The Founder Rolodex (200+ Tools, Roles & Services That Help Founders Get Out of the Weeds
30 Strategic Roles Every Founder Should Know (And What They Actually Do)
If you're still juggling all these jobs, you're not building a company, you're babysitting one. . . This is the real difference between hustlers and high-output CEOs.
Below are the 30 high-ROI roles every founder should understand and eventually delegate to a seasoned operator (not a $5/hour task-bot).
Executive Support Roles
Executive Business Partner (EBP)
Your right hand. Think: strategy, operations, team accountability, project ownership.
What they do: Protect your time, lead cross-functional priorities, and make sure the business runs even when you're offline.
When to hire: Revenue is growing but chaos is too. You can’t keep everything in your head anymore.
SmartStart note: This is our specialty- we are the EBP for dozens of high-performing founders, click here for pricing!
Chief of Staff
The integrator for visionaries with big teams and bigger ideas.
What they do: Operationalize the founder’s brain, drive execution, manage special projects.
When to hire: Usually post-EBP, when you have >10 team members and multiple departments.
Cost: $80K–$160K/year+
Director of Operations
Owns the day-to-day.
What they do: Team check-ins, KPIs, systems, hiring, vendor wrangling.
When to hire: You have a team and things are slipping through the cracks.
Cost: $70K–$120K/year+
Sales & Marketing Support Roles
Marketing Strategist
Not a content monkey- this person builds your campaigns, not just your carousels.
What they do: Plan strategy, track ROI, guide execution (with team or agency support).
When to hire: If you’re spending more than $5K/month on marketing and aren’t seeing clear returns.
Client Success Manager
The human glue between your product and your retention.
What they do: Owns onboarding, check-ins, renewal touchpoints, and client feedback loops.
When to hire: If you’re losing clients after month 1 or spending too much time post-sale.
Cost: $60K–$90K/year
Lead Nurture Specialist
Not a closer, not a setter, just an absolute nurture machine. Like a botanist for your DMs!
What they do: Follows up with warm leads, no-shows, email opt-ins, and chat responders.
When to hire: You’re generating leads, but conversions are flat.
SmartStart tip: We can automate this role and hire the person behind the automation.
Content Director
Turns your brain into weekly output.
What they do: Manages your content calendar, repurposes ideas, and guides a team of creators.
When to hire: You’re posting inconsistently or burning time in Canva.
Cost: $70K–$110K/year
Finance, Legal & Compliance Roles
Bookkeeper (Strategic, Not Cheap)
Your first layer of financial clarity.
What they do: Categorize expenses, track income, reconcile accounts, prep P&L reports.
When to hire: As soon as money is flowing.
SmartStart tip: We’ve replaced dozens of low-skill bookkeepers with fractional pros who speak “founder” and take care of those filings you didn’t even know you had to do (buying back time AND avoiding fees)
Fractional CFO
Your profit guardian.
What they do: Forecasting, cash runway, pricing models, margin audits.
When to hire: When you’re making $500K+ and don’t know where the money’s going.
Cost: $2K–$10K/month
Legal Advisor (Not Rocket Lawyer)
Real protection, not a template from the internet.
What they do: Contracts, IP, team agreements, fundraising structure.
When to hire: If you’re hiring, raising money, or shipping a new product.
HR Compliance Pro
Your lawsuit insurance.
What they do: Onboarding documents, employee handbooks, benefits compliance.
When to hire: If you’ve hired anyone in the U.S. as a W2 and haven’t done this… yesterday.
SmartStart tip: We audit and automate this when structuring your hiring process.
Operations & Systems Builders
Project Manager
Owns the execution machine.
What they do: Keeps sprints moving, chases down deliverables, updates dashboards.
When to hire: You have team members, but nobody’s driving the work forward.
Cost: $65K–$95K/year
Systems Integrator
Your tech fixer and automator.
What they do: Builds workflows in ClickUp, Zapier, Airtable, GHL, Slack, etc.
When to hire: You’re drowning in manual tasks or living in 14 tools with no cohesion.
