Taking on 1 project this autumn
Getting things done
for small teams with big missions.
Some of the areas I care about:
Every founder has a list.
Cross off anything that you'd need extra capacity for — that's roughly where I start.
Go on, cross off a few.
“Vera is structured, extremely well organised and on top of things. She especially takes full ownership and will drive results A to Z. She is a good team player and contributes to a great company atmosphere. If you want someone to move mountains — Vera is your go to person.”
Jacqueline van den Ende
Co-founder and CEO, Carbon Equity
How I work
Where I usually end up working
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About me
I'm entrepreneurial, creative, and nerdy. Not quite a process person or a people person, but both.
I spent a while trying to figure out how to mix these energies into one neat thing, then decided I wouldn't. I'm staying a generalist.
I love understanding new contexts and solving new problems. Connecting with people, gathering their perspectives, mapping the bigger picture, and then building or owning the fix. That's what makes me happy, and what keeps me challenged.
I care deeply about the missions I support, and believe we should all use our skills where they can do the most good. I hold two MScs in business and sustainability from ESADE and RSM, and have worked with more than 10 companies across the Netherlands, Hungary, Germany, and the US.
Based in Budapest, I work primarily remotely, but I'm happy to travel within Europe occasionally. My rates start at €70/h and depend on the scope of the work and length of the engagement.
Recent work
Joined overnight as interim executive assistant to the CEO during the Series A2 fundraising round. Once that role was filled full-time, I moved into the Comms team, where I've been doing a bit of everything: building AI-driven processes, organizing a 70-person event with Google, helping roll out the new brand guidelines, and leading weekly team meetings.
I joined during a €6M seed raise to own finance admin, previously managed by a C-level executive. I automated invoicing, reconciled accounts, and established a process that kept contracts, sales, and finance in sync as the client base grew rapidly. Scoped the role for a senior finance manager and helped onboard him. Supported the team for 6 months, 2 days/week.
A two-day clean energy hackathon at the Into the Great Wide Open festival on a remote island in the Netherlands. Working with organizer Arash Aazami, I managed logistics end-to-end—registrations, accommodation, dietary needs, vendor coordination—and then served as the on-site point person for both days.
As a sort of right-hand to the COO post-fundraising, I owned bookkeeping and payroll, prepared all-company meetings, and supported early go-to-market strategy with outreach research. I helped out with office management, like arranging company merch, team lunches, and groceries. The kind of things nobody assigns, but someone has to own 🙋♀️.
I started taking on freelance ops work for impact startups myself and quickly saw real demand. So I built it into a company: hired a team and grew to more than 10 clients within a few months. It seemed to be working; there was a business case. But I eventually realized that what I enjoyed wasn't managing a team or scaling a service agency—it was doing the work myself, hands-on, close to the problem. So I decided to close Ops Starters, and after a short break of soul-searching, I went back to working solo with wonderful companies.
What are you building?
For our fast-growing healthcare startup, I'm looking for temporary operational support. Current founding team is stretched and needs more time for B2B and strategy. Assignment is per direct, at least 2 days a week. High need for agency, AI native as much as possible, able to hit the ground running in ambiguity. Is this you?