Does a startup need an executive admin (EA)?
1/ I wouldn’t recommend startups get an EA until they’re certain size (say, 100+ people). A good EA can be amazing, they can help the CEO or other execs focus on important things rather than spending time on admin stuff, ultimately helping the company’s success. But these days you don’t need to hire someone full time until you absolutely need to, because there are other good options (SaaS tools, outsourcing services, or even remote/virtual assistants)
2/ For example, a big “use case” for an EA is scheduling – but Calendly does an amazing job and there should be many other online tools that help streamline multi-party meeting coordination.
3/ Don’t hire an EA as a status symbol unless you’re a Hollywood talent agency. For early stage startups it might actually go the other way – some investors take hiring an EA too early as a yellow flag
4/ Don’t have a “shared EA” to save cost. The shared EA system can low-key start corporate politics. You can imagine a situation where John and Jane put in similar and potentially conflicting requests to the EA, and the EA has to prioritize Jane’s request, then John goes like “am I a less important person at this company?” Or, Jane seeing John utilizing the EA actively and thinks “I better use the EA more” and the whole thing becomes a bit of a competition for resource
5/ Create a written manual so that any new admin can be onboarded and start helping from day 2 – people do come and go, and the manual can come in especially handy for remote EA services