Startup Guide
Executive Monograph

Startup Guide

A practical guide to the leadership roles that steer a startup from early product-market fit through the Series A and Series B funding rounds. For each executive, you will find what they do, how the role evolves, and the experience and qualifications that typically define a strong hire.

Find out what kind of founder you areSee the minimum operating infrastructureSee the Series B org chart and operating modelSee the funding timeline: day zero to Series B

The Funding Shift

Series A: The Builders

Leaders are multi-disciplinary generalists. Success is defined by speed, individual output, and finding a repeatable customer segment. Every hire must be able to do the work as well as manage it.

Series B: The Scalers

The focus shifts to predictability. Roles become specialized, requiring leaders who build systems, hire people better than themselves, and create the operating infrastructure for sustained growth.

Minimalist executive desk with notepad and brass pen, representing the CEO's strategic workspace.
Vision & Capital

Chief Executive Officer

Lvl. 01

The CEO sets the company’s mission, long-term strategy, and culture. They are the primary decision-maker on major investments, partnerships, and capital raises, and they hold the executive team accountable to the board and investors.

Series A Focus

At Series A, the CEO is often a founder-operator: selling to early customers, iterating the product, and hiring the first ten to twenty people. The job is to prove product-market fit and secure enough runway to scale.

Series B Focus

By Series B, the CEO shifts from hands-on execution to organizational architecture: managing the board, recruiting specialized executives, setting multi-year strategy, and leading institutional fundraising conversations.

Typical Experience

Ten or more years in leadership roles, often as a founder, VP/GM, or divisional leader. A track record of raising capital, building teams, and operating in the company’s target market.

Key Qualifications

An MBA or equivalent business training is common but not required. Domain expertise, exceptional communication, and strategic judgment matter more than credentials.

Read the full CEO profile
Brutalist concrete architecture detail, representing the CTO's foundation and infrastructure work.
Infrastructure

Chief Technology Officer

Lvl. 02

The CTO owns technology strategy, product architecture, and engineering execution. They decide how the platform is built, what standards the engineering team follows, and how technical debt is balanced against speed.

Series A Focus

At Series A, the CTO is usually a builder: writing code, selecting the stack, shipping the MVP, and hiring the first engineers. Speed and pragmatism outweigh process.

Series B Focus

By Series B, the CTO becomes an organization leader: building teams around reliability, security, and scalability; establishing engineering practices; and making architecture a financial decision rather than a purely technical one.

Typical Experience

Eight or more years in software engineering, often as a senior engineer, staff engineer, VP of Engineering, or technical founder at a high-growth company.

Key Qualifications

A computer science degree or equivalent deep technical expertise. Experience leading distributed teams, managing cloud infrastructure, and mentoring engineers.

Read the full CTO profile
Organized operations workspace with process flow diagrams and documents, representing the COO's execution focus.
Execution

Chief Operating Officer

Lvl. 03

The COO runs the company’s day-to-day operations and translates strategy into execution. They optimize processes across departments, manage cross-functional programs, and make sure the business operates efficiently as it scales.

Series A Focus

At Series A, a dedicated COO is rare; the CEO or a founder often handles operations. When a COO is hired early, they usually focus on customer success, delivery, or supply chain.

Series B Focus

By Series B, the COO becomes critical. They build the operating rhythm—annual planning, OKRs, performance dashboards—and ensure that product, sales, and support can grow without breaking.

Typical Experience

Eight or more years in operations, general management, consulting, or a scaling function such as customer success or supply chain. Experience leading cross-functional teams is essential.

Key Qualifications

An MBA, operations management background, or consulting experience. Strong analytical skills, process orientation, and the ability to drive change across teams.

Read the full COO profile
Premium ledger and stationery on a desk, representing the CFO's financial governance work.
Governance

Chief Financial Officer

Lvl. 04

The CFO manages the company’s financial health: planning, accounting, cash flow, investor reporting, and compliance. They turn growth metrics into a coherent financial story for the board and future investors.

Series A Focus

At Series A, the CFO role is often fractional or outsourced. The focus is on bookkeeping, basic financial planning, burn-rate tracking, and preparing the company for its first institutional audit.

Series B Focus

By Series B, the CFO is a full-time strategic partner. They lead budgeting, unit-economics analysis, SaaS metrics, board decks, and financial controls, while supporting the CEO on fundraising and M&A conversations.

Typical Experience

Ten or more years in finance, typically as a VP of Finance, controller, or CFO at a venture-backed or high-growth company. Public accounting or investment banking experience is common.

Key Qualifications

A CPA, MBA, or CFA. Expertise in GAAP accounting, SaaS metrics, financial modeling, and investor reporting.

Read the full CFO profile
Creative brand studio with editorial magazine spreads and mood boards, representing the CMO's brand work.
Growth

Chief Marketing Officer

Lvl. 05

The CMO builds the brand, creates demand, and designs the go-to-market engine. They lead marketing strategy across product marketing, content, paid acquisition, events, and communications.

Series A Focus

At Series A, the CMO is often an experiment-driven growth leader: testing channels, refining messaging, and building the first repeatable customer acquisition loops.

Series B Focus

By Series B, the CMO scales the marketing organization, invests in brand equity, reduces customer acquisition cost, and builds the pipeline that feeds an expanding sales team.

Typical Experience

Eight or more years in marketing, typically as a VP of Marketing, Head of Growth, or demand-generation leader at a B2B or consumer startup.

Key Qualifications

A marketing or business degree, plus deep expertise in digital marketing, brand positioning, marketing analytics, and modern marketing technology stacks.

Read the full CMO profile
Product design studio with paper prototypes and roadmap sketches, representing the CPO's product vision.
Product

Chief Product Officer

Lvl. 06

The CPO defines the product vision, roadmap, and discovery process. They ensure that what the company builds solves real customer problems and aligns with business goals.

Series A Focus

At Series A, product leadership usually sits with the CEO or a senior product manager. The focus is on finding the core use case, iterating rapidly, and shipping what early customers actually need.

Series B Focus

By Series B, the CPO builds a product organization: defining strategy, scaling the roadmap, introducing research and analytics practices, and balancing innovation with operational improvements.

Typical Experience

Eight or more years in product management, often as a VP of Product, Head of Product, or product leader at a company that has scaled past product-market fit.

Key Qualifications

A background in product management, design, engineering, or a related field. Strong customer empathy, data literacy, and experience with product discovery and delivery frameworks.

Read the full CPO profile
Modern office lounge with people meeting, representing the CHRO's focus on talent and culture.
Talent

Chief People Officer

Lvl. 07

The CHRO, sometimes called Chief Human Resources Officer, leads the people strategy: talent acquisition, compensation, culture, performance management, and organizational design.

Series A Focus

At Series A, people operations are usually handled by founders or an office manager. Hiring is fast and informal; culture is implicit.

Series B Focus

By Series B, the CHRO is one of the most important hires. They build a recruiting engine, design compensation and career ladders, preserve culture at scale, and prepare the company for geographic expansion and compliance.

Typical Experience

Eight or more years in people operations, HR, or talent leadership, often as a VP of People or HR leader at a scaling technology company.

Key Qualifications

An HR or business degree, plus experience in talent acquisition, compensation design, performance management, and employment law. SHRM or equivalent certification is common.

Read the full CHRO profile