Marife R.
Executive assistant
Triages a 200-mail inbox to twelve decisions a day and drafts the first pass on all of them.
- Notion
- Superhuman
- ChatGPT
For startups that just raised
Three candidates in ten working days. At a fifth of a US salary.
Full-time remote specialists from the Philippines, Latin America and South Africa — sourced, interviewed and reference-checked by us. One flat fee, paid once. You contract your hire directly; we never touch their salary.
An executive assistant costs — less in year one. Run it for your role →
Two minutes. You get a salary band back within one working day — before you spend anything.
- Shortlist
- 3 candidates
- Turnaround
- 10 working days
- Replacement
- 6 months
- First reply
- 1 working day
Teams we have placed for
Who you would be interviewing
This is what a shortlist looks like.
Three of these land in your inbox, chosen against your spec, each with a written note on where they are strong and where they are not.
Camila S.
Customer support
Full US overlap. Rewrote a 60-article help centre and cut ticket volume by a fifth.
- Zendesk
- Intercom
- Claude
Thabo M.
Bookkeeper, AP and AR
Closes the month in four days. Built the reconciliation checklist his last two employers still run.
- Xero
- Ramp
- Excel
Joyce A.
Reporting and data analyst
Writes her own SQL. Replaced eleven hours a week of manual pulls with three scheduled dashboards.
- Looker
- SQL
- ChatGPT
Diego V.
CRM and GTM operations
Keeps a 40,000-record CRM clean and enriches new inbound automatically before a rep ever sees it.
- HubSpot
- Clay
- Zapier
Ntando K.
Content and video editor
Turns one founder interview into a week of short-form without being asked twice.
- Premiere
- Descript
- After Effects
Illustrative profiles, not live candidates — real shortlists are built to your spec, from scratch, after the scoping call.
AI fluency
We test how they use AI. Not whether they say they do.
Every CV in this market now claims it. The claim is worth nothing, so we check it the only way that means anything — by watching someone work.
It is in the task test
The work sample we set has a piece in it that is much faster with a model and much slower without. We see which route they take, and whether they check the output before shipping it.
The note names the tools
Every candidate summary lists what they actually use each day, what they have automated in a previous job, and where they still work by hand on purpose.
No certificates
We do not run a training course or hand out badges, because a badge tells you nothing about a person. What we tell you is what we watched them do.
The arithmetic
The fee is the small number on this page.
Pick the seat you are trying to fill. The US figure is yours to change — put in the offer you would actually have to make.
Hiring in the US
—
- Base salary—
- Payroll tax & benefits (+25%)—
- Agency fee (20% of base)—
Hiring through airteams
—
- Their salary, paid by you ——
- Payroll tax & benefits$0
- Our fee, once ——
Year one, you keep — — and every year after that the gap widens, because our fee does not come round again.
Offshore salary shown is the midpoint of the band this role usually lands in; the exact number depends on the region and the seniority you need. US loading of 25% covers employer taxes, insurance and benefits. Agency comparison uses the 20% of first-year salary that US contingency recruiters typically charge.
Want that number for your actual spec?
Tell us the roleHow it works
Scoped on Monday. Shortlist by a week on Friday.
Fresh funding buys speed, and hiring is usually where it goes to die.
Scope the role
Thirty minutes to agree what the person owns, the band it takes to hire them, and which region fits your hours.
- A realistic salary band, in writing
- The region that covers your hours
- An honest no if the budget will not buy the spec
Three candidates, ten working days
Sourced, screened and interviewed by us — then tested on a task that mirrors the job.
- Reference-checked with a former manager
- A written note on each: strengths and gaps
- Your interviews booked for you
You hire them directly
You contract and pay your hire yourself. No markup, no monthly fee, nobody between them and their salary.
- Contractor, or your existing payroll platform
- We take no cut of what they earn
- Six months of free replacement
Searches we have run
Two searches, start to finish.
Both are the shape of seat we take now: a defined role, checkable output, filled from the Philippines against someone else's working day.
German software startup automating accounting for eCommerce and SaaS companies.
- The seat
- Full-stack developer
- Hired from
- Philippines
- Working
- German hours
- Week 1First candidate profiles with the client
- Week 2Three developers booked in for interview
- Week 3Case study round, chosen, hired
Seven years on SpringBoot, Java and React, with AWS and GCP — and a background in European banking and insurance, which is why an accounting startup wanted him. He came in to build on the platform, support the product manager and mentor the junior developers.
Singaporean holding company acquiring bootstrapped internet businesses and SMBs across Asia.
- The seat
- Analyst
- Hired from
- Philippines
- Working
- Singapore hours
- Week 1First candidate profiles with the client
- Week 2Analysts booked in for interview
- Week 3Chosen and hired
Applied mathematics in finance and economics, then data science, equity research, venture development and investment banking. He runs the research that validates a market and keeps the acquisition pipeline moving, next to the founder.
Pricing
One flat fee per hire, published up front.
You can budget for this before you ever speak to us. Most of the market makes you book a call to find out.
