A Chief of Staff's Playbook: AI, Discipline, and the COS Framework with Hannah Heider
In this podcast episode, Hannah Heider chats with David Nebinski about her dual CoS role at a family office and an AI healthcare startup called Arbiter. You will also learn about her COS framework: Culture & Communications, Operations, and Strategy, how she really uses AI, why a great executive assistant is non-negotiable, and how 17 years as a gymnast shaped the discipline behind her work. Enjoy!
Connect with Hannah on LinkedIn here!
FULL VIDEO
You can watch the full video of the podcast episode here!
Episode highlights:
0:00: Hannah’s Path into her current Chief of Staff Role
03:30: An overview on Arbiter where Hannah currently work
05:45: Growth, Hiring, and Hannah’s Pre-CoS Career
10:00: Reporting to Three Principals Before & CoS as a Utility Player
13:30: Hyrox, Shared Struggle, and Discipline
16:45: Systems, Notes, and Why She Avoids AI Note Takers
20:30: Context Switching, Presence, and Emotional EQ
23:00: Multi-Company CoS Work & Family Office Structure
27:45: COS Framework & Advice for Aspiring Chiefs of Staff
Episode overview:
In this episode, David Nebinski sits down with Hannah Heider, a three-time Chief of Staff. She traces her path from consulting, to healthcare startup where she honed client-facing, business development, and cross-functional collaboration skills, to her first Chief of Staff role at Thirty Madison, reporting to two co-Founders and the President. That unusual structure, supported by a strong executive assistant, taught her how to create alignment across powerful, distinct personalities.
Hannah then describes leaving for a celebrity brand before being recruited back by her former principal to join a family office called MFO Ventures that invests in healthcare businesses, including Arbiter, an AI healthcare company. Arbiter, which raised $52M in a landmark seed round, focuses on using AI to transform “recommended care into completed care” and improve patient outcomes. Hannah uses AI tools like Gemini and Claude daily as a force multiplier for communication and execution, while remaining cautious about AI note-takers preferring rigorous, manual note-taking to stay fully present.
She talks about the challenges of hiring top talent in a competitive market and the importance of mission, impact, and long-term oriented capital from family offices. Hannah also shares how her background as a gymnast and Hyrox athlete underpins her disciplined, utility-player approach to the CoS role: balancing multiple companies, constant context switching, and complex stakeholder dynamics.
She closes with her COS framework, Culture & Communications, Operations, and Strategy, as a way to understand the common threads of Chief of Staff work and offers guidance for aspiring CoS leaders on finding roles where they can add the most value and impact.
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