Leveraging Leadership

Executive Assistant to Executive Business Partner in VC and PE

• Emily Sander • Season 1 • Episode 199

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Jessica Porter shares her path from Executive Assistant to Executive Business Partner and acting Chief of Staff, working in both venture capital and private equity-backed companies. She talks about managing KPIs, handling turnarounds, being a conduit between PE firms and leadership teams, and leveraging AI to solve business problems. Jessica also highlights the importance of understanding investment theses, using storytelling in board meetings, and joining professional organizations like the Chief of Staff Association for support and growth.


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Who Am I?

If we haven’t yet before - Hi👋 I’m Emily, Chief of Staff turned Executive Leadership Coach. After a thrilling ride up the corporate ladder, I’m focusing on what I love - working with people to realize their professional and personal goals. Through my videos here on this channel, books, podcast guest spots, and newsletter, I share new ideas and practical and tactical tools to help you be more productive and build the career and life you want. 

 

Time Stamps:

00:43 Jessica's Early Career and First EA Role
02:33 Transition to Strategic Roles
03:41 Law Firm Experience and Hospital System Role
04:53 Climbing the Corporate Ladder
05:51 Learning from Previous Roles
07:36 Understanding the Executive Business Partner Role
09:19 Working with PE Firms
11:48 Role of a Strategic Conduit
22:31 Board Relations and Communication
27:02 Differences Between VC and PE
33:06 Final Advice and Closing Remarks

emily-sander_1_04-11-2025_093254:

My guest today is Jessica Porter and Jessica, how are you doing this week?

jessica-porter--she-her-_1_04-11-2025_123254:

I am fantastic.

emily-sander_1_04-11-2025_093254:

Beautiful. So you're gonna tell us a little bit about your journey from EA to executive business partner and acting as chief of staff, and working in a PE environment, all those good things. But just for our listeners, can you do a quick introduction and kind of background, um, for yourself into maybe like your first couple EA roles?

jessica-porter--she-her-_1_04-11-2025_123254:

Yeah, so my first EA role was actually just to pay for college, and I never thought it would be a career, but, um, you know. You're EC college, you have expenses and you need a part-time job. And I was a clinic secretary for, um, a major healthcare organization. And from then I just took off with it, you know, finished school and, um, dug into, uh, the role. And as I. Uh, dug into, I became more into the strategic role, not just calendar management or, um, taking meeting minutes, but I really got into strategy, execution and, uh, managing KPIs and kind of landed me first and a company that was venture capital backed. And as you know, in investment backed companies, it runs really fast. Decisions are made very quickly. And then I went to a PE backed company, which, you know, I'm so happy that I had the venture capital backed experience because PE ran a little bit the same way where I was. Brought in to stabilize a company and often those kind of, uh, environments exist also in venture capital. So that's how I ended up where I am. And, um, ended up in the executive business partner role, which in a PE backed company, it is a bit more strategic. Um, you are managing relationships as well. And as you know, in many PE. Companies. It runs a very lean organization, so you don't just wear a hat of an EA or executive business partner. I also took on a role in HR and a little bit in IT management as well, so.

emily-sander_1_04-11-2025_093254:

And then how did you go from EA to a more strategic ea or a more strategic role? What was that jump or transition like?

jessica-porter--she-her-_1_04-11-2025_123254:

So I actually worked again in healthcare and it started there because I was a contract manager and I did. Being the contract manager, you had to really work across cross-functional teams,

emily-sander_1_04-11-2025_093254:

Yeah.

jessica-porter--she-her-_1_04-11-2025_123254:

managing relationships and things like that. And those skills directly translated into man being an executive business partner because when you're an executive assistant, you're doing a lot of logistics management. Um, but executive business partner rolls into, again, like as I mentioned. Managing KPIs, managing relationships, managing people sometimes. And so that's how I got into the executive business partner role, um, was in contract management is actually

emily-sander_1_04-11-2025_093254:

