Portfolio Career Podcast

David Nebinski, Founder of A Chief of Staff, is interviewed by Kriti and Andrew who have attended his A Chief of Staff Mixers about starting and building A Chief of Staff. In this episode, you will learn about David’s prior Chief of Staff-like roles, his solopreneurship journey, and the starting the A Chief of Staff community and events in New York. This episode was originally published on the A Chief of Staff with David Nebinski podcast in late July 2026. Learn more about A Chief of Staff at www.achiefofstaffpodcast.com

David reflects on how Community-Led Growth Conference 2 (CLG2) came together — from a spontaneous catch-up call with Ruthie Berber to Zach Hawtoff's immediate "let's do it" — and why he keeps coming back to the idea of compounding: building on projects, relationships, and momentum instead of starting from scratch each time. CLG2 happens October 2 in New York at Fabrik. More info at luma.com/clg2.

Cristina Ciaravalli, Founder and CEO of Valli Ventures, shares about building a community-first business — from fitness-focused Founder events to a growing recruiting and advisory practice. She shares how her recruiting arm grew out of casual favors for friends, what it took to scale from a solo operation to a team of seven, and about the flywheel she has built that fuels everything.

Melissa Wong returns five years after her first appearance to talk about her new book, The Fluid Career. She and David dig into why multi-hyphenates and portfolio careerists are best positioned to weather AI-driven job anxiety. They also reflect on David's own career transition over the past year. Enjoy!

An audit can be much more than an assessment, it can be the beginning of a great conversation. This episode explores how providing business owners with an audit creates something tangible to discuss, encourages collaboration, and helps uncover opportunities together. I did this last summer when I was transitioning, wanted momentum, and it went better than expected. Learn all about it here.