First Round Capital Chief of Staff Best Practices for Success

To be a successful Chief of Staff at First Round Capital, you need to be a master of operations. First Round Capital Chief of Staff, Brianne Kimmel, emphasizes the importance of being a "Swiss Army knife" who can handle anything that comes your way.

Being a strong communicator is key to success in this role. As Kimmel notes, "Communicate, communicate, communicate" - being transparent and clear with your team is essential.

A Chief of Staff at First Round Capital is responsible for supporting the entire team, not just one person. This means being a jack-of-all-trades and being able to handle various tasks and projects.

To be successful, you need to be able to work independently and make decisions quickly. As Kimmel puts it, "You need to be able to make decisions quickly and be comfortable with ambiguity."

The responsibilities of a Chief of Staff at First Round Capital are multifaceted and demanding.

You'll be Liz Wessel's right-hand person, helping her with everything from researching and evaluating new investment opportunities to drafting emails and preparing for speaking engagements.

This role is not for those looking for a traditional 9-to-5 job, as you'll often need to work long hours, including nights and weekends, with lots of context switching.

You'll be expected to be extremely detail-oriented and have a high EQ, which will help you navigate the fast-paced and dynamic environment of a VC firm.

As a generalist investor, you'll need to get up to speed on various industries and technologies, including B2B SaaS, dev tools, and healthcare, which means being a quick learner is essential.

Writing is a huge part of this role, and you'll be responsible for drafting high-quality investment memos and internal/external communications.

As a Chief of Staff, you want to build trust with your team and stakeholders, and async communication is a game-changer for this.

Async communication means sending messages or updates without expecting an immediate response, allowing the recipient to respond at their own pace. This can be particularly helpful for teams with different work styles or time zones.

The Chief of Staff at First Round Capital, for example, uses async communication to keep the team informed and up-to-date on important projects and decisions. They send regular updates via email or Slack, allowing team members to review and respond at their convenience.

This approach helps to reduce stress and increase productivity, as team members can focus on their tasks without feeling overwhelmed by constant notifications.

Creating systems is a key part of the role, and it's your responsibility to build them so you're not stuck doing minor tasks for a large percentage of your time. This means being proactive and finding ways to automate or delegate tasks whenever possible.

One of the most important things I've learned is the importance of having a framework for making strategic decisions. For example, I made a framework for what must be true to get to a "yes", which helped me and my team make more informed decisions.

Keeping track of learnings is crucial, as they compound quickly. This was a valuable lesson learned by a Chief of Staff who kept a "Pearls of Learnings" doc to compile feedback and insights.

The doc helped the Chief of Staff to reflect on their experiences and document key takeaways. This included lessons such as connecting the dots back to the larger purpose, which was a responsibility they had to fulfill in their role.

Less is more when it comes to sharing information. A sticky note on the Chief of Staff's desk read "Sonja, how can you cut that message by 50%?" to remind them to keep their communications crisp and concise.

Try to be a culture bar-raiser at your company. This involves understanding your company values and demonstrating them in your actions. The Chief of Staff learned to invest time in understanding their company values and recognizing others who lived them.

Here are a few key lessons from the Chief of Staff's experiences:

As the Chief of Staff at Levels, I've learned that being a strategist in addition to being an executor is crucial to success in this role.

Being a Chief of Executing Things is easy, but the visibility inherent in the role means you're set up to operate strategically. This means pausing and reflecting before saying yes to something.

We made a framework for what must be true to get to a "yes", such as asking ourselves questions like 1) Is this something only Casey can uniquely do? and 2) Will this activity contribute to the most important objectives for Levels in the next 6-9 months?

Since memo writing is so critical to how we make strategic decisions at Levels, I took the lead on writing a number of key strategy memos for work that Casey is involved in.

The balance of both creating and executing on strategies makes the role feel energizing and sustainable.