Okay. Gotcha. So, um, so you were ea and you, and you were going to college and like part-time work and you were doing things like calendar management or admin pieces in the first EA role you had? Yes.

jessica-porter--she-her-_1_04-11-2025_123254:

Yes,

emily-sander_1_04-11-2025_093254:

Okay. And then what was the very next role after that?

jessica-porter--she-her-_1_04-11-2025_123254:

The next role was actually at a law firm, and I was

emily-sander_1_04-11-2025_093254:

Okay.

jessica-porter--she-her-_1_04-11-2025_123254:

only person who worked in subrogation. Um, but I found that that wasn't quite a match for me because law firms definitely run a little differently. And then I, um, saw an opportunity, um, in the hospital system actually during um, and so I thought. I will take what I've learned at the law firm regarding contracts and things like that, and I really wanted to get into procurement and contract management. Um, but I also wanted to elevate into more management roles in the executive assistant position. And I didn't know exactly what that would look like, but I did find that mix of being an executive assistant and a contract manager in the C-suite. And so I took that leverage and just took off with it. Um, I actually. I translated what I learned at the law firm regarding contracts and brought it to the hospital. So that's how I to that position and kind of climbed up that ladder into executive business partner with that management experience.

emily-sander_1_04-11-2025_093254:

And were you, who were you supporting? Who were you supporting as an ea? Was that a CEO back then, or was that someone different?

jessica-porter--she-her-_1_04-11-2025_123254:

So I started off actually with a clinic manager, which is kind of a middle management person because I, there were many layers in this very big healthcare system, and then I went into supporting directors and then from directors to vice presidents, and then. Vice presidents to CEOs. So I kind of have been up and down organizations. Um, but when you end up in the SW seat of supporting senior level, level vice presidents and CEOs, you're often supporting more than one. So I've supported CEOs and CFOs at the same time. Um. Of marketing and business development at the same time. So I've had a wide range of responsibilities in the C-Suite, but I've been up and down in the organization.

emily-sander_1_04-11-2025_093254:

Which I imagine gives you, uh, different perspectives, um, and some advantages going into an executive business partner role or a chief of staff role. I'm curious, what did you, what did you learn in your, in your previous roles that informs what you do today or what you did in later roles?

jessica-porter--she-her-_1_04-11-2025_123254:

So one thing I learned is, um, and this really translate in, leads into private equity, and that is being able to have a full view of, of the organization and understanding the organization and. By working in revenue and marketing, um, working along with the CFO and in contract management and procurement, you can directly be a strategic partner to the CEO because they look at the entire lens of the organization, um, not just. The single focus of the CEO's office, um, which is a lot of board and investor relations, right? But you actually have to go down and dig into the organization, understand the needs of each functional leader, and being in each of those offices as an executive assistant really help me understand, understand their needs, but also speak to their needs. And I think in the executive business partner role, when you're communicating and you're communicating on behalf of the. CEO and you want to execute something or you're waiting for progress or outcomes, you need to speak to the needs of the person in that functional role, not exactly what you need from them, right? So it helped me to understand how to speak to people in those roles and story tell in a way that hits their convictions and outcomes that they're looking towards meeting.

emily-sander_1_04-11-2025_093254:

Storytelling and being able to communicate to different audiences is. Is definitely a transferable skill that you can use in many, many places, and a good thing to, to develop and get good at. Just for people who maybe aren't as familiar with executive business partner, can you explain what that is and just how it, how it was set up in your particular case at your particular organization?

jessica-porter--she-her-_1_04-11-2025_123254:

