I Want That Job: Amy Li, Chief of Staff at Otis
Welcome back to I Want That Job, the Sunday email from onejob where interesting people with interesting jobs explain what they do and how they got there.
We’ve got some great jobs coming up this week, starting tomorrow!
I Want That Job: Amy Li, Chief of Staff at Otis
Her Path
Amy worked in Investment Banking at Bank of America Merrill Lynch for three years after graduating from Columbia. She was hired as Chief of Staff at Otis a few months ago. Otis is a new startup that gives you the ability to invest in contemporary art, sneakers, and collectibles for as little as $25. The founder of Otis, Michael Karnjanaprakorn, previously founded the online learning community Skillshare.
How’d you get your job as Chief of Staff?
Through OneJob #ad #sponsored. At the time, I knew I was looking for a highly cross-functional role. I was also optimizing for high impact with a lot of room for gaining a lot of strategic and operational experience. When I saw the job, I reached out to all the Chiefs of Staffs I knew and even reached out to my current Founder’s ex-Chief of Staff to learn more. Rest was some luck and some work!
What’s the most important thing that you did in your first few months on the job to ramp up?
I think two things really helped. The first was just spending time shadowing each project lead. The second was writing memos. As a company, we write a lot of strategic memos to cut the number of inefficient meetings. Writing memos helps to get a big picture idea of the why and how as well as the operational step-by-steps and considerations that come with a new move.
What one personality trait of yours has made you effective as a CoS?
I think I’m a good listener and a good collaborator. I’m good at finding common ground within a team. If you consider the typical functions of a CoS: goalkeeper, operator, integrator, proxy, advisor and implementer, I’m definitely a strong integrator / team player.
What’s a piece of advice that you’ve been given that you keep returning to?
My founder has a mantra about prioritizing and boosting productivity. Basically, split your day’s tasks into buckets with associated values (totally made up). For example, on any given day you’ll have $1000/ hr tasks, $100/ hr tasks, $50 /hr tasks, $20 / hr tasks. Take 80% of the lowest side of these and find a way to outsource it or delegate it out. Might be a bit extreme, but helpful for thinking about where to best spend your time.
What’s a framework that you or your founder use that you find indispensable?
As a company, we really focus on speed and are constantly asking how we can move faster. So we pay a lot of attention to decision making. A general framework we rely on us radical accountability and ownership. That means we always leave any decision with a DRI who is directly responsible.
What makes you most bullish on Otis?
I think there’s been a shift in how this generation views wealth and ownership. We’re investing into things, projects, assets we care about, which makes what Otis does really interesting. We focus on cultural assets - so art and collectibles that have a story that’s culturally relevant or significant in some way.
Which fictional character would be your CoS and why?
Probably Donna Paulson from Suits. I would love to be able to just provide my Chief of Staff with a high level framework or guiding principles and have her figure out how to get it done. If I were to pick a henchman, though... definitely kronk from emperors new groove.
The Ask
If you're interested in investing with Otis, our first offering drops on Tuesday, August 13th at 12pm EST. Download our app here and check it out. If you're interested in working at Otis, check out our careers page here. If you'd just like to chat about anything else, I'm always open and you can reach me at amy@otiswealth.com.
If you like this, share it!