Fractional Chief of Staff Support
Leverage above the calendar.
An EA runs your day. A chief of staff runs the space between your decisions: priorities, follow-through and the projects that die between meetings. Get that leverage as a dedicated hire, without the executive salary.
Representative day for a leadership team of 3 to 8. Mapped from your operating cadence on the discovery call.
The gap a chief of staff fills
Decisions queue behind you
Everything waits for the next 1:1. The company moves at the speed of your calendar.
Meetings end, nothing moves
Actions are agreed and unowned. The same items resurface every week.
Priorities reset daily
Whatever is loudest wins. The quarter's goals lose to the day's noise.
Investor updates are all-nighters
The narrative and the numbers exist. Assembling them steals a weekend, monthly.
Cross-team work has no owner
Anything touching two departments belongs to nobody, so it belongs to you.
A full-time CoS is a luxury req
The role reads as headcount you cannot justify yet. The work exists anyway.
Where the week goes now, and where it goes after
A representative week for a founder running a leadership team.
Illustrative split. Not a measured client result.
What the chief of staff runs, and what stays yours
| Workstream | Cadence | Owner |
|---|---|---|
| Leadership meeting agendas and minutesEvery sync pre-built, every action owned and chased. | Per meeting | Your CoS |
| OKR and priority trackingThe scoreboard stays current and owners get nudged between check-ins. | Weekly | Your CoS |
| Investor and board update assemblyDrafted on your template for your edit, never sent without you. | Monthly | Your CoS |
| Cross-team follow-throughThe work that touches two departments finally has an owner. | Continuous | Your CoS |
| Decision memos and researchOptions laid out with a recommendation, so your 30 minutes is a decision, not a hunt. | Per decision | Your CoS |
| Inbox and calendar supportThe EA layer, included where you want it. | Twice daily | Your CoS |
| Final decisionsFramed and prepped, never made for you. | Always | Stays with you |
| People and performance callsHiring, firing and reviews stay with the leadership team. | Always | Stays with you |
Why this seat is growing while hiring shrinks
Harvard Business Review's case for executive assistants ends where this role begins: once the calendar is handled, the constraint moves up a level, to priorities and follow-through across a leadership team.
The US market prices this seat as an executive hire, and even executive assistants median around $70,000 before benefits. Leadership teams got leaner over the last three years; the coordination work did not shrink with them. That gap is the whole reason fractional versions of this role exist.
Fractional in cost, not in attention
Fractional usually means shared across clients. This is not that: your chief of staff is one dedicated person working your hours. The fraction is the cost against a US executive hire, not the attention you get.
From call to a team that moves
Map the leverage
A 15 minute call. We list what only you can do, what a chief of staff takes over, and the first three workflows to move.
Meet your matches
Two or three vetted candidates matched to your tools and hours. You interview, you choose.
Hand off in stages
Week one is shadowing. Week two they run the work with your sign-off. By week four it is theirs.
What this looks like when it is real
Horizon Business Solutions
A real, named engagement with the full story published: what the team took over, how the handoff ran, and the working rhythm that made it stick.
This is what working with us actually looks like.
Liz ran a solo counselling practice in Australia. Karen was her dedicated Armasourcing assistant: inbox, bookings and client follow-ups, handled across the timezone gap. Every engagement gets reviewed the same honest way.
The right page for a different need
A chief of staff runs momentum. If the need is the day itself, or a whole team, start here.
Before you book the call
Chief of staff or executive assistant?
An EA owns your day: inbox, calendar, logistics. A chief of staff owns momentum: priorities, follow-through, cross-team projects. If you are drowning in email, start with the EA. If meetings end and nothing moves, this page.
Is this a strategy consultant?
No. A chief of staff executes inside your company every day. Consultants advise and leave; this seat stays and runs the follow-through.
What backgrounds do they have?
Senior executive assistants, project managers and operations leads with five or more years supporting executives, screened for writing, judgment and systems thinking. You interview before choosing.
Can they run our EOS or OKR cadence?
Yes. EOS L10s, OKR check-ins or your own cadence: the CoS builds the agendas, keeps score and chases owners between sessions.
The 110-Day Perfect Hire Guarantee
If the match is not right inside the first 110 days, we re-match and rerun onboarding at no cost. The guarantee is part of every engagement, in writing, before you pay anything.
Backed personally, on every engagement. Eli Gutilban, Founder · Read the full guarantee
Put an owner on the follow-through
Bring your operating cadence. In 15 minutes we will map what a chief of staff takes over and introduce your first matches within the week.
Book a FREE Discovery Call No retainer to start. If an EA is the smarter first hire, you will hear that on the call.The Private Desk
One point of contact from first call through onboarding. You talk to a principal who knows your engagement, not a rotating sales queue.