Absolutely. So when, um, the PE firm's consultant called me for this role, she said, um, we need someone who is tactical and strategic. So on the EA side, we do need you to be tactical. We need you to manage calendars and events and meetings and take notes and. Task management and things like that. But we also need you to be a business partner looking at the entire organization, um, managing major projects and managing small projects. And I think that's the difference a little bit, is sometimes you may be given a major project to see, to end, to end and, um, developing. Um. The mission behind it, the purpose, um, working with various departments cross-functionally and building cross-functional teams. Um, and you won't be handheld to do that. Um, you will have to manage those teams. You'll have to manage your work while also managing the CEO's office as well, or the, or the founder if you're in, um, a venture capital company and seeing those projects to. The end. Um, and as you know, in PE and even in venture capital, um, things are directly tied to the investment thesis. So you need to understand the investment thesis and how that weaves into the work that you're doing and the urgency behind that work and how fast. It's really not about how fast also you can get it done, but the quality behind the work so that you're creating value in the organization.

emily-sander_1_04-11-2025_093254:

Okay. And then, um, you mentioned the pe something about the PE consultancy. So, uh, were you hired at the firm level at the PE firm, or how did that work?

jessica-porter--she-her-_1_04-11-2025_123254:

Actually the, uh, so it was a turnaround and I think they knew they were, you know, about to turn over this business at on. At a certain date. Um, so they were recruiting ahead of time and getting strategic roles in place. Um, so the, it was actually the consultant for the PE firm who recruited me, and then I met with, um, the CEO and another executive leader in the, uh, Portco who interviewed me. Um, and I heard back instantly. Um, so, but um. It was, it was actually quite a transition because I'd never worked actually in a turnaround. Um, so I knew very much going in that I was, it was going to be stabilizing the company, moving over from a very large organization with thousands of people globally, to very nimble, very small, 55 person global organization and walk working across global teams.

emily-sander_1_04-11-2025_093254:

It's a little bit different ball game. Yes. That's certainly a, an adjustment. Um, so just so just for the listeners, so, um, you were approached by the PE firm, but they had in mind we need someone for this portco who's going to, who's gonna, it's gonna be a turnaround, um, event here and we need someone to kind of help stabilize this thing. And that's how you were brought into your executive business partner role.

jessica-porter--she-her-_1_04-11-2025_123254:

Yeah, absolutely. And I think that people will find that with PE firms, if they're going, if they're in a turnaround, um, you'll see many consultants in place filling gaps and even, um, providing Uh, to the executive leadership because often that executive leadership either hasn't worked in PE or they're transitioning over becoming new executives. So there are consultants filling gaps such as talent, hr, it, um, for systems coming in place and various other parts of, depending on the segment and the business type and model. So you will see, um, sometimes consultants filling gaps. Like mine did in HR and talent where they're recruiting and getting gaps filled, and then they kind of off the wagon, which things are more stabilized.

emily-sander_1_04-11-2025_093254:

And then were you, what was your interactions like with the PE firm and then the CEO or the C-suite of the portco?

jessica-porter--she-her-_1_04-11-2025_123254:

So it was very, I will say, I know a lot of people like the term liaison, but I see it as a strategic conduit because you're really building relationship with the PE firm, and you need to understand what they need. You also need to understand the language that they'll use, like IRR, ea. which is very important in the P firm and, and the LPs, you know, you need to understand what the LPs expect from them. Um, and so understanding that building a strong relationship, but you also need to be reliable and understand their sense of urgency and be able to translate what they need to the executive leadership team, but also understand. Who needs that information. Um, it may not always be the p, the CEO, it might be another team member. And making sure that you filter the information, that it's quality and the information they actually need, and anticipate any other questions that they may have so that you give them a full scope and full circle answer. Um. Very quickly because decisions are made very fast when you're dealing with PE firms, you know? Um, so that's very important. And then for the executive leadership, um, just translating to them, helping them to stay on track. Um, what you have is the PE firm with their demands, and then the internal team with their demands. So you want to make sure that you're not, you're, uh, stabilizing, but not creating chaos when you're going. To the leadership team with requests, right? I think what you also want to do is be an integrator. Um, if you can find solutions and be a problem solver, go ahead and do that. As I said, you wear many hats and I think it's not about really wearing many hats. Sometimes it's wearing the right hat at the right time. so you may just have to integrate into teams and be a person who brings solutions. and, um. But because like I said, executives, n PE firms are pulled both ways from investors and operation partners in the PE firm and their own internal teams.

