By Ryan Wightman, Generalist and Marketing Stream Lead at Jumpstart. Updated September 2026.Consultants are the easiest people I place and the hardest to convince. Easy because founders like you: you can structure a problem, write a clear page, and you've spent two years being dropped into industries you knew nothing about and being useful by Wednesday. Hard because you've been told your exit options are industry strategy, private equity or an MBA, and a 12-person startup wasn't on the slide.
This page is the case for the fourth option, with the numbers, the roles, and the parts of consulting that will get in your way.
The roles consultants land
Two, mostly. Chief of staff, which is the closest thing to what you do now: you own the operating cadence, run the founder's priority projects, and turn a technical or scientific team's progress into plans, updates and decisions. Four of the seven senior operator roles I've filled were chief of staff roles, and consultants are the natural fit for every one of them. And founder's associate, the same shape at an earlier stage or with less experience behind you; the founder's associate page covers it in detail.
The briefs read like a consulting job description with the client removed. Complimind: "lead cross functional projects end to end, turn a complex regulatory product into a clear go to market". Dayhoff Labs: "bring structure to a small, deep research team". Salient Bio: "turn lab progress into plans, updates and hiring". That's the job you already do, except you stay for the outcome.
Chief of staff and founder's associate roles we've filled
What changes, honestly
Pay first. Chief of staff and founder's associate roles I fill pay £35k to £65k. If you're an analyst or consultant at a top firm, that's a small step down or roughly flat on base, and the bonus goes. What you get instead is equity in most roles and a progression curve that has nothing to do with promotion cycles: the company doubles, someone has to run the new thing, and it's you.
The bigger change is the work itself. In consulting you recommend; here you do. You'll write the plan, and then you'll be the person hiring the two people the plan needs, negotiating the supplier contract, and explaining to the board why month three slipped. Some consultants find that terrifying for six weeks and then never want to go back. A few find they preferred the recommending, and that's a fine thing to learn on a 15-minute call rather than three months in.
What founders worry about with consultants
That you'll analyse when you should ship. That you'll expect a team and a research budget. That you'll be uncomfortable when there's no partner to check the work. And that you'll leave when a Big 4 or MBB alumni network offers you a strategy role at a corporate for more money. Founders ask about all four, sometimes bluntly.
The consultants who get hired have answers ready. They talk about the engagement where they ended up implementing rather than recommending. They show something they built or ran outside work. They ask about the customers and the runway before the org chart. And they explain why this company, not why startups.
Two to five years in and thinking about it? Book a 15-minute call. I'll tell you which roles you're a fit for now and which need another year.
Book a generalist call →Making the move
Don't resign first. Start while you're employed and give it six to eight weeks. Rewrite your CV around outcomes for the client rather than the engagement ("built the operating model the CEO used to raise the Series B" beats "supported a Series B fundraising workstream"). Pick your stage deliberately: seed means a team under ten and a founder as your manager; Series A means twenty to fifty people and a cleaner path into a function. Consultants tend to do well at Series A first time round.
On Jumpstart, once you're on the platform, founders pitch their roles to you on video before you apply. For someone leaving a large firm, watching the founder talk for thirty seconds is the fastest way to know whether you can work for that person.
How the process works
Book a 15-minute call with me. If the Generalist stream fits, you're on the platform with a profile and a 60-second video pitch within 24 hours. You apply to tailored roles, and 80% of candidates who hit the 24-hour window land a role in four to six weeks. Free for candidates. Jumpstart can't support visa sponsorship or candidates in full-time study.