One of the best hires a startup can make after raising a full seed round is that of an office manager or admin assistant. While it’s critical to be scrappy and efficient, the reality that there are a tremendous number of things that must be done, and many of these things don’t require the founders to do them. Much like the benefits of a sales assistant, a general admin assistant frees up the limited number of team members to focus on more strategic tasks.
Here are a few thoughts on the early admin assistant hire:
- Look for a jack-of-all-trades that loves helping out and supporting other people
- Certain entry-level functions in sales, marketing, HR, accounting, etc. are readily accomplished by someone who is smart and gets things done
- Make a Google Sheet of tasks done on a daily/weekly basis that an admin could take over
- Culture fit is critical for all hires and especially so for someone that interacts with everyone
Hiring an admin assistant isn’t usually on the list of action items for seed stage entrepreneurs, but it should be — there’s tremendous value.
What else? What are some more thoughts on the early admin assistant hire?
David Cummings on Startups 
I’ve always had a hard time finding a good admin assistant, usually relying on word of mouth from a friend. Where have you found yours?
So true!
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