emily-sander_1_04-11-2025_093254:

Yeah, for sure. You said so much good stuff there. I think, uh, the word conduit really resonated with me because. It. First of all, the pace changes and so I've seen so many founders and founding leadership teams who are going along at like a, a pretty decent pace startup life, and we're trying to grow this thing and we're agile and making decisions on the fly, and then they take on. PE partners and get PE investment and it's like whoosh, like you've just gone into warp speed, like what is happening? There's reporting, there's like majority of minority owners, there's stuff flying every direction and if you haven't done that before, it can be a really. Jarring experience and to have someone help translate basically, and be a conduit between like, okay, here's, here's what's happening, founder and leadership team. Here's how we need to run the ship and do certain things. And then that conduit and messaging to the PE firm and managing director and deal team there. Like, here's what's happening. Boots on the ground, here's what perspective I can give you and translate what they're saying or what they're doing into your terms that you understand too. So I think that conduit, um, piece is so important because it's not that anyone's doing anything wrong necessarily, it's just like this might be a brand new situation for people. Um, especially if it's a first time, first time in, uh, first time in the rodeo for a founder leadership team.

jessica-porter--she-her-_1_04-11-2025_123254:

Yeah, and I think sometimes leadership can a bit feel like they're flying blind. Um, they have this investment thesis to follow, which is why the GPS invested in the company and how they plan to create value and oftentimes. Such as a turnaround situation, they can diverge a bit from that. And in the executive business partner or chief or staff role, you can ensure and you really have a whole scope of the organization. So you can integrate into teams and really pull down that into the entire organization, um, so that they understand what they're working towards so they don't diverge from it. Diverging from it is not always a bad thing. I think that the investment thesis is there, but you could also expand on that, right? But you need to make sure it stays in scope, um, that you have the leverage and the teams to do it, and the infrastructure to do it as well. Um, so I think that, um, even then, and I think you and I talked before. Working, um, in parallel with that CEO, especially if they're new to the PE world and helping them to understand and really, uh, keep their teams in alignment really helps. Um, and I think that's a way that executive business partners can really be resourceful. And another thing is that often things that doesn't really belong to a certain department, right. Um. Many, um, executive business partners will take on the program management or the project management of those type of, uh, projects, um, and move those forward so that you can keep the company strategically aligned. And, um, those things do come up in, in board meetings. I've sat through many board meetings and they wanna know how the company's doing. Um, um, but Emily, one more thing, another thing that is a little bit surprising to, um. Executive teams and CEOs is how involved the PE firms can be in the company. Um, sometimes when you operate corporately, you have someone who checks in every now and then or every quarter, but operational partners are true operational partners. Um, they are in partnership with you and they're communicating back and forth and really helping you stabilize the business. Um, or if, or turn around the business or whatever the mission is. So you'll hear from and, and see from them a lot, um, them giving advice or, um, consultation, anything. Um, but they do expect a sense of urgency the work that's done.

emily-sander_1_04-11-2025_093254:

Yeah, certainly. I think the, the sense of urgency, um, people can underestimate that going in. It's like, so if, so you said so many things. There's like fireworks going off in my mind. Um, first of all, I think people need to understand that, uh, private equity sometimes gets a bad name where people think, oh, private equity, like blood thirsty, cutthroat, whatever. And there are certainly people in firms that. That, um, garner that reputation, but understand like the PE universe and world, there's a lot of variety within that. And, um, what I found to be refreshing working with and for PE firms is you never have to guess what they want. They want to drive value in the company, they want top line revenue and they're not shy about sharing that.

jessica-porter--she-her-_1_04-11-2025_123254:

Mm-hmm.

