A Chief of Staff with David Nebinski

Claire Blood-Cheney, Chief of Staff at Abacum, talks with David Nebinski about how she’s building a lean “SWAT team” of generalists to take on ambiguous, cross-functional projects at a fast-growing Series B startup. She covers how she spots candidates’ “spikes” in interviews, how the Chief of Staff role differs from a Founder’s Associate, and why being “AI-pilled” is now a must for generalist operators.

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Ryan Pershad talks with David Nebinski, Founder of A Chief of Staff, about what the Chief of Staff role is and is not. He recently started his fourth Chief of Staff role. Ryan explains the different CoS archetypes, why he thinks an “AI Chief of Staff” misses the point, what to learn in your first 90 days, how to build relationships, why he keeps coming back to the role.

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Chief of Staff turned Director of Operations Audrey Ware joins David Nebinski to share how she went from never having used an API to building AI tools. They cover using Claude Code to build an AI email drafter, managing AI costs, and how to use AI without losing your critical thinking. Enjoy!

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Mutiara Siregar, Chief of Staff at a private equity-backed company, talks with David Nebinski about how the role works when there's a clock on the exit. She covers driving the projects to hit targets, pitching the board, working with teams 12 hours away, and giving quick, objective feedback.

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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit https://achiefofstaff.substack.com

Nadia Koritareva, Chief of Staff at AngelList, shares how she uses Claude to handle follow-ups, scheduling, and accountability so she can focus on judgment and strategy. She also talks about her vision for personalized, AI-driven internal comms, redesigning executive meeting cadences, and why she started her Substack, Full Attention.

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Cat Jordan, Chief of Staff at Crystal Venture Partners, talks with David Nebinski about why AI can take over repetitive tasks but can't replace a Chief of Staff's judgment, relationships, or negotiation skills. She shares how she helped build an AI-native venture fund, the tools Chiefs of Staff are using right now, and what she wishes she'd known before taking the role.

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Lauren Stein joins David Nebinski to unpack how the Chief of Staff role is evolving in the AI era — from "executive engineer" to startups' earliest hire. They dig into why Founders now want a CoS sometimes before they even launch, what AI-native companies expect from the role, and Lauren's advice for anyone interviewing: find the founder, not the job.

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Vivek Udaykumar, who works at immigration startup Lima, talks with David Nebinski about how he networked his way into an Ops & Strategy role as an immigrant with zero connections in the U.S. He breaks down how to build relationships with Founders at events, communicate effectively once you're in the role, and use AI to elevate your work.

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This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit https://achiefofstaff.substack.com

Chelsea Orcutt, Chief of Staff to a COO, joins David Nebinski to talk about what the role really looks like day-to-day. They dig into emotional regulation as a core CoS skill, the "unscalable but impactful" things worth keeping human, and how to spot the green flags of a great Principal.

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Mariko Kunitomo, the Global Chief of Staff, People & Talent at WPP Media, breaks down how she helps upskill 40,000+ employees. She shares the business case for developing hard and soft skills like empathy and curiosity in an AI-driven industry and business world. She also opens up about returning to work after having her first child, and shares what it actually takes to run change management at a global scale.

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Goodword's CEO Caroline Dell and Strategy & Ops Lead Lara Kuhn get real about when to hire a Chief of Staff, why titles matter less than the work, and how AI is making generalists more powerful.

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Grant Rivas, Head of Operations at Antimetal, breaks down with David Nebinski how he hires 'Founding' roles at a fast-scaling AI startup, why he switched his AI tool stack from Claude to ChatGPT/Codex, and how he's thinking about usage-based and outcomes-based pricing in the AI era.

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Anthony Rotolo talks with David Nebinski about how he broke into the Chief of Staff world, first at a small African tech VC and then as a Chief of Staff at PayPal. You will also learn about earning trust, knowing when to make decisions for your leader (and when not to), and using AI to work smarter along the way.

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Four-time Chief of Staff Eli Frank breaks down how AI is making Chiefs of Staff even bigger force-multipliers, plus his 4-level CoS framework, solar system analogy, and more.

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Almost two years into her Chief of Staff role, Cher Murphy talks with David Nebinski how she has automated much of her work, built tools, and now spends her time teaching functional teams to adopt AI across the company. She talks through her "outcome-based" view of roles in the AI era, her path from executive assistant to Chief of Staff and more! Enjoy!

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David Nebinski, host of A Chief of Staff Podcast, gets interviewed by Kriti and Andrew who have attended his A Chief of Staff Mixers, on how he fell into a CoS-like role, his solopreneurship journey, and how he has been building A Chief of Staff newsletter, podcast, and events series in New York.

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David Nebinski talks with Tim Bristow, the Chief of Staff at Edge, about how AI multiplies his impact, how AI is changing organization structures, and why saying no is the real unlock.

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Learn more about A Chief of Staff podcast and events: http://www.achiefofstaffpodcast.com

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In this A Chief of Staff podcast episode, David Nebinski shares six Chief of Staff job searching tips if you are looking for a new job in 2026. You will learn how to stand-out in a crowded and tough job market. You can do it!

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In this episode, David Nebinski sits down with Teddy Schoenfeld, a Chief of Staff at early-stage AI startup Sentience, to unpack what the role looks like at a ~10 person company. Teddy shares why generalists, not specialists, have the edge in an AI-driven world, community-led growth, and a hospitality-inspired philosophy behind treating early users. You will also learn about how he uses Sentience's product daily to supercharge his own work as Chief of Staff. Enjoy!

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In this podcast episode, Hannah Heider chats with David Nebinski about her dual CoS role at a family office and an AI healthcare startup called Arbiter. You will also learn about her COS framework: Culture & Communications, Operations, and Strategy, how she really uses AI, why a great executive assistant is non-negotiable, and how 17 years as a gymnast shaped the discipline behind her work. Enjoy!

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit https://achiefofstaff.substack.com