By Gordon Kramer, COO · Last updated: August 2026
Use a firm that already works inside the asset class. Supporting a GP is not corporate EA work: fund cadence, LP confidentiality, founder relationships, and a travel-and-meetings load that follows the fundraise cycle. Palo Alto Staffing has recruited executive support for Sand Hill Road's leading firms since 1979, longer than some of those firms have existed, and places EAs, senior EAs, and office leads at VC and PE firms across the Bay Area and nationally.
The rhythm is the fund, not the fiscal year: fundraising sprints, board cycles, annual meetings, capital calls. Confidentiality is structural; your EA sees term sheets before markets do, and discretion has to be innate, not trained. And the relationship map is the job: founders, LPs, co-investors, and the difference between a meeting that must happen this week and one that must appear to. We screen for people who already move at that rhythm or demonstrably can.
EAs and senior EAs to GPs and partners · office managers/directors of ops for fund offices · EA support for platform and IR teams · investor-relations support · personal/executive hybrids for principals.
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Can you run a confidential search?
Yes. Most of our fund-side searches are confidential; discretion is our default, not an add-on.
Do you understand carry/bonus structures for support staff?
Yes. We'll benchmark comp honestly against what comparable funds pay.
What's the difference between an EA and a chief of staff at a fund?
Scope and judgment. See our chief of staff page.
What does it cost?
A percentage of first-year base salary, quoted per engagement, in writing, in the first conversation.