emily-sander_1_04-11-2025_093254:

they will help you get to that. And if you need help in certain areas, they'll provide that. But I actually found it refreshing. It's like we're not playing politics. We're not hiding. There's no subterfuge. There's just like, grow the business, boom. And tell me how you're doing and tell me how you're going the business. And if you do, then I'm fine. Um, and just to. Just to provide context to something you said, the business thesis that you mentioned is so, so important because when a PE firm goes in and does due diligence on a company and evaluates, do I want to pour millions of dollars into this organization because I think I can grow it? You best be sure they have a plan for how they want to do that. And it's, it's the business. And so the leadership's job is to execute to that business plan. And I think I agree that you can change that business plan if there's reasonable ways to do that or reasonable reasons to do that, where I see leadership teams get in trouble. And I'd like your opinion on this is. When they switch that plan without telling anyone, and they do it for their own reasons, because I see founders used to running the show, right? I wanna do this now. Oh no, I changed my mind. I wanna do that now. You can't quite do that without checking in and without data to back it up in the same way you could. So that's where I see people get a little bit, uh, sideways with PE firms where. Here was the business plan. We all agreed on it, and then I, I'm going rogue, I'm going this way and not telling anyone about it, but I'm wondering if you've seen anything like that or even help people say, Hey, actually, like, that might be an okay thing to do, but we probably wanna check in and talk about that with our PE partners first.

jessica-porter--she-her-_1_04-11-2025_123254:

Absolutely. And I think, um, one of the indicators is just the metrics that the PEE firm will see. You know, um, sometimes you're burning ebitda, right? Um, and they pay close attention to things like that. So if you're spending. A

emily-sander_1_04-11-2025_093254:

Oh yeah.

jessica-porter--she-her-_1_04-11-2025_123254:

on research, and if you have an r and d, um, and it's burning ebitda, they can tell and they'll dig into those metrics and see something's off there, what's going on. It doesn't seem in alignment with what we were doing, but you're right. And oftentimes, um, and it's not always on purpose. It may be that maybe they are, you know, the leadership coming in wasn't expert in a certain field or, or, um. You know, they may have a different perspective, but communication is key. And letting the PE firm know, um, I see this in the market. Here's a market intelligence I have, or, um, this, this. Uh, product or a project that we're trying to bring, um, to execution. We're just having roadblocks. They have the resources within the firm to help you, and even if they're not in the firm, they're somewhere, they have incredible resources everywhere. I mean, you'd be amazed at, they'll have some. Someone to you the next week to help you. Um, but they're, they certainly wanna be involved, and this is, like you said, this is their investment too. But in addition to that, they have someone they have to report to, and that's the LPs. And the LPs have done their due diligence on the company as well. And they're counting on that, their investment thesis as well, to be followed through. So there's a lot of players beyond, um, just the PE and, and the portco, but there's other investors too who. One alignment and they wanna see that alignment and they check on that.

emily-sander_1_04-11-2025_093254:

Yeah, yeah, certainly. So the LPs are limited partners who are the ones who fund the private equity. Equity firms and, and provide capital and funds for, um, their rounds. So PE firm have different rounds. They go in, right? I'm just explaining this for the list. Might not know what LP means. So limited partners are basically people who give the money to the PE firm and then the PE firm manages that capital and makes investments into portfolio companies or port or port codes. So we get all these acronyms out there. Um, but what did you see in terms of, uh, reporting? To the board, so board governance kind of reporting that communication back and forth. We had flash reports and we had weekly reports that went up. We had our CEO and CFO speaking with members of the PE team on a, on a weekly basis, sometimes couple times a week. And then of course we had our official quarterly board meetings and my messaging as chief of staff to. Our leadership team was no surprises. Like there should be no surprises at the board meeting. This thing should be, um, everyone should know the major pieces that are going on. Certainly we can have a more fulsome discussion at the board meeting and exchange ideas, but there should be no surprises, good or bad.'cause PE firms in my experience, don't like surprises. Good or bad. They wanna know what's going on ahead of time. So I'm just curious about your experience in terms of like board relations and communication and reporting up to the board.

jessica-porter--she-her-_1_04-11-2025_123254:

