Vetted Chief of Staffs in California

“Early-stage investor/sourcer with experience at Insight Partners and M13 who combines thesis-driven outbound with deep ecosystem presence to generate proprietary founder relationships. Particularly strong in generative AI, creative tooling, and commerce tech, with added credibility from Gold House Ventures fellowship, angel investing communities, and a fractional fundraising advisory practice that has helped founders close rounds.”

Dhaya Lakshminarayanan

Screened

Executive Operations Leader specializing in AI, climate tech, and high-growth organizations

San Francisco, CA20y exp

“Operator who has repeatedly stepped into founder-level, cross-functional ownership at startups—running full HR (recruiting, onboarding, benefits) with AI-driven process automation, and later serving as interim VP People & Culture during an executive transition. Also managed cap table, 409A, equity grants, and day-to-day investor relations, and built company-wide ELT goals/KPIs and operating rhythms tied to board-approved strategy.”

“Repeat founder/operator with hands-on experience taking startups from zero to MVP, traction, and fundraising. Built a venture-backed company to roughly a $5M valuation and later served as Interim COO for a prop-tech startup, helping launch operations and support a 4-5M SAR raise. Also brings direct exposure to top startup ecosystems through Techstars, Antler, and close work with founders and investors in SF.”

“Operator with consulting and startup experience who has led founder-level, zero-to-one initiatives across highly complex domains—from conceiving and launching an $80M, 80m maritime disaster-response vessel for Global Support & Development (Sergey Brin’s org) to acting as a cross-functional leader at Windfall Bio spanning regulatory, GTM, partnerships, and R&D. At Deloitte, owned the Omnia ESG software roadmap and drove >30% faster delivery through standardization/automation, and was tapped to train other managers on their operating cadence system.”

Donnell Mata

Screened

Director-level Strategy & Operations leader specializing in GTM, product, and operating cadence systems

San Francisco, CA22y exp

“Operator/strategy leader with experience driving digital transformation and building executive operating systems in high-noise environments. At a legacy B2C brand, created a prioritization framework and exec alignment process that cut 100+ initiatives to 16 and lifted execution from 12% to 81%. At Point B, owned a $20M delivery budget while shifting the firm to a tech-forward practice, implementing OKR/KPI cadences and AI-enabled workflows (n8n, LLMs, gamma.ai) that materially improved executive productivity.”

“Early hire at FullCycle who owned high-trust fund operations initiatives spanning tax (K-1) process redesign, investor communications, and executive support. Known for building scalable systems (including an executive communication framework adopted as a team best practice) and for driving complex logistics like getting a team to Davos while keeping core fund operations running.”

“Chief of Staff to the family of Kevin Scott (CTO of Microsoft), serving as the first CoS to unify previously siloed teams and build an operating cadence for executive decision-making. Experienced running high-stakes, high-security events including a Presidential fundraiser/President Biden visit, coordinating with the presidential advance team and Secret Service while protecting principal priorities and privacy.”

Marty Schneider

Screened

Executive Operations & GTM Leader specializing in startups across logistics, esports, and civic tech

Redwood City, CA15y exp

“Founder/CEO who built Hometown Heart from the ground up—creating SOPs and standing up hiring, GTM, finance, and investor/government relations—scaling from 6 employees and $100K debt to 350 employees and $40M in annual revenue in 3 years. Led expansion into San Francisco County, proactively managing compliance/licensing and municipal stakeholders to secure early approvals and drive major revenue growth.”

“Chief of Staff with experience driving cross-functional execution and executive alignment, including in real estate development environments with shifting timelines. Implements PM tooling (Notion/Monday.com) plus KPI/OKR systems to improve clarity, accountability, and executive productivity, and has experience mediating priority conflicts between functions like marketing and operations.”