Adam S.

Chore

Chore exists to kill admin so founders can build their dreams. We are your fractional, expert, Chief of Staff to run your business operations. 

We are the end of admin. Hire Chore and join the future. 🚀

Founder & CEO

Entrepreneurial Excellence Podcast

The Entrepreneurial Excellence podcast is hosted by Adam Spector, 4x founder and investor in 150+ startups. Each weekly episode features some of the world's top founders and investors. Topics include:
- Top skills of the best entrepreneurs
- Biggest entrepreneurial mistakes
- Investing & Venture Capital
- Hiring, firing and team building

Podcast Host

The Autopilot Fund

The Autopilot Fund focuses on early-stage companies that serve and accelerate how companies operate. 

More about us: https://autopilot.fund/

Operations span various “departments”: could be in engineering, operations, sales, finance, product, customer success… the questions we ask ourselves are:

1. Is this a founding team so capable that others should be afraid to go against them?
2. Do they understand the problem better than anyone, and have special “founder-market” fit?
3. Will they rest until they have dragged the world kicking & screaming into their vision of the future?
4. Is the product “infrastructure” in a manner of speaking: structured data, deeply embedded, sticky?
5. Does the advent of AI exponentially increase or decrease their defensibility?

Our portfolio includes special companies such AngelList, Pulley, Puzzle, Levels, Disco, Parallel Bio, Trilobio, GC AI, Cytronic, Copilot, Levels, among many others. 

Smart founders focus. Bad founders distract themselves with all the small, non-product, non-customer work that can easily take up hours but not move your startup forward.

We are sector agnostic and focus mostly on early stage. Our thesis is simple: the best founders come from anywhere, with any background, working in any industry. Focus, joy, dogged determination, and deep knowledge about your product and how you're changing the world is what leads to success.

If you're interested in learning more, drop me a note on LinkedIn.

We believe in the broad-based investing approach to startups. To achieve the best returns, data supports investing in a wide array of startups and rarely following-on. We follow the data even if it's unsexy. Across our fund, we have invested in over 100 startups.

General Partner

Angel Investor

Angel Investor in ~100 startups. 14 unicorns, 8 of which I invested at seed. 

Some of my favorites: Datalogue (exit), August Smart Lock (exit), Diamond Foundry, Checkr, OrderAhead (exit), Classkick, Jet.com (exit), Ginkgo Bioworks (public), uBiome (failure), BetterUp, Human Interest, Relativity Space, PayJoy, Ambient.ai, Zoox (exit), Arka, Kush Marketplace, Shyp (failure), AcreTrader, Cleary, Begin, Long Term Stock Exchange (LTSE), Evenup, Attentive, Metaphor Data, Certn, Boom Supersonic, Otis, Jobox.ai, Mootral, Chia Network, Evernow, Contra, On Deck, Equi, Placer.ai, Vinovest, VoiceOps, Synex, Soot, Inversion Space, Blockfi (failure), Superplastic, Rarify, Airmeet, AtoB, Writer, All Blue Labs, Droneseed, Favor, Stashfin, Copilot Money, Sidebar, Function Health, Comprehensive, BetterBrain, HealthArc, Angelist, Tiny Health, Best Practicer (acquired), Release, Anduril, Puzzle, Ramp, Supliful, Parallel Bio, Wispr, OneImaging.

My preferred focus is on SaaS Enterprise businesses although fantastic, focused founders solving problems aligned with personal theses are always worth meeting. I invest largely at the earliest stages. I prefer to invest directly but also participate in syndicates. 

I'm still trying to comprehend how some of my failures have gone from the top of the heap to bankruptcy (I have thoughts). #startupinvesting #learning

Hustle Fund

Hustle Fund Scout

Community of Angel Investors learning from and teaching each other how to invest in and give back to the dynamic startup community we all love (and that is a constant source of inspiration). Added bonus thanks to the fantastic investment opportunities.