Hiring Manager / Recruiter
Not HR — this person brings in A-players.
What they do: Source, vet, and present top candidates so you only interview the best.
When to hire: When hiring feels like a second full-time job.
SmartStart note: We offer this for ops, marketing, admin, and specialist roles.
Customer Support Lead
More than a ticket closer.
What they do: Owns customer experience, refund policies, response time, and process.
When to hire: When you’re the one replying to angry emails at 10PM.
Cost: $50K–$75K/year
Launch Coordinator
Great for productized offers or course/coach launches.
What they do: Timeline builder, team wrangler, platform integrator.
When to hire: You’re launching >2x/year and it’s always last-minute.
Utility Players for Growth & Scale
Client Onboarding Manager
Gets your clients from sold to satisfied without hand-holding.
What they do: Welcome calls, access setup, milestone planning.
When to hire: You’re onboarding 5+ clients/month and can’t keep up.
SOP Writer / Process Specialist
Turns your brain into documentation.
What they do: Builds out SOPs, task templates, and handoff instructions.
When to hire: You want to delegate but “nobody knows how to do it like you.”
SmartStart tip: We do this for clients constantly — just record your screen and we do the rest.
Community Manager
For programs, Skool groups, memberships, etc.
What they do: Posts prompts, answers questions, tracks engagement.
When to hire: If your group is active but unmonitored.
Cost: $3K–$6K/month depending on size.
Partnership Manager
Builds relationships that bring revenue.
What they do: JV deals, podcast booking, brand collabs, affiliate outreach.
When to hire: You’re leaving referral deals on the table.
Inbox & Calendar Strategist
Not just an EA — someone who thinks like a prioritization coach.
What they do: Builds boundaries into your calendar and inbox so you can actually work.
SmartStart tip: Every one of our clients gets one of these baked into their EBP package.
Key Takeaway:
You don’t need all of these roles, but you probably need a combination of 5–10 of them right now. SmartStart can combine many of these into a single high-performing operator or team. We’ll help you figure out what blend gets the biggest return on your time.
The SmartStart Tool Chest
The Best Tools to Run (and Scale) Your Business — Ranked by Founders, Not Affiliates
This isn’t a sponsored list, it’s the actual software stack we use across all clients inside SmartStart.
Each tool below is ranked based on:
• Ease of use
• Founder ROI
• Limitations you should know
• Our experience implementing it across dozens of businesses
Payroll & HR
Gusto
✅ Easy for W2s and contractors
✅ Onboarding flows, compliance docs, and benefits all built-in
❌ Not ideal for international team members
Best for: U.S.-based teams under 50 people
Rippling
✅ Scales with you (HR, IT, payroll, benefits, all-in-one)
✅ Great if you have multiple entities or global team
❌ Can feel bloated or overkill if you're under 10 employees
Best for: Founders building a larger org with serious hiring plans
Accounting & Bookkeeping
QuickBooks Online
✅ Industry standard, widely supported
✅ Integrates with everything
❌ Interface is clunky, and support is mediocre
Best for: Most U.S.-based SMBs doing <$10M/year
Xero
✅ Cleaner UX than QuickBooks
✅ Better for international founders
❌ Limited U.S. tax support
Best for: Non-U.S. companies or remote-first teams
CRM & Sales Tracking
GoHighLevel (GHL)
✅ All-in-one CRM, funnel builder, text/email automations
✅ Amazing for agencies, coaches, and local service providers
❌ Can be overwhelming without help setting it up
Best for: Founders with a simple offer and leads funnel
HubSpot
✅ Super robust pipeline management
✅ Built-in sales, marketing, and support hubs
❌ Gets expensive fast
Best for: Teams with complex B2B sales or multiple reps
Project Management & Ops
ClickUp
✅ Highly customizable (SOPs, sprints, docs, dashboards)
✅ All-in-one tool for ops, PM, and knowledge base
❌ Too much flexibility = a setup mess without a pro
