When we launched Aspiring Ops at the beginning of the year, we did so with the hope of providing guidance to aspiring operational leaders looking to grow in their careers. We wanted to amplify the voices of Strategy and Operations leaders who were further along in their journey to provide a blueprint for those following in their footsteps.
For leaders at the beginning stages of their careers looking to make their way, or even for those interested in learning what it looks like to join a pre-seed company, this episode of Aspiring Ops is for you.
We recently had the opportunity to meet with Jacob Stein, the Chief of Staff at Clyde. Jacob joined Clyde right out of college after sending a cold email to the founders about a summer internship that would alter the course of his career.
After initially thinking he wanted to pursue a career in product management to help build things, Jacob realized that at an early stage company, everything is either in the process or hasn’t yet been built. And no role has more visibility or impact on everything being built across a business than a strategy and ops leader.
On this episode of Aspiring Ops, we hear how Jacob has continued to grow and operate in an ever-changing environment, while following his love of building things, taking different areas of the business from zero to one.
In strategy and operations, rarely is a lack of information going to be something that holds you back from succeeding in your role. Whether you’re the Chief of Staff, VP of Operations, or even the CFO at a high growth company, information isn’t hard to come by.
In fact, for many of the companies we work with at Elate, the quantity of data isn’t the problem, but rather, how do we take action on the data.
As Jacob highlights in this episode of Aspiring Ops, ‘The information you have is only as valuable as your ability to direct it to the right places and make use of it.’
At growth stage companies like Clyde, new ideas or potential opportunities are rarely lacking. As companies look to build new categories or disrupt existing markets, there are countless opportunities to pursue growth. However, often it is the responsibility of the strategy and operations leader to take all of the information at their disposal and help guide decisions by evaluating the best opportunity for the business to pursue.
It’s important that as strategy and operations leaders we don’t fall into the trap of collecting data for the sake of collecting data. Instead, we need to focus on leveraging the information in a meaningful way to surface insights, connect dots, and tear down the silos preventing our teams from working together.
Interested in learning more about Clyde? Check out their site here.
Want to learn more about how Elate is working with other strategy and ops leaders? Request a sneak peek today.