Angel Squad Member - OG Squad 1

Headline.vc

Venture Scout

Correlation Ventures

Network Advisor and Venture Scout for Correlation Ventures

Venture Scout & Network Advisor

PEF Community

World's largest (I believe) community of Post-Exit, building, learning, educating and ideating founders.

Member

On Deck

Fellow - On Deck Scale

Founder Institute

Mentor to early stage companies globally. Helping more founders make their dream and idea a reality!

Mentor

My life thesis: execution > strategy. Compounding FTW. I'm an optimistic skeptic. 

I enjoy pattern matching and read widely. The opportunity to learn every day is a gift. Time is precious. The ability to improve what and where I focus and delegate the rest is ideal. 

I [of course] love my family and friends. I believe I am a logical, thoughtful adult and therefore accept my choices. I am content and therefore I have won.

Founder and CEO @Chore. We are a founder's back-office (HR, finance, compliance, equity) operations team. Back-office operations are an undifferentiated tax on success. Focusing on your superpower enables success. Chore handles the rest (i.e. we specialize in ops so you never have to) so you can achieve your dreams. 

Host of the Entrepreneurial Excellence podcast. I dive deep with multi time founders about their key decisions, actions, hires, drivers and more that they use to achieve "excellence." 

General Partner at the Autopilot Fund. We invest in early stage startups. We love obsessed founders who have a history of breaking through walls. I have invested in over 200 startups across multiple funds. 14 are unicorns (8 from seed).

In previous lives, I founded 3 other companies, been a product leader on a big co API team, Chief Revenue Officer (CRO), Chief Operating Officer (COO), and do-it-all janitor. 

I enjoy building great teams, processes, and stories that unify a company around a shared mission. Helping others build successful businesses brings me joy. More successful startups = a better, more dynamic world.

People describe me as energetic, positive, creative, detailed and optimistic. I enjoy rational, logical, data driven debate built on mutual trust and respect. I'm not an engineer but people view me as "technical" and have built companies with the brightest PhDs and brilliant engineers. The best compliment I received was "you ask great questions."

Honesty, trust, fun, a sense of urgency and mission are what I look for in colleagues and places I work. Passion about my product, my company and my team is what drives me. I work hard and enjoy being surrounded by people who do the same. 

"Leave the world (and your business) better than when you arrived..."
"The greatest risk is not taking one!"

Always curious and learning. Follow my top reads: https://raindrop.io/Jammfam/adam-spectors-top-reads-37295659

The Autopilot Fund focuses on early-stage companies that serve and accelerate how companies operate. 

More about us: https://autopilot.fund/

Operations span various “departments”: could be in engineering, operations, sales, finance, product, customer success… the questions we ask ourselves are:

1. Is this a founding team so capable that others should be afraid to go against them?
2. Do they understand the problem better than anyone, and have special “founder-market” fit?
3. Will they rest until they have dragged the world kicking & screaming into their vision of the future?
4. Is the product “infrastructure” in a manner of speaking: structured data, deeply embedded, sticky?
5. Does the advent of AI exponentially increase or decrease their defensibility?

Our portfolio includes some pretty special companies like AngelList, Pulley, Puzzle, Levels, Disco, among others. 

Smart founders focus. Bad founders distract themselves with all the small, non-product, non-customer work that can easily take up hours but not move your startup forward.

We are sector agnostic and focus mostly on early stage. Our thesis is simple: the best founders come from anywhere, with any background, working in any industry. Focus, joy, dogged determination, and deep knowledge about your product and how you're changing the world is what leads to success.

If you're interested in learning more, drop me a note on LinkedIn.

I'm very excited to announce that we’re launching something new at Chore 🚀
We're introducing the Chore Ops Dashboard. Your all-in-one headquarters or HR, finance, compliance and admin.
 
After years of watching founders waste hours inside spreadsheets, Slack threads, and payroll tools, I’ve realized the same thing again and again.
 
