Chief of Staff
Hi! I'm Tara, co-founder and CEO at Rupa! I'm looking for a Chief of Staff to be my stunt double at Rupa! 🦄
You'll be my right-hand person and a force-multiplier for me. It's a super critical and exciting time for the company - we just hit 30 people and we're on the brink of building out our exec team, raising our next round, and thoughtfully designing the Rupa culture and internal operating processes! 🚀Together, you and I will make magic over the next year as we enter our hyperscaling mode!
The Chief of Staff position is a high exposure role -- you will get facetime with our investors, advisors, execs, partners and more. Your day to day will consist of sitting in on all of my meetings, helping me prioritize, and doing follow ups as needed. We'll divide work between us and you will also have your own projects to run with based on your unique skillset and background. You'll get intimately familiar with what it means to be a CEO of a high growth early stage technology startup. It's a great role for rockstars who eventually want to do their own startup or figure out where they want to develop their career within a tech company. As my Chief of Staff, no matter what you want to do after, I will help you get there. 💙
TL/DR: To keep it simple, we're growing crazy fast and I need support in my role and responsibilities as CEO! I am looking for a stellar human to help scale me.
The top 3 qualities I'm looking for in a Chief of Staff:
Integrity: You will have access to more sensitive information than any person at the company. Trust and integrity is an absolute must.
Highly Organized: Your role is very simple: keep Tara successful. To do this, you will need to keep multiple plates spinning in the air. On MBST -- you have a strong preference for "J" over "P". You'll need to anticipate issues and bring them to me before the fact.
Execution / Hustle: High energy and a bias towards action is a must. You don't wait to be told what to do - by then you've already done it. Where other people see barriers, you find a way.
Other Must Haves:
Ability to work PST hours: I want to be very honest about this. Sometimes I have meetings at 8PM PST, so unless you're ok with 11PM EST meetings, I strongly prefer PST time zone! In person in San Francisco is a bonus and will be weighted in your favor, but is not a must.
3+ years of work experience: This is a minimum. The range I think is best suited for this role is 3-10 years of experience. I am looking for someone who has seen how companies work before - whether in a consulting role or inside of a company. Your work as Chief of Staff will vary depending on your background and experience. (I need support in many areas including higher level strategic work, people & culture, investor relations and more.) We will figure out together where your superpowers are and have your work be primarily oriented there.
100% Commitment: This must be your full time and top commitment - not part time. This role isn't suitable for people who have a side hustle at this time. Since you will be a mini-CEO, I will hold you to similar standards as I hold any other owner and leader at the company. Since we are early stage, we are all hands on deck right now, and I want to be as honest about that as possible. At times there will be weekend and late night work. I promise it will be fun, though, and I won't ask anything of you that I wouldn't ask of myself!
Chemistry: Getting along is critical in this role since we will be working together every single day. You can learn more about me here! If you are high energy and have a passion for personal development and growth, we will get along well!
Excellent Communication Skills: Both written and verbal. You'll ghostwrite emails and thought leadership articles for me. You'll also run certain meetings at the company.
Bonus Points:
Creativity: You'll help me plan our corporate retreats, define "what makes Rupa culture unique", bring our culture to life and more. Roll up your sleeves and think big. What should we do on our company retreat in Costa Rica in August (yup, that's right!). Creative problem solving is key as well - when you can't google something and find the answer, what do you do?
Strategic Thinking: How would you prioritize strategic initiatives? Should we expand our product line? A strength here will open up a new set of initiatives you can work on at the company.
A Passion for Root Cause Medicine: This is our life's work. We're on a mission to fundamentally change the way we approach our health -- does this light you up?
About Tara!
Tara's Schedule & Work Style
I am a morning person! I get up at 5 or 6AM to journal and plan my day with a cup of matcha. I start meetings later in the morning (9 or 10AM). I take a break in the afternoon (4-5PM) to workout (run or peloton) and eat. Then I get back online until around 8 or 9PM. Sometimes I go for a hike in the early morning (6 or 7AM). I love getting out in nature and listening to a book or podcast to clear my brain. I usually don't work late nights - unless we are jamming or coming on a deadline. I try to take 1 day per week with no meetings (Thursdays). I take Saturdays fully off email to detox, but I do work on Sundays to plan my week. I am both an extravert and introvert -- but I skew introvert when I need to recharge (need to do it alone!). Most people think I'm an extravert because I love building companies, sales, and meeting people, but that's not the full picture! :) I've been mostly working remote (from home or traveling) for the last year, but plan on going into the office more in the Fall. I deeply value sleep (I get 7-8 hours most nights), my physical health, and my spiritual and emotional wellbeing. I call my parents at least every week, spend time with my boyfriend, brother, and friends in SF. I am just another human being, like you. ☺️ You can learn more about me here!
About the Role: Tactical
What this role is:
A high exposure, high trust, role on the senior executive team. A right hand to the CEO working on critical problems and opportunities at the company. No two weeks will be the same! A chance to deeply understand what it means to build and run a company. A chance to learn and grow in ways you've never even imagined. A stepping stone for whatever it is you want to do next. An opportunity to have huge impact in a critical role at a world changing company. 🌎
What this role is NOT:
It is not a glorified assistant - don't worry, I can get my own matcha. ;) On the other side of this - it is also not just a "strategic", high level role. It is a "role your sleeves up and get in the weeds" role. It is also not a 9-5 job - you're a mini-CEO and CEOs don't have regular hours. It's not a "clear cut objectives" role --> your actual work will change through the course of your tenure. We're also not a formal company. I prefer text to email, workout clothes to business casual, emojis over periods, etc. 😀
The Specific Work You’ll be Doing
A breakdown of the work & what your first 30 days would look like.
Case study: example questions I'd have you answer during the interview process.
I took the time to write out all of this because: 1) this role is extremely important and 2) I want to be very honest with what type of person will succeed in this role.
Does this light you up and get the fire burning inside of you?! (I know it would have for me before I started Rupa!)
I'd love to meet you if so! 😍 shoot me a note at tara@rupahealth.com.
Love,
Tara