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LATEST POSTS 📚

If you’re new, not yet a subscriber, or just plain missed it, here are some of our recent editions.

🫡 So, What Does A Chief Of Staff Actually Do. The Pandora's Box of startup roles. We deep dive into the Chief of Staff.
⚡️ AI Agents & The New Developer Workflow. An interview with Zach Lloyd, Founder & CEO at Warp.
🎱 Ship Faster: AI Review & Crafting The Culture. An interview with Merrill Lutsky, Co-Founder & CEO at Graphite.

PARTNERS 💫

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HOUSEKEEPING 📨

Today, in 2026, we are in what some are calling an ‘information war.’ The left (still) has (some) legacy media, the right dominates podcasts and new media. The left has had Twitter; now the right owns Twitter. What I find particularly interesting, though, is the political leanings of the LLMs, most of which lean slightly left. Why is this? And what is to be made of it?

I do think it’s easy to understand. Universities skew left; journalism, NGOs, and tech companies do too. As a left-leaning libertarian (my politics sit smack bang with Claude), I like it. But it’s also something to keep an eye on, as I try to protect myself as much as possible from Black Hole-like pull of the dreaded echo chamber.

ROUNDTABLE 🍀

How Do You Measure Success In Your Role As Chief Of Staff?

After the bunch of comments and praise we received on last week’s edition: So, What Does A Chief Of Staff Actually Do, we decided to do an unfiltered version of one of the questions in the interview. We're keeping it real this round, going straight to the Chiefs of Staff for the uncut version of how they measure success in their roles. Here’s what they told us.

Max Kausman, COS at Chronicle

For me, success hinges on three main factors. The amount of 'founders' time' saved, enabling them to concentrate on their 'Zone of Genius'—for example, designing the product vision—instead of spending time on other topics.

And finally, achieving operational excellence, where various operational topics on finance, legal, people & culture, etc., are set to 'on autopilot' and do not require the founders' attention.

And finally, achieving operational excellence, where various operational topics on finance, legal, people & culture, etc., are set to 'on autopilot' and do not require the founders' attention.

Albert Patajo, COS at Nexl

My measure of success is broadly the same measures that the company is measured on—value creation across growth and profitability. When I joined Nexl, I had the ultimate baptism by fire and was tasked to lead and manage our Series A fundraise. In one of the hardest fundraising environments, too! We managed to close a Series A with two great Australian investors—Shearwater and EVP—who have just incredible conviction in the problem space we’re playing in and the platform we’ve built.

Katie Noonan, COS at Forage

Measuring success in the Chief of Staff role can be difficult and ultimately is often down to the perception of the principal that you work with. It can be measured through the successful and seamless delivery of projects, the incisive advice or direct feedback you provide to your principal and executive team, and your ability to navigate challenging and ambiguous situations with limited supervision.

One of the achievements I'm proud of is that, despite challenging macroeconomic conditions, we have maintained a strong internal culture. Our annual engagement survey results showed significant improvement in our focus areas of collaboration and innovation, which I focused on throughout the year.

Beatriz Guevara, COS at Athyna

At the end of the day, success in my role is about making an impact and being a trusted ally to my CEO and my team.

Jo Robyn, COS at Black Nova Venture Capital

I see it as my number one goal to create leverage for our partners' time. This is measured by taking things off their plate and owning respective parts of the business that they were previously managing. We set annual and quarterly goals, and I assess our success by whether we executed against them with the tactics we planned or if we need to revisit and adjust the goals, lightening our load when necessary for course correction.

Other goals include coaching NPS, the number of founder-focused events we run or host that are topics generated by and add value to the portfolio—not just ones we assume are important—streamlining a number of our internal processes, and launching our first set of playbooks, for which I measure success by piloting and testing with our portfolio.

Maddi Ingham, COS at Verve

For me, success is based on how much the co-founders trust me to have their backs and manage critical tasks. An achievement I am most proud of recently would be being the parental leave cover for our CEO, COO, and CMO while also managing the M&A process for our recent acquisition.

Belen Wagaw, COS at SAP

Working for someone who led an organization of 19 thousand people, there were many escalations—my job was to resolve the ones I could, delegate the ones I couldn’t, and raise the alarm for the ones that needed my exec’s attention.

_{*Yes, I decided to add Alfred Pennyworth. I know he’s not technically a chief of staff, but he acts very much like one for Wayne Manor, so I thought his input would still be valuable. Sue me.}

Alfred Pennyworth, Butler & COS at Wayne Manor

Success? It's measured by whether Master Wayne returns before dawn, not whether I received credit for the operation. If the suit held together, the signal was answered promptly, and Gotham's slightly safer than it was yesterday, I've done my job.

But a true chief of staff doesn't take victory laps. Your principal does. You measure success by the problems that didn't escalate, the crises resolved before they reached Arkham-level proportions. The best work is invisible. The worst mistakes are permanent.

My wise man once taught me: your effectiveness is measured by mission success, not personal recognition. Apply that here. But there's one metric I won't compromise on, and that’s whether your principal still trusts you enough to listen when you tell them they're becoming what they fight against. The moment they stop seeking your counsel—or you lack the spine to provide it honestly—you've failed spectacularly.

And that's it! You can also go ahead and read our previous edition on the role of Chief of Staff here.

BRAIN FOOD 🧠 

TWEETS OF THE WEEK 🐣 

TOOLS WE RECOMMEND 🛠️

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See the full set of tools we use inside of Athyna & Open Source CEO here.

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