Practically every startup I’ve ever spoken to has struggled with internal visibility.
 
Product has Jira. Sales has CRMs. Marketing has dashboards.
 
But ops? Ops is everywhere.
 
Founders spend 10+ hours a week bouncing between tools, checking statuses, asking for updates, and fixing what shouldn’t have broken in the first place. That’s 10 hours not spent on product, fundraising, or hiring.
 
So, we decided to build something different. Something that brings clarity to the part of your business you’ve been forced to ignore.
 
This launch means a lot to me personally.
Because I’ve lived it and I know it. That sinking feeling when I realize I’m running a company I can’t fully see.
 
Ops shouldn’t feel like that. It should feel calm, measured, and predictable.
And with this new Operations HQ from Chore, you'll finally get there.
 
Check it out here: https://lnkd.in/gF73Pane

CEO @Chore | Host @Entrepreneurial Excellence Podcast | GP @The Autopilot Fund | 4x founder & 200+ angel investor

The day I stopped calling it "back office" was, like, genuinely the day everything changed for me.

So I was talking to this founder, right, and he'd just closed a $5M round. Super smart guy, technical background, building in fintech, and we're having this great conversation about his product roadmap and growth plans. Then he says something that just, I don't know, it stuck with me.

He mentioned needing to hire someone to handle all the back office stuff now.

Back office. Like it's some dusty corner of the business you shove into a basement and forget about.

And that's when it hit me, you know, the language we use actually shapes how we think about things. And how we think about things determines what we build and how we prioritize our time. When you call it "back office," you're already losing. You're basically saying it's secondary. Less important. Something to minimize and grudgingly deal with when you absolutely have to.

But like, what if we're thinking about this completely wrong?

See, the best founders I know, and I've worked with hundreds at this point through Chore and as an angel investor, they don't think of operations as overhead. They think of it as leverage. 

So think about it this way. Your product is what you sell, obviously. Your team is who builds it. But your operations is what makes everything else actually possible.

Great operations isn't visible until it breaks. Then people often notice, right? The payroll that doesn't go through. The compliance deadline you miss and get fined for. The fundraise that gets derailed because your cap table is a complete mess and diligence takes forever.

But when it works? It's invisible infrastructure. The foundation that lets you move fast without everything falling apart behind you.

Your operations should be so good they're invisible. So reliable they're boring, honestly. So systematic that you rarely have to think about them because they just work. That's not back office. That's the invisible infrastructure that lets you actually build the future instead of constantly putting out fires.

You don’t need a Chief of Staff.
You need to stop saying yes to every task that lands in your inbox. Let me explain 👌🏻

A few years ago, I invested in a startup with a product that was just starting to click. Revenue was growing steadily and customers were sticky. Things were looking up, but the founder was drowning in ops.

I like to stay pretty close to my portfolio companies for times like this. Anyway, he messaged me one day and said: “I think I need a COO.”

After 30 minutes of talking, it was clear that he didn’t need a COO. What he needed was to say no more often. He needed tighter systems, not another senior hire.

I’ve seen this story dozens of times as a founder, investor, and now as CEO of Chore.
So when is the right time to bring in fractional help? Here’s what I’ve learned:

✅ When you should bring in fractional help:
You’re bleeding time, and it’s starting to hold back growth.
You’re ready to let go. You’re not secretly planning to micro-manage this person.

That’s when fractional help really unlocks you.
 
❌ When you shouldn’t:
You’re still figuring out your business model.
You’re not ready to delegate. You plan to micromanage this person.
You have no idea what to do with the time you'll get back.

If you're in this stage, the answer isn’t delegation, it’s discipline.

The best time to bring in help is when you're clear on what you don’t want to be doing anymore, and brave enough to hand it over.

That’s when the right fractional ops manager will give you hours back, and the leverage you need to show up better for your business.

If you’ve ever wished operations made sense at a glance, this is for you.

