product, operations.
Key tasks include:
Setting the structure of the reports
Streamlining the frequency and cadence of reports
Getting qualitative insights from the cross functions
Finding data based opportunities to bump up revenues & operations
Connecting the dots between cross functional performance for synergy
This also gives immense business know-how to the founder’s office team and if done well, they become CEO’s right hand in every decision making
D. Strategic Sounding Board
Beyond these defined roles, the Founder's Office serves as a sounding board for founders, playing a key role in shaping strategy in collaboration alongside the leadership team.
They are excellent communicators and great relationship builders, with a strong bias for action and a high level of ambition to create impact.
With a hands-on working style and a high-result orientation, they play a crucial role in enhancing decision-making processes within the startup.
KRAs and KPIs for Founder’s Office
Depending on the specific requirements, key result areas in a founder’s office are across:
Hiring
Data Analytics
Business Reviews
Goal Setting and Tracking
Project Management for Cross Functions
Process Improvement and achieving operational excellence
This acts as a good framework for asking questions about the work experience for someone in founder’s office.
How I Build Founder’s Office for my clients
Although results are long term, but when I build & streamline a founder’s office for my clients I make sure we have a tangible delivery model in the first 90 days. Here is the process of building this vertical:
Phase 1: Planning & Insight Gathering (First 30 days)
Goal: Understand the current state through key stakeholders and data, then define objectives aligning with the founder’s vision & execute a smaller project
Analyse metrics and dashboards
Meet CXO team and all key stakeholders
Attend weekly and monthly business review calls
Go through the recent annual operating documents
Undertake the entire user journey of the product/service
Execute a smaller project (list out data based opportunities for the business)
Phase 2: Hire and Train founder’s office team, setup processes (Next 30 days)
Goal: Build a capable team, establish workflows & processes around dashboards and review meetings. Define the KPIs for the chief of staff
Setup top 3 KPIs for every department
Set Up a series of questions for faster and deep brainstorming
Templatise pre-meeting, during meeting and post meeting agendas
Set-up CEO and chief of staff calendars for maximum productivity & focus
Streamline the structure of performance dashboards with qualitative insights
Float JD for chief of staff, do initial screening interviews and close the position
Phase 3: Iterate, Execute and Document (Last 30 days)
Goal: Refine meeting structures, targets, AOPs, optimise workflows basis feedback, build alignment on metrics and reporting, Equip teams with tools and skills, assess results, and finalise handoff
Train the chief of staff on the processes involving the founder’s office
Document roadmap for product, sales and operations teams
Implement SOPs and operational checklists to streamline daily tasks
Assess AOP effectiveness and make any final adjustments
Deliver a final report summarising achievements, challenges, and next steps.
Provide documentation on all established processes for the founder’s team
Wrapping it up!
As we wrap up, it's clear that the Founder's Office is not just a support function; it’s a game-changer for startups navigating the turbulent waters of growth.
By streamlining operations and keeping strategic goals in focus, this office empowers founders to reclaim their time and vision. Embracing the Founder's Office means investing in a structured approach that fosters innovation, collaboration, and ultimately, success.
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