Our Story

Disrupting the EA industry

For more than a decade, Base has placed exceptional executive assistants with the leaders who depend on them. The company runs on one conviction: a great EA is among the highest-impact hires a leader can make, and most companies have never had one.

How Base started

Paige McPheely and Casey Putschoegl founded Base in 2013, both new mothers, both certain the assistant role was badly misunderstood. They had each seen what the right EA does for a leader and a company, and they built Base to make that pairing repeatable.

Today, the proof of that idea runs the company. Sara Altuna joined Base as a contract executive assistant in 2018. She created one of Base’s most popular offerings, took on more of the business every year, became President, and in 2026 became CEO. An assistant now leads the company built to support them.

Our Mission

To optimize the way EAs and leaders work together

Through years of working with EAs, we deeply understand the pain points assistants face in their daily work – as well as the difficulties businesses experience when trying to hire and retain great EA talent. It’s our mission to digitize and modernize in this space, because assistants will never stop being problem solvers and strategic business partners.

What Base believes

The work of an assistant has always taken judgment, creativity, and problem-solving. AI raises the stakes. Used well, it gives a leader real time and focus back. Used carelessly, it creates a new kind of overload: more tools to run, more outputs to check, more small decisions to make. Base calls this AI admin debt, and the people best equipped to clear it are highly AI-literate EAs. That is what Base is building: the most AI-literate assistants in the market.

The proof

Placing and supporting executive assistants since 2013.

One of the most selective assessments in the industry. Roughly 2% of applicants make it through.

Meet the leadership team

Meet the experienced team working to equip assistants and business leaders everywhere.

Sara Altuna

Chief Executive Office

Sara joined Base as an executive assistant in 2018 and never left. She created Inbox Reset, worked across learning, talent, product, and strategy, became President in 2025, and now leads the company as CEO. She knows the EA role from the inside, and it shapes how Base serves both assistants and the leaders who rely on them.
/sara-altuna

Bence Somogyi

Director of Engineering

Bence leads engineering at Base, building the internal tools the team relies on every day and the AI systems behind the company’s next chapter.

Paige McPheely

Co-Founder and Executive Chair

Paige co-founded Base in 2013 and led it as CEO from its founding until 2026. She now serves as Executive Chair, focused on the company’s long-term strategy and its board. She is the author of Built to Breathe (October 2026), a book on leadership and sustainable performance.
/paigemcpheely

Casey Putschoegl

Co-Founder and Board Member

Casey co-founded Base in 2013 and serves on its board.
/casey-putschoegl

About Our Team

Helping leaders and assistants achieve more together

Our fully-remote team shares a passion for building solutions that help leaders find, leverage, and empower their assistants through innovative technology, professional growth, community, and beyond.

Join the team

Base is a fully remote team building the future of work for assistants and the leaders they support.