When you finally see everything in one view, something changes:
Your decisions get sharper ⚡️
Your team moves faster 💨

And operations stop being so chaotic.

That's the clarity that Chore gives you.

So I was helping a founder friend last week, and he couldn't find his AWS contract. Took him about ten minutes of digging through Gmail, Slack, Google Drive. Finally found it in a random email thread from three months ago.
I got me thinking about something we see all the time at Chore.
 
You know how you probably search for files every single day, right? Maybe it's that vendor agreement, or last month's P&L, or that contractor's W-9 form. Each search feels quick. Just a minute or two.
But here's what I realized when I actually did the math (and literally, the math is pretty simple):
 
If you spend just five minutes a day looking for documents across all your tools (and you definitely spend more than 5 minutes), that's about 25 minutes per week. Over a full year, that becomes 1,300 minutes. Which is more than 20 hours.
 
Now, I've been working with startups for about five years, and here's how I think about founder time: your opportunity cost is probably around $1,000 per hour when you factor in what you could be building, the deals you could be closing, or the fundraising calls you could've taken.
 
So those 20 hours become $20,000 in lost value. Every year. Just from hunting for files.
 
And look, this isn't because you're disorganized or anything like that. The problem is that your operational world is scattered everywhere. Your HR documents live in Gusto or Rippling. Financial records are stuck in QuickBooks. Contracts might be in DocuSign or HelloSign or just floating in email. Cap table and equity stuff is in Carta or Pulley. Compliance documentation could be literally anywhere.
 
Every one of these tools promises to be your "single source of truth." But you and I both know none of them actually talk to each other in any meaningful way.
 
We've built something at Chore to finally solve this. Our operations dashboard.
 
Not another tool to add to your stack, by the way. We connect to what you already have. QuickBooks, Gusto, Carta, whatever you're using. Pull it all into one view where you can see your cash balance, upcoming compliance deadlines, key documents, equity status, everything.
 
The thesis is simple. You as a founder should have all the key information at your fingertips without having to log into multiple places to get a good idea of how the business is running operationally.
 
The file search tax is real, and it's way more expensive than most founders realize.
 
What's your experience with this? I'm genuinely curious if other founders have noticed this pattern or if we're just seeing it because we're deep in the operations world every day.

⚠️ Operators & founders! This Thursday, we’re doing it again.
Chore's Operators Happy Hour is exactly where you need to be this Thursday.
 
Every month, we pull together the people who actually run companies. The ones fixing broken systems, scaling messy processes, and keeping the entire business glued together.
 
This week, we’re back in SF for another one. And if you’ve never been, here’s what to expect:
🍸 Zero fluff. Real conversations.
💬 Founders and operators swapping playbooks.
⚙️ Sharp, practical discussions about what’s working in AI, ops, hiring, and systems.
🤝 People you’ll want to follow up with the very next day!
 
Every edition so far has filled up, and I know this one will too. Plus I'm pretty excited to share something new with everyone at this edition.
 
📍 San Francisco
🗓 Thursday, November 20
🕔 6:30pm PT
🎟 Register → ﻿https://luma.com/it962c24
 
Let me know in the comments if you'll show up!

Open article: Operators Happy Hour by Chore: Foundersgiving – Setting Up for 2026 with AI Power · Luma by luma.com

Operators Happy Hour by Chore: Foundersgiving – Setting Up for 2026 with AI Power · Luma

What you can’t see, you can’t improve.
What you can’t measure, you can’t scale.
And for most founders, ops is still invisible.
 
But for ops? Chore is about to change that.

Thanksgiving is a great day to zoom out and reflect. As founders, we spend so much time in execution mode that we forget to acknowledge the people and moments that make the journey worth it.

So today, I’m grateful for:
- A family that supports the long hours and the big dreams.
- A team at Chore that turns my ambitious ideas into reality.
- The founders who trust with the deepest parts of their operations.
- My Entrepreneurial Excellence Podcast guests who openly share lessons and wisdom for other founders to learn from.
- The huge pumpkin pie I'm going to have at Thanksgiving dinner soon.
- And the many tiny moments that have made this year truly my best yet. 

