FinTech Chief of Staff : Day 1 — the Emperor’s Right Hand Man
Very few people have read about Louis-Alexandre Berthier in the history books. He is an unsung hero of the Napoleonic Wars. Emperor Napolean Bonaparte, who I know you’ve heard of, called him “the man who has served me longest and has never failed me.”
In 1805 as Napolean’s Grande Armée, Marshal Berthier was named Major General, the Chief of Staff to the Emperor. Berthier must have been mad to work voluntarily behind the scenes for Napolean. The prodigious amount of work meant no sleep and any mistake would be costly. Despite the extraordinary pressure of the job, Berthier was Napoleon’s most valued assistant.
His merit was overshadowed by the genius of Napoleon. However, Berthier was in many ways managing the entire operations of the Emperor’s army. He was renowned for his organizing skills and being able to understand and carry out the emperor’s directions to the minutest detail. General Paul Thiébault said of him:
“No one could have better suited General Bonaparte, who wanted a man capable of relieving him of all detailed work, to understand him instantly and to foresee what he would need.”
When I read about this man in an autobiography about Napolean, I became hooked at the idea of being a Chief of Staff for a tech startup. Having once tried and failed at my own startup, I realized that I hated being the visionary and face of the company. Instead, I loved the satisfaction of building out operations and executing on the most minute of tasks.
Today marks my first day as the Chief of Staff to the CEO of an embedded finance FinTech startup. The company has raised a Seed round of funding. I believe that the insights I’m going to gain from joining a company at a very unique stage in a high-visibility role supporting the CEO will be interesting to some. I’m going to write ~100 words a week documenting my day-to-day as the Chief of Staff.
Wish me luck!
