Chief of Staff and Finance Lead

Chief of Staff and Finance Lead

Full-Time, San Francisco, CA

At Ello, our mission is to maximize the potential of all children. Our first product (Read with Ello) is an AI reading teacher that listens to a child read from real books. We’re now building on the success of Read with Ello and putting together the pieces of the world’s first complete AI teacher for children. We’re a highly technical team building delightful learner-centered experiences that leverage the most recent advances in AI. Our products put children on a path of lifelong learning, creating the foundation for their future and ours. Together, we believe we can close literacy and educational gaps around the world. 

About the Role

As Chief of Staff, you will be the right-hand person to Ello’s CEO, Tom Sayer; you’ll act as a strategic partner to the CEO, handling investor relationships, managing company cadence, and supporting key initiatives that advance our mission. 

As the Finance Lead, you’ll be responsible for building and maintaining our financial model, overseeing all accounting functions, and ensuring our financial projections are precise and aligned with our long-term goals. You will also be responsible for our overall financial strategy, in collaboration with the CEO.

In both, you'll get incredible responsibility early on, with tremendous opportunities for career growth. 

Key Responsibilities

Chief of Staff

• Oversee external operations on behalf of the CEO, including managing investor relationships, coordinating board meeting preparations, engaging with potential partners, and acting as the initial point of contact for external communications.

• Partner with the CEO on high-impact initiatives; owning or supporting projects that advance Ello’s mission.

• Coordinate internal company cadence, setting and following up on meeting agendas, action items, and performance tracking.

• Ensure the CEO stays connected across all teams, fostering clear communication and alignment on strategic priorities throughout the company.

Finance Lead

• Build and maintain the company’s financial model, aligning it with growth objectives and long-term vision.

• Oversee and manage all accounting functions, including coordination with our external accounting firm to ensure accurate monthly closes.

• Develop and monitor financial metrics, forecasts, and expense tracking to inform strategic planning.

• Act as financial controller, providing day-to-day oversight and execution of all financial activities in the company for example, Sales tax filings.

• Support the CEO in financial strategy, including capital allocation and budget planning.

• Provide support for all fundraising activities.

Requirements

• 3+ years experience in a high-performance work environment. We think someone from a top consulting firm could thrive in this role, but alternatively, you may have worked in banking, startups, or any other work environment where you demonstrated excellence in a role with high expectations.

• 2+ years experience in a finance role and/or strong financial modeling skills and proficiency with accounting software and financial planning tools.

Nice to Have

• Bachelor’s degree in Finance, Business Administration, or related field; MBA or advanced degree is a plus.

• Proven experience in finance and accounting within a fast-growing startup environment.

• Experience as a Chief of Staff or similar role, supporting C-level executives.

• Domain experience in K-12 education, consumer, or subscription products.

• Technical familiarity with no-code tools, or at a minimum the ability to pick up new tools extremely quickly.

We will look for candidates who can demonstrate

• A results-oriented attitude: you get stuff done. What takes other people a day takes you a few hours. You like to take the initiative. You pursue opportunities beyond what is expected. And what you achieve has at times been noteworthy.

• High speed of learning: you like to learn and you learn quickly. The idea of being asked to own a project within an area that you have no previous experience with excites you.

• Great teamwork skills: you have a low ego, give and receive feedback well, and prefer open, direct communication.  Your role will require you to collaborate effectively across teams and with external partners.

• Great communication: you are used to communicating across hierarchies, teams, and both internally and externally. You do this exceptionally well through all mediums including presentations, documents, and verbally.

• A technical mindset: you aren’t (necessarily) an engineer, but you are extremely comfortable with technology.  You could pick up no-code tools very quickly, and numbers and analysis are exciting parts of decision-making and not something you are wary of.

• Well organized: you have the organizational skills to manage complex, cross-functional projects. You can balance multiple work streams and ensure that each moves forward at the right time.

• Interest in the mission of Ello; you are excited to work hard on Ello’s mission. Education doesn’t need to be your passion, but doing work that improves lives is.

Here are some reasons to be a part of our team

• Be part of a rapidly growing team with the chance to have a big voice

• Tremendous opportunity for career growth on the back of demonstrated success

• Do meaningful work supporting child development

• Be part of an exceptional team, doing exceptional work

About Ello

Ello is a public benefit corporation on a mission to maximize the potential of all children.

Our team has deep expertise in artificial intelligence, K-12 education, and child development across institutions such as Stanford, Berkeley, Google, Apple, and more. We were part of Y Combinator’s W20 batch and have recently closed a $15M series A led by Goodwater Capital, with major participation from Homebrew (returning investors), Reed Hastings, Common Sense Growth, and Ravensburger. This adds to existing funding led by Project A Ventures with additional investors including Reach Capital, Khosla Ventures, WndrCo, Visible Ventures, and K9 Ventures.

We’re a small, collaborative team that takes each other’s voices very seriously. Because our mission is to support all children, it is critical that our team is representative of the wider community; we place significant emphasis on ensuring diversity in our team and inclusion in our culture.

We want to create an environment in which we can all be our best selves, use our strengths to take Ello forward, and develop our own skills. We want to have fun while working hard to do impactful things that we’re proud of – and we believe it’s possible to do both.

At Ello, we view diversity as a moral imperative and a competitive advantage. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, skin color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We plan and structure our interviews to directly assess skills and experience. If you need any accommodations throughout the interview process, please reach out to jackie@ello.com.

At Ello, we view diversity as a moral imperative and a competitive advantage. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, skin color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We plan and structure our interviews to directly assess skills and experience. If you need any accommodations throughout the interview process, please reach out to jackie@ello.com.