Keeps the priorities straight.
Turns the goals in your head into a short, written list of what matters this quarter, then guards it. When a shiny new idea shows up, someone asks what it replaces.
Nacho ordinary right hand
A senior right hand without the full-time hire
Nacho matches founders and CEOs with vetted, 100% US-based Fractional Chiefs of Staff who run the priorities, the meetings, and the follow-through, starting at $125/hr.
Free 30-minute call. Every match backed by the Nacho re-match guarantee.
The short answer
What is a Fractional Chief of Staff?
A Fractional Chief of Staff is an experienced senior operator who works as the founder or CEO's right hand part-time, usually 1 to 3 days a week. They own priorities, the meeting cadence, cross-team follow-through, and special projects. Through Nacho, a Fractional Chief of Staff starts at $125 an hour.
The word "fractional" describes the schedule, not the seniority. A Fractional Chief of Staff is not a glorified assistant and not a project coordinator. It is a senior operator who has already done this job for another leader, taking on your company as one of a small number of clients. Some people call it Chief of Staff as a service. The idea is the same.
Most founders hit the same wall. The company has grown a leadership team, but the founder is still the only thing connecting it. Decisions get made in a meeting and drift. Projects that cross departments stall. A Fractional Chief of Staff is the fix for that gap without a full-time executive salary on payroll.
It helps to see where the role sits next to the two it gets confused with. An Executive Assistant manages your time: inbox, calendar, travel. If that is the gap, a US-based Executive Assistant solves it for less. A COO owns operations and the people who run them; that is a Fractional COO. A Chief of Staff manages your priorities and works across the whole leadership team on your behalf.
- Seniority
- Senior operator, right hand to the CEO
- Schedule
- Usually 1 to 3 days a week
- Reports to
- You, the founder or CEO
- Owns
- Priorities, meeting cadence, follow-through, and special projects
- Cost through Nacho
- From $125/hr from one monthly Talent Budget
- Based in
- The United States, 100% of the time
The job itself
What does a Fractional Chief of Staff actually do?
A Fractional Chief of Staff sets and guards the priorities, runs the leadership meeting cadence, chases decisions across teams until they are done, and leads the special projects that belong to no one else. The work is making the founder's time count, not managing the founder's calendar.
Runs the meeting cadence.
Owns the leadership meeting, the weekly check-ins, and the quarterly planning session: the agenda, the prep, the notes, and the decisions that come out of them.
Drives follow-through.
Tracks every commitment made in those meetings and chases it across teams until it is done. Decisions stop evaporating between Tuesday and the next Tuesday.
Leads special projects.
Takes the important work that belongs to no one: a new office, a pricing review, a reorg, a launch, a board deck. Scopes it, staffs it, and lands it.
Filters what reaches you.
Becomes the first stop for questions headed to the founder. Answers what can be answered, routes what belongs elsewhere, and brings you only the calls that are truly yours.
Connects the leadership team.
Sits between departments so marketing, operations, and finance are working from the same plan. Spots the dropped handoff before it turns into a missed deadline.
What a Fractional Chief of Staff does not do is your scheduling and email. That is Executive Assistant work, and a Chief of Staff spending their hours on it is an expensive way to book flights. The two roles work best side by side.
Timing
When should you hire a Fractional Chief of Staff?
Hire a Fractional Chief of Staff when you have a leadership team but you are still the only thing holding it together. The usual trigger is decisions that drift after the meeting ends and cross-team projects that only move when you push them.
Signs you are ready
- You leave the leadership meeting with decisions, and two weeks later nobody can say what happened to them.
- Every cross-team project stalls the moment you stop personally pushing it.
- Your calendar is full, but most of it is status updates you should not need to sit in.
- You have a growing leadership team and no one whose job is to keep them pointed at the same goals.
- Important projects keep sliding because they belong to everyone, which means they belong to no one.
- You are the only person who knows how all the pieces of the business fit together.