So you're right. And they don't like surprises and I have seen surprises at those board meetings. Um, but I always work preemptively with the PE firm. Um, and they are, like I said, they want to help. So I always work with the CEO and, uh, one of the operating partners at the PE firm to set an agenda that align with those weekly flash meetings. Um, the quarterly business reviews and the monthly internal monthly business reviews so that there wouldn't be surprises, um, but keeping it in alignment with. What was reported in that quarter. Um, and we always reviewed that, but that was shared internally throughout the team so that there weren't silos of information and that it integrated into every team so they could story tell. Um, and so we work with them that way, but I serve kind of as a quality filter at the end, ensuring that the information. board decks that were sent out align with what we had already discussed with the PE firm, and I think that's where chiefs of staff and executive business partners really come into place. You might be the person that catches up. We, we've never told the board that. Do you wanna have another meeting? I. With, with, uh, operation partner or someone to discuss this metrics that you're going to bring up to the board. Or, um, should we put this in the board deck? Are we ready to, to report this? Is this just an idea? Have we synthesized it enough to bring this information to them? And so that's the way I approached it. Uh, but I always work very closely with the operating partners. Um. To understand also what they wanted us to bring to the board meeting as well. Because when you're new, and especially a young team like we had, um, you're not used to those PE board meetings. And if you, if you don't have the right, if you take it like a general corporate meeting where you're just reporting your metrics, it doesn't quite work that way. You wanna show that you're stabilizing, you're creating value that you're, um, pulling down. Metrics from the investment thesis. And I keep saying investment thesis because that's your North star, um, and that you're staying in alignment with that and creating value. And sometimes your LPs are at those meetings. Um, so they want to hear it too.

emily-sander_1_04-11-2025_093254:

And I think it sounds like you built on. Your own ability to story tell, and you helped your leadership team do that at these board meetings, which is so, so important because like, please, like listener, if you are in charge of this, do not have your team. Read numbers off of a spreadsheet verbatim. They can read a spreadsheet like, please, if you take nothing else away, don't do that story. Tell like Jessica does story, give a story behind the numbers. Tell like, Hey, here's why you're seeing this increase, or Here's why you're seeing this decrease. There's always a story behind it. They can read the numbers, but they don't have the context and story behind it. So I think that's so, so important that you provide that. Extra layer of, uh, of information and that's really what they want. And that's, um. What I found where you get that two-way dialogue,

jessica-porter--she-her-_1_04-11-2025_123254:

Mm-hmm.

emily-sander_1_04-11-2025_093254:

I always thought a board meeting is successful if people actually are having a discussion, not just reciting something off of a slide or asking like pre-canned questions and pre, you know, pre-canned answers. It's when you have that back and forth exchange, that's meaningful. So, um, thank you for, for sharing that. And, uh, before I, before we. I, I, I wanna get your perspective on private equity and venture capital, because you kind of sit in this unique spot where you have worked in both environments. So we've talked a bit about PE here, but I just wanna get your take on the differences, the similarities, just the experience of working in the VC space as well.

jessica-porter--she-her-_1_04-11-2025_123254:

So in the VC space, you're working with ideas, and in the private equity space you're already working with established businesses. So that's quite the difference. But I think in the long run, you're both in investment backed companies where you're in protecting the capital, the investment, and you're bringing a product or an idea. To market or an exit strategy, whether that's IPO or a business buyout, or, and sometimes that's not the goal. Sometimes, you know, the company won't go to IPO. Um, and then you're, you're really working on sometimes, um, short term, very. term projects that really have to be done very quickly, but with quality. And I found that in both environments. Um, but decision making has to be done quite quickly. decision making, decision making, um, for the executive business partner role, um, needs to be very, with agility behind it and,

emily-sander_1_04-11-2025_093254:

Yeah.

jessica-porter--she-her-_1_04-11-2025_123254:

understanding that. The investment is, um, it has a timeline behind it. You don't have a ton of time, like a regular business, um, and you don't wanna burn cash either. Um, so you wanna make sure you're bringing value and you're building a product, or you're building the investment to survive. Um, many hard times. You know, another thing

emily-sander_1_04-11-2025_093254:

Okay.

jessica-porter--she-her-_1_04-11-2025_123254:

we've talked about this, um, is that you're going to be in both organizations in venture capital and private equity, and you're going to dip into various roles you and put your feet in there. Um, and it could be a little risky at times. I dipped into HR and it, um, but. there's kind of the expectation and it's not a nine to five. Um, you just will not work a nine to five in those kind of roles. Um, it takes a certain kind of operational rigor and you need to have, um, just a bit of a high velocity to stand up to that and get the job done.

emily-sander_1_04-11-2025_093254:

Yeah, so I think, I mean. You said this at at the start, but VC tends to be earlier in the process, and PE usually takes on a more established business. So a proven concept, and they think they can grow it. So VC is like, it might just be a dream, it might just be an idea,

jessica-porter--she-her-_1_04-11-2025_123254:

Right.

emily-sander_1_04-11-2025_093254:

And that's very nascent. And it's like, okay, let's build the product. Let's do the market fit analysis, let's get the founding team members together and we're gonna place a bet that this one's gonna go big. Um. You mentioned decision making. So in the VC world, what types of decisions are you making as an executive business partner?

jessica-porter--she-her-_1_04-11-2025_123254:

I think they're, uh, similarly, but you really, the VC firms are not as involved as the PE firms.

emily-sander_1_04-11-2025_093254:

Yep.

jessica-porter--she-her-_1_04-11-2025_123254:

you still have the board meetings and you still need to show that you're creating value, but you really wanna make decisions around a product. I. Or an idea. And you need to have a strong knowledge of market intelligence, be able to execute that strategy and also understand that the, uh, series of funding that you have and where you, where those decisions lie in your funding period. Um, and you wanna really show that you have a strong product and you have strong, um, thesis behind it. Um, so that. You can get more funding behind what you have. So I think those, the decisions that are made really are around, um, bringing a product to market and showing that it's a valuable, strong product um, venture capitalists can, uh, you know, feel like they should invest into.

emily-sander_1_04-11-2025_093254:

And what types of things? So like when I work with, um, founders or leadership teams, um, going for VC money, it's like the pitch. It's, you know, networking. It's building those relationships and it's also being able to tell the story as you have mentioned a couple times here of, um, of the company, of your personal journey. Also how the VC firm fits into that story. So it's not like a closed ended book. It's like, Hey, the next chapter involves you. What, what? What have your experience been like?

jessica-porter--she-her-_1_04-11-2025_123254:

And I was just about to say that. So also a VC firm that matches with your scope. Um, and you can think of it as your own investment thesis. Does

emily-sander_1_04-11-2025_093254:

Hmm.

jessica-porter--she-her-_1_04-11-2025_123254:

SEC market segment, um, the leadership at the VC firm align with what the founders want and need? Because you want those two to get along. Um, very well, and you want the VC firm to be great advisors to this fund. Um, so you don't wanna get, and I, it usually doesn't happen, but you don't wanna get into a VC firm that doesn't align with the product that you have. Um, so if it's high on retail or something and you're trying to do software that's just not the VC firm for you and also what kind of, um. or at the VC firm, do they have experience in the product that you're trying to bring to market or things like that so they can advise you in a way that grows your product. Um, you wanna really have that kind of relationship with them, and I think that's what's best, but also understand the kind of, the size of the, of the companies that they can scale as well.

emily-sander_1_04-11-2025_093254:

Yeah, I mean there's, there's thousands of different types of VC firms, and you're right, some of them have specializations and there's boutique ones for certain industries, certain, uh, stages of companies, certain seed rounds, et cetera, et cetera. So you definitely wanna, I. Find the right one for you. Um, any other, I wish I could ask you more questions, Jessica, but, uh, any other final words of wisdom for chiefs of staff, for executive business partners in a VC or PE environment? I.

