Executive Assistant to Founder — Long-Term, High Ownership (Not a Task-Based VA Role)

I'm a 24yo entrepreneur, based in Dubai, and I've been building businesses for seven years — a coaching company and several e-commerce brands. I travel constantly. I'm hiring one person to take over everything outside the work I actually want to be doing. Long term. My right hand. THE STANDARD I want to show up and be present — not thinking about logistics, not wondering whether something got handled, not asking questions I shouldn't have to ask. If I'm asking, we're already behind. Here's what I mean. I'm flying out of Geneva tomorrow with a rental car to return. I shouldn't have to ask you anything about it. The night before, I should already have a message: return the car on the French side, walk through to the Swiss side, that's where your flight leaves from, here's the map, allow this much time, here's the return address and booking reference. I didn't ask. You saw it coming and you handled it. That's the job. WHAT YOU'D OWN Travel end to end — flights, transfers, hotels, restaurants, gyms, and everything around it I didn't think to ask for Research and planning ahead — three options and a recommendation, not a list of links Admin and official matters — invoices, subscriptions, insurance, banking, residency paperwork, company licences across several countries My network — accountants, agencies, suppliers, doctors. You deal with them directly, under your own name The monthly business cycle — salaries, team invoices, commissions The people around me — birthdays, gifts, the things that matter The things that need fixing last minute that most people would say can't be done WHY IT'S WORTH IT You work directly with me. No layers, no one rewriting your work Full trust and real authority. I'd rather you decide and tell me than ask and wait Remote, your own hours, wherever you want to be Good problems and good places — a lot of this job is finding great restaurants, hotels and cities and making things happen where you've never been The role grows as the business does. More responsibility, more pay It's not all logistics. One project I want to run is building a school in a developing country — that's something you'd help make happen WHO I AM TO WORK WITH Ambitious, fast-moving, direct. Optimistic, dry sense of humour, and I treat the hotel receptionist the same way I treat a CEO. If you do something well I'll say so. If something isn't right I'll say that too, and then it's done and we move on. No grudges, no politics. I want someone who enjoys this — not someone who tolerates a high standard, but someone who likes that it's high. WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR You've done this before — EA to a founder, or somewhere the pressure is real and last-minute problems are normal Full ownership. Even when something goes wrong that wasn't your fault, the fix is yours Solutions, not problems Precise. Small mistakes are what I have the least patience for Your own opinion, and you'll say it when you think I'm wrong You use AI properly — as a tool that makes you faster, not a gimmick You want to do this for at least three years PRACTICAL Europe, Africa or Gulf timezone. Available 09:00–21:00 Amsterdam time Hours are flexible — most days it's a few hours of actual work. What I'm paying for is that I can count on you Weekends: most work happens on weekdays, but if something needs fixing on a Saturday, it gets fixed Long-term, ongoing. Rate depends on experience Strong English required Start as soon as possible HOW TO APPLY — PLEASE READ I get a lot of copy-paste proposals and I ignore all of them. Start your proposal with the word AMSTERDAM. If it isn't there, I won't read further. Then answer these two, in your own words: Tell me about something you fixed that shouldn't have been fixable. What was it, how much time did you have, what did you do? I need a flight tomorrow but there are only overnight options, and you know I hate flying at night. Write me the exact message you'd send back. No CV summary. No list of your skills. I'm reading how you think.