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone 🦃

When your product breaks, you know it immediately. Customers complain. Alerts go off. Revenue drops.
But when operations break? There are no alarms. Just slow leaks.
 
A late payroll here. A missed compliance renewal there. A forgotten 1099, a misclassified contractor, an invoice that never got paid.
 
It doesn’t even feel like an emergency, until it suddenly is.
 
Here’s the problem:
Product is tracked ✅
Engineering is tracked ✅
We use Linear, Jira, Notion, dashboards, metrics.
 
But ops?
Still managed through Slack messages, Google Sheets, and “someone’s got it covered.”
 
And that’s why it breaks.
 
Ops needs systems. Visibility. A way to measure progress and spot what’s falling behind. Just like every other part of the business.
 
Until if you figure that out as a startup, your ops will continue to break. At Chore, we're about to launch something to fix that.
 
Keep an eye out for an update 👀

BRANDEM™ OS

As a Brand Truth Strategist and creator of BRANDEM™ OS, Mash Bonigala transforms how revolutionary companies are built. Through nearly three decades of hands-on experience, he has discovered something remarkable: truly revolutionary brands aren't built through creative guesswork or best practices – they're built through mathematical precision that makes market transformation inevitable rather than exhausting.

This insight emerged from building and scaling 12 startups across different industries while helping founders raise over $75M in funding. Working with hundreds of early-stage companies, Mash noticed a pattern: most founders aren't held back by their capabilities or market conditions, but by trying to create revolutionary impact using tools designed for incremental improvement.

This revelation led him to develop BRANDEM™ OS – a complete operating system that turns founder truth into market dominance through systematic precision. Unlike traditional brand building that relies on subjective decisions and creative intuition, BRANDEM™ OS approaches brand development as a mathematical process, creating predictable paths to category leadership.

Today, Mash selectively works with founders ready to transform their industries rather than just compete in them. Through his signature programs – IGNITION and FLAME – he guides founders through systematic transformation that makes revolution inevitable. His unique approach combines deep founder truth extraction with precise implementation frameworks, helping create brands that don't just participate in markets but fundamentally reshape them.

What truly sets Mash apart is his understanding that revolutionary companies require a fundamentally different operating system than incremental improvement businesses. His work goes beyond traditional brand strategy to create complete transformation systems that convert founder truth into unstoppable market positions.

Brand Truth Architect

FORGE™

FORGE | Time for the Fearless

FORGE is a stealth venture reimagining how founders experience their most valuable resource - time.

We're building this for those who build the future, designed to embody the principles that drive extraordinary founders forward. Because those who forge their own path deserve tools that honor their journey.

Currently in development with select founding partners.

Launching Late 2025.

Founder

SquareMaze Ventures

SquareMaze Ventures operates as a pioneering venture studio with a dedicated fund with the commitment to actively support our portfolio companies. Unlike traditional investment models, we provide hands-on assistance, leveraging our partners' extensive experience to guide startups from inception to market leadership. Our investment philosophy centers on partnering with visionary founders, helping to breathe life into their brands, and transforming innovative ideas into thriving businesses.

SpellBrand

Spellbrand Inc.: Elevating Brands with Precision and Passion

At Spellbrand, we master the art of brand transformation. As a leading boutique agency, we align brands with strategic development, unique identities, and Blue Ocean storytelling.

What We Do Best:
- Forge standout brand strategies and positioning.
- Craft visual identities and branding that captivates.
- Design websites that captivate and convert.
- Drive engagement with targeted online marketing and dynamic social media.

Elevate Your Brand - We're in the business of awakening potential. Through strategic insight, compelling narratives, and distinctive identity design, we ensure your brand resonates and reigns.