jessica-porter--she-her-_1_04-11-2025_123254:

So I would say, um, two things. I would say first, leverage ai. Um, it will be your best friend because as we talked about, about as high velocity, um, agility, um, you have to make smart decisions quickly and you have to fail fast. So leverage AI as much as you can. There's many platforms you can use. There's chat, even chat, GPT, if that's what you have, but also. Push for that to be integrated into the company as well. Um, and it will be a strategic, a strategic driver and value add to the organization. And then my next thing is, um, be good at managing KPIs that you pull down from the investment thesis, but also integrate ESG into it because ESG is pulled down from the l. Sent to the, um, PE firm by the LPs, which then in turn ask you for that data. So just go ahead and integrate that into the existing KPIs and, um, outcomes that you're already measuring. it'll, it'll be great. It'll be a smooth process.

emily-sander_1_04-11-2025_093254:

And just, and just for people who aren't aware, can you break down some of the, the acronyms there, e, s, G, and then maybe give an example of, of what you mean by that or what you've done with that.

jessica-porter--she-her-_1_04-11-2025_123254:

Absolutely. So it's environmental, social, and governance. Um, on the environmental side, it can be emissions. Um, environmental impact and things like that. on social, it goes a lot into human capital, hr, DI efforts, talent management. then, um, then the social impact or the governance side. Compliance. Um, accountability. And on that side, um, I specifically being, having HR had some HR reporting to do and on the compliance side, board governance, um, and leadership and the dynamics there for CESG reporting. Um, so that's where I got that data, data from. But it was important to capture it early because you need to report it. And some of the banks that are investing will ask for that data as well. So.

emily-sander_1_04-11-2025_093254:

Okay. And then for the, for the ai, so that's a broad topic, but you said incorporate and utilize ai, even if it's just chat B, uh, chat, GBT. Can you give an example of where you've seen that be successful in portfolio companies? Or maybe just one or two quick examples of how you used ai.

jessica-porter--she-her-_1_04-11-2025_123254:

Um, I think you have to find the right capability. So where, where do you see gaps? Um, and of course in PE and VC they often run lean, lean teams. So where's there, where are there gaps? And I saw that it was used best for document management, um, and for people and teams to go find information. Um. For instance, market intelligence information or existing knowledge, historical knowledge of the product, and being able to type that in and ask questions. Um, someone else actually built a platform, but it was utilized by everyone who needed, who had questions regarding that specific area, and they input this information, uh, document knowledge into chat GPT where people can. Then easily ask the bot questions, and it came out with very accurate and useful information. So I think that that's an excellent way to utilize chat, GPT, especially when you're running lean teams and people don't always have time to answer questions, and you may need an immediate answer.

emily-sander_1_04-11-2025_093254:

Gotcha. Okay. Beautiful. And any other just general words of wisdom or pieces of advice for chiefs of staff in general? It can be like EA to chief of. Staff. It can be organization prioritization, but just any, anything else you'd want chiefs of staff to know?

jessica-porter--she-her-_1_04-11-2025_123254:

Well, I would say to do what I do, and that is join an organization that will help you grow into the role. I joined the Chief of Staff Association and I can tell you I have grown so much and a lot of that is because of them. Um, I'm surrounded by people in all fields. Pe, venture capital, um, software as a service. There are so many, and we were just talking the other day. We said, anytime any of us have a question, within an hour or so, someone reaches out to help you. You will have questions and there's always someone there, but the knowledge and information that you get is invaluable. So I would say try to join an organization, um, that gives you. The ability to keep up with trends and stay abreast on the industry.

emily-sander_1_04-11-2025_093254:

Perfect. And we've had Trent, who's the, the CEO of Chief of Staff Association and Jeremy, who was the chief of Staff, of the Chief of Staff Association on the show. And they were fantastic. So, beautiful. Jessica, thank you so much for being on,

jessica-porter--she-her-_1_04-11-2025_123254:

Thank you, Emily. It was great to be on your show.