Best for: Ops-heavy businesses that need structure
Asana
✅ Fast, intuitive, beautiful UX
✅ Great for creative or agency teams
❌ Weak for cross-functional dashboards or documentation
Best for: Marketing-focused teams or light PM needs
Airtable
✅ Like Google Sheets meets a database
✅ Great for CRMs, hiring pipelines, SOP directories
❌ Not intuitive for beginners
Best for: Teams needing flexible, visual database solutions
Smartsheet
✅ Spreadsheet-style project management with built-in automations
✅ Ideal for Gantt charts, timelines, and cross-department workflows
❌ Can feel corporate or clunky if you’re not used to spreadsheets
Best for: Ops leaders managing complex, multi-phase projects
Ninety.io
✅ Built for EOS-style businesses (Rocks, Scorecards, Meetings, Accountability)
✅ Great for leadership teams running structured weekly meetings
❌ Niche use case — not for general project management
Best for: Founders running their business on the EOS/traction model
Email Marketing & Automation
ConvertKit
✅ Simple, clean, great for creators
✅ Easy tagging and automations
❌ Not ideal for advanced sequences or ecommerce
Best for: Creators, coaches, solopreneurs
ActiveCampaign
✅ Powerful automations, CRM, conditional logic
✅ Handles email, SMS, CRM in one
❌ Clunky UI and learning curve
Best for: Growing businesses ready to scale automations
Klaviyo
✅ Ecommerce email and SMS powerhouse
✅ Deep Shopify integration
❌ Not built for non-ecommerce
Best for: Shopify stores or physical product brands
Scheduling, Calls & Demos
Calendly
✅ Easiest setup, team scheduling, reminders
✅ Integrates with Zoom, GCal, Stripe
❌ Branding options are limited
Best for: Solopreneurs and small teams
SavvyCal
✅ More polished than Calendly
✅ Lets prospects overlay their calendar
❌ Less widely used, some integration gaps
Best for: Founders booking high-ticket calls
Client Onboarding & Delivery
Trainual
✅ Great for team training, onboarding, SOPs
✅ Easy for new hires to follow
❌ Not a project management tool
Best for: Onboarding internal hires or VAs
Notion
✅ All-in-one workspace for docs, wikis, SOPs
✅ Extremely flexible
❌ Easy to overbuild and hard to standardize
Best for: Founders who want everything in one clean interface
Loom
✅ Asynchronous onboarding and training at scale
✅ Super simple for explaining processes
❌ Not ideal for feedback or collaboration
Best for: Replacing 20 meetings with one 5-minute video
Analytics, Dashboards & KPIs
Google Looker Studio
✅ Free and powerful dashboard tool
✅ Pulls from Sheets, GA4, YouTube, and more
❌ Requires setup and data hygiene
Best for: Founders who want clean, shareable dashboards
Databox
✅ Real-time metrics, mobile-friendly
✅ Easy plug-and-play with popular tools
❌ Limited custom logic or formulas
Best for: Marketing and sales KPIs
SmartStart Implementation Notes
We don’t just recommend tools — we implement, optimize, and manage them.
When you work with SmartStart, we’ll:
Audit your entire stack
Kill the tools you’re overpaying for
Implement the right ones
Integrate them so your team can actually use them
So... Who Do You Hire? What Do You Use?
You don’t need more tools, but you need the right operator running the right stack. Lucky for you, that’s exactly what SmartStart does!
Most founders get stuck trying to duct tape a business together with $5/hour help and 12 different apps, but that’s not going to get you very far at all. We flip that!
You get:
A high-output Executive Business Partner who acts like a COO, not a checklist monkey
A fully audited, optimized software stack built for your stage of growth
Real delegation systems — not just another login and Loom
Founder Bottleneck Syndrome Is Expensive
If you're still doing half the roles on this page and paying for tools no one uses:
You're losing $5K–$15K/month in opportunity cost, minimum.
We fix that.
👇 What to Do Next
💬 Book a Free Founder Time Audit
We’ll show you exactly what to delegate, what to delete, and what to upgrade, even if you don’t work with us!
smartstartebp.com
Let’s turn your startup back into a company — not a job with Slack notifications.