Startups often start without a strategic edge, lost in a sea of similarity and uninspired messaging. Not on our watch. Spellbrand shifts the paradigm, infusing your brand with the strategy and storytelling needed to captivate and conquer.

Founder & Chief Brand Strategist

Runnies

As the co-founder and investor at Runnies, I spearhead the company's global branding and marketing strategy. Runnies is a sports lifestyle brand based in Dubai, UAE, for runners and athletes seeking performance and style. My role focuses on establishing Runnies as a globally recognized brand by crafting a clear, bold, impactful positioning that resonates with sports enthusiasts worldwide.

Key Responsibilities:

* Leading the development of the global brand strategy, ensuring alignment with our core mission of delivering high-performance sports sunglasses.
* Overseeing all marketing efforts, from digital campaigns to influencer collaborations, to drive awareness and customer engagement.
* Building and nurturing strategic partnerships with local NGOs to integrate social responsibility into our brand ethos.
* Manage our international market expansion and positioning Runnies in competitive global markets while maintaining brand integrity.
* Collaborating with creative teams to craft product launches and marketing campaigns that elevate Runnies as a go-to brand for athletes worldwide.

Co-Founder & CBO

Panoton

Panoton is a revolutionary platform to redefine business. I am the SaaS Advisor, advising Panoton on brand strategy, positioning, brand message clarity, Saas product development, growth, and scaling. I also work with the founder to figure out and solve blockchain and tokenomics challenges!

I am the lead architect and software development project manager for the blockchain based SaaS platform.

The Naked Founder

The Naked Founder is an exclusive online community designed to empower, support, and connect startup founders on their entrepreneurial journey. Created and hosted by Mash Bonigala, a seasoned entrepreneur with over 25 years of experience building, scaling, and exiting startups, The Naked Founder aims to provide members with valuable resources, expert guidance, and a network of like-minded individuals to help them successfully navigate the challenges of building, scaling, and exiting a startup.

Startup & Branding Coach

School Branding Agency

Dedicated entirely to the educational sector, we pride ourselves on being a premier branding partner for schools, colleges, and universities. Our focus? Elevating your institution's brand through the power of distinctive mascots and logos. Whether for athletic teams or the school, our designs are not just visually compelling but unforgettable.

Founder & CBO

ArtSpark™

As the Chief Brand Officer at ArtSpark, I spearhead the development and execution of branding strategies that enhance our mission to ignite a global renaissance in creativity and art. With a solid career in entrepreneurship and extensive experience in brand strategy and development, I focus on cultivating ArtSpark’s identity as a beacon for artistic empowerment and mental enrichment. 

My role involves overseeing all aspects of our brand's expression—from marketing communications and visual storytelling to product development and community engagement—ensuring they resonate with our core values of innovation, inspiration, and inclusivity. 

I am committed to positioning ArtSpark as a provider of creative tools and a leader in fostering a community where art is accessible to all, transforming everyday spaces into realms of creativity and flourishing prosperity.

Chief Brand Officer

Toby Bulls CC

An NFT project with high utility! Under development and under wraps!

UPDATE: 7-figure exit

Founder, Investor & CTO

I’m the founder’s strategist.

30+ years. 12 startups. 4 exits. $75M+ raised. 100s of brands built in my portfolio.
I’ve built brands for giants like Microsoft, ESPN, Target - and helped raw, gritty startups go from zero to funded to exit.

I don’t do fluff. I do clarity, cash, and category creation.
You come to me when you’re ready to go to war with your market - and win.
Because your brand isn’t your logo.
It’s your leverage.

* Creator of BRANDEM™ - a brand growth OS for startups that want to break the game, not play it.
* I run high-stakes founder cohorts + war room sessions that flip confusion into dominance.
* Built “The Truth Extraction Protocol™” - a diagnostic that reveals your brand’s hidden market power in 90 minutes.

If you’re a founder tired of surface-level advice and ready for real growth, raw truth, and sharp strategy - Let’s talk.

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Adam S.

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