When it is the wrong hire
- What you need is inbox, calendar, and travel support. That is an Executive Assistant from $40/hr, not a Chief of Staff.
- You need someone to own and run operations day to day. That is a Fractional COO.
- You have no leadership team yet. A Chief of Staff multiplies a team, and there is nothing to multiply.
- You are not willing to share context. A Chief of Staff working without access to your thinking becomes an expensive note taker.
- You want a co-founder. A Fractional Chief of Staff is a senior operator on a set schedule, not an equity partner.
We would rather tell you on the discovery call that what you need is an assistant or an operations lead than sell you a Chief of Staff with nothing to steer. If the real gap is capacity, an Executive Assistant or Specialist solves it for less.
Real numbers
What does a Fractional Chief of Staff cost?
A Fractional Chief of Staff through Nacho starts at $125 an hour. There is no placement fee and no separate retainer. Hours draw from one monthly Talent Budget with a $1,000 monthly minimum, so about $4,000 a month buys roughly 1 day a week and about $8,000 a month buys roughly 2 days a week.
A Chief of Staff earns their keep through rhythm, so most engagements settle into a steady weekly schedule built around your leadership meetings. Hours flex up around quarterly planning or a big special project and back down when things are steady. You pay for the month you actually had.
The comparison most owners never run is the loaded cost of the full-time alternative. A salary is not the price of an employee. Payroll taxes, benefits, insurance, software, and equipment commonly add 25% to 35% on top of it, and a retained search adds 20% to 25% of the first-year salary in year one alone.
| What you are comparing | Fractional Chief of Staff through Nacho | Full-time Chief of Staff |
|---|---|---|
| Rate | From $125/hr, published up front | $150,000 to $250,000 base salary, negotiated |
| Typical schedule | 1 to 3 days a week | 5 days a week |
| Payroll taxes and benefits | None. They are not your employee. | Commonly adds 25% to 35% on top of salary |
| Recruiting cost | None | 20% to 25% of first-year salary for a retained search |
| Time to first day | About a week from the discovery call | 2 to 4 months to search, close, and start |
| Ramp-up | Arrives having done the job before | 30 to 90 days before they truly own it |
| Commitment | 3-month initial term, then month to month | At-will in name, expensive in practice |
| If the fit is wrong | Free re-match under the Nacho Guarantee | Severance, a second search, and lost quarters |
| Illustrative annual cost | About $96,000 at 2 days a week | About $260,000 loaded on a $200,000 salary |
Salary and search-fee ranges above are broad US market ranges for the role and vary widely by industry, region, and company stage. Treat them as a planning starting point, not a quote. The Nacho column is our published starting rate.
What the $125 starting rate actually buys
- $2,000 a month is about 16 hours: running the weekly leadership meeting and tracking every commitment that comes out of it.
- $4,000 a month is about 32 hours, roughly 1 day a week: the full meeting cadence and follow-through, plus quarterly planning.
- $8,000 a month is about 64 hours, roughly 2 days a week: all of that, plus ownership of one or two special projects at a time.
Up to $200 of unused budget rolls over each month. Everything bills as one flat monthly Talent Budget, and if you also need an Executive Assistant from $40/hr or a Specialist from $65/hr, they draw from the same budget. The only other fee is the $300 Delegation Strategy Plan, which comes before your first match. See how pricing works.
The process
How hiring a Fractional Chief of Staff through Nacho works
You book a free 30-minute discovery call, we build a $300 Delegation Strategy Plan, and we introduce you to 1 to 3 hand-picked candidates from our vetted, 100% US-based network. Most clients meet their first match within about a week.
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Book a free discovery call.
Thirty minutes, no obligation. Tell us where things fall through the cracks between you and your team. We will tell you honestly whether a Fractional Chief of Staff is the right role, or whether an Executive Assistant or a Fractional COO fits better.
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We build your Delegation Strategy Plan.
