Our Result

In 6 weeks, we placed DIY Art Club's first-ever Executive Assistant: a senior EA with 9+ years supporting C-suite leaders at high-growth brands.

WEEK 1-2

Role launched with outreach and inbound running side by side. When the founder raised the seniority bar after the first finalist, a senior profile landed within 24 hours.

WEEK 3-5

7 candidates presented, 4 client interviews, 2 finalists on a live test built from a real week of the founder's calendar.

WEEK 6

Executive Assistant hired 🚀

The Starting Point

DIY Art Club is an arts and crafts ecommerce group with 5M+ customers across 20+ countries. They grew 4x in a year, and both founders were still doing work that should sit with someone else.

The CEO had never had an EA. They needed someone hyper-organised and calm, because in their own words, they're already "the scrappy, fast, slightly chaotic one". Full ownership of calendar, inbox and travel within weeks, not months.

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Our Solution

We treated it like a leadership hire, not an admin one. The real question wasn't "can they manage a calendar?" but "can they bring calm to a founder growing at 4x?"

Selling Points

First EA in the company. You build the function.
Direct line to the founder, with real authority from week one
A clear route to Chief of Staff
Fully remote on European hours, with quarterly trips to the Netherlands

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Requirements

Proven experience supporting scale-up founders or C-suite
End-to-end ownership of calendar, inbox and travel
AI-native: uses tools to move faster, not just to look busy
Flawless attention to detail

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Skills We Looked For

Calm under pressure, steady when the founder isn't
Crisp updates: done, open, decision needed
Comfortable managing up and protecting the calendar
Hiring logistics, offsite planning and personal admin, all in one brain

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Our Winning Approach

The Day 15 reality check

We made it clear from the very start: by day 15, you own the full calendar and inbox. A few stepped back. Good. We'd much rather lose someone at screening than at month two. The ones who leaned in were exactly the people built for this pace.

Temperament before tasks

Most EAs can run a calendar. Far fewer can absorb 20 reschedules a week, briefings by voice note and decisions made on the fly, then report back in three clean lines. We screened for those moments, not just for tools and tasks.

Key Insights That Helped Us Hire The Perfect Candidate

Your first EA should be more senior than you think. Juniors need guidance a busy founder doesn't have time to give.
Be upfront about intensity on the first call. It filters for the people who'll actually stay.
The best EA test is your own inbox.

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A founder's first-ever EA, hired in 6 weeks: why we screened for temperament before skills