How The Swarm Scaled Without an Ops Hire—HR, Legal, and Finance on Autopilot

10–20 hrs

Reclaimed weekly from admin and compliance

0

In compliance fines since onboarding

“Chore has been a game-changer for me as a second-time founder… Chore has saved me 10–20 hours per week, allowing me to focus on what really matters: building The Swarm and scaling our team.”

David Connors, Founder & CEO, The Swarm

01 — The Challenge

Operational work was consuming founder time needed for product, hiring, and fundraising

The Swarm, a startup building a talent operating system for early-stage companies, faced the classic early-stage challenge of balancing growth with operational execution. As a second-time founder, David Connors knew from experience how easily HR, legal, finance, payroll, and compliance could consume founder bandwidth and slow momentum.

Managing these tasks internally would have taken 10–20 hours per week and pulled time away from strategic priorities like product development, team building, investor conversations, and fundraising. Manual workflows—spreadsheets, scattered tools, and fragmented process management—also created inefficiency and made it harder to build a reliable operational foundation from day one. Preparing legal and financial documents for investor due diligence added another layer of operational complexity.

02 — The Solution

An all-in-one operations partner to build the foundation from day one

The Swarm partnered with Chore to handle core operational workflows across HR, payroll, compliance, finance, and administrative execution. Instead of assembling an internal ops function too early or coordinating multiple tools and ad hoc systems, David used Chore as a proactive operating partner. Chore established key processes, managed recurring operational work, and kept back-office systems organized so David could focus on hiring, product, go-to-market execution, and fundraising.

What Chore took on

📋

HR, Payroll & Compliance Operations

Managed recurring HR, payroll, legal, and compliance workflows to reduce founder admin time

👥

Financial Administration Support

Handled ongoing finance-related administrative tasks as part of day-to-day back-office operations

🔗

Contractor Payments & Admin Workflows

Streamlined contractor payments and operational execution that would otherwise require manual coordination

📊

Document Organization & Investor Readiness

Kept legal and financial documents organized to support due diligence and fundraising preparation

⚙️

Operational Infrastructure Setup

Helped put scalable operational foundations in place early, including systems like business insurance setup and documentation workflows

03 — The Results

10–20 hours saved weekly and more founder time for product, hiring, and fundraising

10–20 hrs

Reclaimed per week — redirected to investor relations and product

0

In compliance fines since partnering with Chore

Chore helped David reclaim 10–20 hours per week that would otherwise have been spent on HR, legal, finance, payroll, and compliance work. By taking ownership of recurring operational tasks and proactively managing back-office workflows, Chore reduced administrative distractions and enabled David to focus on higher-value priorities such as product development, team building, and fundraising. Chore also helped The Swarm establish a strong operational foundation early, making the company easier to scale and better prepared for investor diligence.

“Founders should be spending their time wisely, and Chore ensures I can do just that.”

David Connors, Founder & CEO, The Swarm