For $300 we scope the engagement in writing: which priorities, meetings, and projects the Fractional Chief of Staff owns, how many hours a week that takes, what the first 90 days should produce, and how you will know it worked.
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You meet your shortlist.
We hand-pick 1 to 3 candidates from our vetted, 100% US-based network and send you their backgrounds. You interview them. Nobody starts until you say yes to a specific person.
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We handle the paperwork.
Contracts, payments, and onboarding run through Nacho. Your Fractional Chief of Staff starts on an agreed weekly rhythm and reports to you, not to us.
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You scale it up or down.
A 3-month initial term gives the work time to land, then it is month to month. Add hours around planning season or a big project, pull back when things are steady, and if the match is not right we re-match you free under the Nacho Guarantee.
Need a different kind of leader?
- Fractional COOOperations, process, and delivery
- Fractional HRPeople, policy, and hiring
- All Fractional ExecutivesCompare every leadership role
Every Fractional Executive comes from the same network under the same Talent Budget. Compare every Fractional Executive role.
Frequently asked questions
Fractional Chief of Staff questions, answered
What is a Fractional Chief of Staff?
A Fractional Chief of Staff is an experienced senior operator who works as the founder or CEO's right hand part-time, usually 1 to 3 days a week. They own priorities, the meeting cadence, cross-team follow-through, and special projects, the same way a full-time Chief of Staff would, but you pay only for the time you use.
What is the difference between a Chief of Staff and an Executive Assistant?
An Executive Assistant manages your time: inbox, calendar, travel, and logistics. A Chief of Staff manages your priorities: what the company works on, whether it gets done, and which decisions actually need you. Many founders have both, and the two work closely together.
What is the difference between a Chief of Staff and a COO?
A COO owns operations: process, systems, delivery, and the people who run them. A Chief of Staff usually has no department of their own. They work across the whole leadership team on the founder's behalf, keeping priorities aligned and projects moving. A COO runs the machine, a Chief of Staff keeps the leadership team steering it together.
What is Chief of Staff as a service?
Chief of Staff as a service is another name for a fractional engagement: an experienced Chief of Staff works with your company part-time on an ongoing basis instead of joining full-time. Through Nacho, that means a vetted, US-based Fractional Chief of Staff billed from one monthly Talent Budget.
How much does a Fractional Chief of Staff cost?
Through Nacho, a Fractional Chief of Staff starts at $125/hr with no placement fee and no separate retainer. Hours draw from one monthly Talent Budget with a $1,000 monthly minimum, so roughly $4,000 a month buys about 1 day a week and roughly $8,000 a month buys about 2 days a week. A $300 Delegation Strategy Plan is the only other fee, and it comes before your first match.
How many days a week does a Fractional Chief of Staff work?
Most engagements run 1 to 3 days a week. The role depends on rhythm, so the schedule usually anchors around your leadership meetings and planning cycles, with extra hours when a special project is in flight.
When should a company hire a Fractional Chief of Staff?
The common trigger is a founder who has a leadership team but has become the only thing connecting it. If decisions get made and then drift, and every cross-team project needs you to push it, you are past the point.
How long does a Fractional Chief of Staff engagement last?
Nacho engagements start with a 3-month initial commitment so the work has time to land, then continue month to month. Many clients keep a Chief of Staff on an ongoing weekly rhythm, because the meeting cadence and follow-through never really stop.
How fast can I hire a Fractional Chief of Staff?
Most clients meet their first match within about a week of the discovery call, and many start the same week they meet the right person.
What if the Fractional Chief of Staff is not the right fit?
We re-match you free under the Nacho Guarantee until the fit is right. It is a re-match guarantee, not a money-back guarantee. Every person in the network lives and works in the United States, so a re-match never means going offshore.
Ready when you are
Stop being the only thing holding it together.
Book a free, no-obligation discovery call. Tell us where things fall through the cracks and we'll tell you honestly whether a Fractional Chief of Staff is the right fix.