Introductory rates. The next ten hires go at these prices. After that they return to $5,000, $7,500 and $10,000 — and anyone who has hired by then keeps the lower number for good.
| Band | Their monthly salary | Our fee |
|---|---|---|
| Support & adminExecutive and operations assistants, customer support, coordinators | $700 – 1,500 | $3,500standard $5,000 |
| SpecialistBookkeeping, reporting and data, technical support, CRM and GTM operations | $1,500 – 3,000 | $5,500standard $7,500 |
| Senior specialistDevelopers, senior editors, certified accountants | $3,000 – 5,000 | $7,500standard $10,000 |
$500 to start
Charged once the role is scoped, credited in full against the fee, refunded if we do not deliver. Waived on every hire after your first.
Nothing recurring
No markup on their salary, no management fee, no percentage. You pay once and the relationship is yours.
Six-month replacement
If the person does not work out in the first six months, we run the search again at no charge.
Why a flat fee and not a percentage
The standard model charges 25–35% of your hire's first-year salary, which quietly pays your recruiter more the more your hire costs. Ours does not move:
| Their salary | airteams | Agency at 25% | Agency at 35% |
|---|---|---|---|
| $700/mo | $3,500 | $2,100 | $2,940 |
| $1,200/mo | $3,500 | $3,600 | $5,040 |
| $2,500/mo | $5,500 | $7,500 | $10,500 |
| $4,000/mo | $7,500 | $12,000 | $16,800 |
Below about $1,200 a month a percentage shop can come out cheaper, and we will say so on the call rather than let you find out afterwards. Everywhere above it, the gap runs in your favour and widens with seniority.
Roles
Defined seats with checkable output.
We fill these well because we do not try to fill everything.
We place
- Executive and operations assistants
- Customer support and technical support
- Bookkeeping, AP and AR
- Reporting and data analysts
- Recruiting coordinators
- CRM and GTM operations
- Content and video editing
We don't
- Heads of department and leadership hires
- First engineers, engineering leads, and anyone who would be your only developer
- Anything needing a US licence or certification
- Roles with a team reporting into them
- Roles above $5,000 a month
Need one of these? Say so on the first call and we will point you at someone who does it properly.
Where the talent comes from
The region follows the hours you need covered.
Not every seat needs someone awake when you are.
Philippines
Overlaps a US afternoon and evening
Two decades of remote work for Western companies. Best for seats that run overnight against your day.
Latin America
Covers a full US working day
A third more expensive for the same role, and worth it whenever the job means talking to people live.
South Africa
A full European day, into US mornings
The strongest English of the three and famously low turnover. The usual answer for Singapore and EU-facing teams.
Our commitment
If the three aren't right, you owe us nothing.
Three candidates within ten working days of agreeing the role. If none of them reaches a second interview, the spec and the budget did not match what the market bears — and we should have caught it on the scoping call. We re-scope with you, or we stop and refund the $500.
- Shortlist or refund
- 10 working days
- Free replacement
- 6 months
- At risk before you meet anyone
- $500
It is a short leash on purpose. It keeps us honest about which searches we take.
Questions
The things founders ask first.
What does the person themselves cost?
Between $700 and $5,000 a month depending on role and region, paid by you directly to them. Support and admin seats usually land between $700 and $1,500; specialists between $1,500 and $3,000. You get a realistic band on the scoping call, before you commit to anything.
Why you and not one of the bigger agencies?
The large shops charge 25–35% of first-year salary and will not tell you the number until you have sat through a call. We publish the fee, the turnaround and the exact list of roles we will not take. You also get the people who ran the Pathway Solutions and Emerald Lane searches, rather than whoever on the bench is free that week. If what you want is a name-brand invoice, we are the wrong choice.
Why are your fees below the market rate?
Because a flat fee that undercuts a percentage shop wins us more searches than a bigger invoice on any one of them. These are introductory rates covering the next ten hires; after that they go to $5,000, $7,500 and $10,000. If you hire before then, your rate stays where it is on every hire after.
Who employs them?
You do. Most clients engage people as full-time contractors; some run them through a payroll platform they already use. We are not an employer of record and we take no cut of anyone's salary — which is exactly why there is no monthly fee.
How are candidates vetted?
Every shortlisted candidate has been interviewed by us, tested against a task that mirrors the actual job, and reference-checked with a previous manager. You get a written summary of where each one is strong and where they are not — including how they actually use AI in the work, which we watch rather than take on trust.
What if we hire someone and it doesn't work out?
Tell us within six months and we run the search again at no cost.
Can they work our hours?
Yes. Candidates are briefed on the working hours before they ever reach your shortlist, so nobody accepts a schedule they cannot keep. Which region we search depends on how much live overlap the role needs.
Do you do executive or engineering search?
No. We fill defined seats under $5,000 a month with no direct reports. It is a narrow promise, and it is the reason the ten-day turnaround holds.
How soon can you start?
Same week. The ten working days start the moment we have agreed the scope.
Start here
Tell us the role.
Two minutes, three short steps. You will get back the salary band it takes to hire this seat well — and an honest answer on whether we are the right people for it — before you spend anything.