Executive Assistant To Co-Founder & Cto

At Ello, our mission is to maximize the potential of all children. Our first product, Read with Ello, is an AI reading teacher that listens to a child read from real books. It uses evidence-based reading instruction to help them when they get stuck and behavioral psychology to motivate them to keep going.

We’re now building on the success of Read with Ello and putting together the pieces of the world’s first complete AI teacher for children. We’re a highly technical team building delightful, learner-centered experiences which leverage the massive recent advances in AI. Our products put children on a path of lifelong learning, creating the foundation for their future and ours. Together, we believe we can close literacy and educational gaps around the world.

We are backed by world-class investors, just closed a Series A, and we’re ready to bring on new talent to help achieve our vision.

About the Role

You will be the executive assistant (EA) to Ello’s Co-Founder and CTO, Catalin Voss (see bio below), working in person in our San Francisco office in the Mission. To support Catalin, we are looking for a creative, resourceful administrator and project manager who is a strong communicator, detail-oriented, and has an intrinsic drive to create order out of chaos.

The ideal candidate will be comfortable wearing many hats and supporting other business functions as needed given our small team. This includes acting as an office manager in the San Francisco office, supporting the globally distributed engineering team, and working closely with our Head of People to manage HR and recruiting.

We will look for candidates who can demonstrate

• An owner’s mindset: You’re a results-oriented self-starter who knows how to get stuff done. You’re highly organized and can multitask and manage multiple projects simultaneously. You pursue opportunities with a relentless enthusiasm to over-deliver on expectations.
• An interest in the mission of Ello: You are excited to work hard on Ello’s mission. Education doesn’t need to be your passion, but doing work that improves lives is.
• Teamwork and integrity: You have a low ego, give and receive feedback well, and prefer open and honest communication that is grounded in empathy. Other people describe you as enthusiastic, kind, and trustworthy.
• Speed of learning: You like to learn and you learn quickly. The idea of being asked to learn new software tools you have no previous experience with excites you.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills: You can draft concise emails, and you won’t hesitate to make or answer calls on Ello’s behalf. You’re comfortable representing Ello outwardly. We can expect you to respond to top executives and Ello’s customers alike with eloquence and empathy. And you love collaborating with cross-functional, multicultural teams.
• Startup hustle: You thrive working in a fast-paced, dynamic environment, and you’re comfortable with change and ambiguity. You balance exceptional attention to detail with the courage to move fast. If you get stuck, you demonstrate a bias towards action – you pick up the phone (so to speak) and figure out how to get unstuck.

Nice to Have

• Extensive experience using office software and modern administrative tools such as Notion, Google Suite, Microsoft Office Suite, Apple tools like Keynote and Pages, Slack, and a task management tool (we use Height).
• An interest in technical tools or software engineering
• Bachelor’s degree
• Experience supporting other business functions, including recruiting, HR, sales, marketing, customer support, quality assurance, or accounting
• 2+ years of experience either managing the administrative needs of an executive or equivalent experience in program management and coordination.

Here are some reasons to join us

• Work directly with the co-founder and CTO of a cutting-edge startup at the intersection of AI and learning design.
• Be part of a rapidly growing yet tight-knit team working at the forefront of technological change.
• Do work that matters and make a true impact on child development and literacy at scale.
• Capitalize on tremendous career development opportunities during this exciting early phase.

About Catalin Voss (Co-Founder & CTO)

Before co-founding Ello, Catalin was a PhD candidate in Artificial Intelligence at Stanford University where he led a project using natural language processing to identify racial disparities in the California criminal justice system and developed AI-based therapies for children with developmental conditions. He also earned an MS and BS in Computer Science from Stanford and previously co-founded two startups, machine learning companies DukaConnect and Sension (with CEO Tom Sayer), both acquired.

While still in high school, Catalin worked as an iPhone developer with Macintosh-father Steve Capps. He has won the Lemelson-MIT Graduate Student prize, Stanford's Kennedy Medal, Forbes’ 30 under 30, and Business Insider’s 40 under 40. Originally from Germany, Catalin moved to Silicon Valley at age 17 and now lives in San Francisco with his partner Ruby and dog Ed.

About Us

Our team has deep expertise in artificial intelligence, K-12 education, and child development across institutions such as Stanford, Berkeley, Google, Apple, and more. We were part of Y Combinator’s W20 batch and have recently closed a funding round; previously announced investors include leading US and European VCs including Project A Ventures, Reach Capital, Khosla Ventures, Homebrew, WndrCo, Human Capital, and K9 Ventures.

We’re a small, collaborative team that takes each other’s voices very seriously. Because our mission is to support all children, it is critical that our team is representative of the wider community; we place significant emphasis on ensuring diversity in our team and inclusion in our culture.

We want to create an environment in which we can all be our best selves, use our strengths to take Ello forward, and develop our own skills. We want to have fun while working hard to do impactful things that we’re proud of – we believe it’s possible to do both.

At Ello, we view diversity as a moral imperative and a competitive advantage. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, skin color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We plan and structure our interviews to directly assess skills and experience. If you need any special accommodations for interviewing please email [email protected].