Filip Pesek Built DonnaPro After a Decade of Delegation Mistakes — Now He Helps CEOs Avoid Them

Filip Pesek has spent years refining that belief into a company. DonnaPro is the result: a premium executive assistant agency that places thinking partners who arrive ready to act because the infrastructure behind them is already in place.

The 2,500-Page Library That Runs Every Executive Assistant Placement at DonnaPro

Over 2,500 pages of frameworks, training materials, debriefs, operational memos, and know-how form the foundation of every placement. Every executive assistant who joins DonnaPro doesn’t just receive training; they enter a system that has been built, tested, and refined over years of matching founders with the right support.

The goal is a specific shift: from reactive task-executor to proactive thinking partner.

“When an assistant understands why a task matters, what ‘good’ looks like, and where they have freedom to make decisions, they stop waiting for instruction and start thinking ahead,” explains Filip. “That shift from reactive task-executor to proactive thinking partner is what separates our model from the freelance marketplace approach most founders default to.”

It’s also why DonnaPro measures success differently.

“Not by how many assistants we place,” Filip says. “By how much time our clients actually get back. The number we’re proud of isn’t in our marketing, it’s in the calendars of founders who wake up and finally get to work on what matters.”

The Delegation Gap: Why Your Calendar Still Looks Like This

The biggest misconception about hiring an executive assistant is that it’s plug-and-play.

“People assume they can write a job post, hire someone from a freelance marketplace, and immediately get time back,” says Filip. “In reality, doing it properly requires a significant investment of time. There is recruitment, interviewing, onboarding, training, ramp-up, ongoing management, and a real possibility that the hire still won’t work out.”

The pattern is familiar. A founder hires someone competent. The calendar doesn’t clear. The emails don’t slow down. The reason is simple: hiring someone competent is only the beginning. Without the context, structure, and trust that lets them act independently, the founder ends up managing the assistant more than the assistant manages their time.

There’s a phrase that tends to stick with people and is often cited by Filip and his team: “If you don’t have an assistant, you are an assistant.”

The idea is uncomfortable but accurate. When no one is handling the layer of work that keeps a business running — scheduling, inbox management, project follow-ups, research, preparation — the founder absorbs it. And that absorption has a cost: not just financially, but strategically. Every hour spent managing tasks is an hour not spent on vision, growth, and the work only the founder can do.

Good delegation requires something most founders haven’t built: a structure that lets someone else think on their behalf.

“The goal isn’t to find someone who can read your mind from day one,” Filip says. “The goal is to build enough trust, context, and structure that over time they can think ahead, make decisions, and remove work from your plate without needing constant direction.”

A lot of founders eventually realize something: they don’t want to manage an assistant. They want to use one. That realization typically arrives after months of frustration, wasted recruitment costs, and the understanding that hiring someone was only the beginning.

DonnaPro was built for that moment.

Why Founders Who Skip Professional Support Are Paying More Than They Think

The numbers are worth examining.

A full-time executive assistant in the UK runs north of £8,000 per month once salary, employer contributions, equipment, office space, sick leave, and overtime are factored in. Add one to three months of recruitment time, plus onboarding and training, and the real cost of a direct hire becomes clear.

It’s not the salary. It’s everything around it.

“With DonnaPro, you’ve absorbed that complexity before you even start,” Filip explains. “The vetting, the training, the support infrastructure, it’s all built into the model. Founders get a professional who arrives ready to contribute, backed by a team that makes sure the relationship stays strong.”

And it’s not just about cost. It’s about what the founder does with the time they get back.

When an executive assistant handles scheduling, inbox management, project follow-ups, research, and preparation, the founder gets their thinking time back. They get to work on the business, not just in it.

The Anti-Hype Founder

Photo credit: Filip Pesek

Filip Pesek has credentials that fit neatly into a different kind of story. He’s the founder of two companies, the author of the best-selling book Pisma Za Leona, and a founder who has spent nine years working across 110+ industries with over one million views on YouTube.

But the credentials aren’t the story. The system behind them is.

“I think founders are getting smarter,” Filip says. “They can spot the hype from a mile away. The people who are actually building something valuable aren’t talking about overnight success. They’re talking about systems.”

That anti-hype positioning runs through DonnaPro’s entire approach. No claims of magic. Just a tested, refined process built to deliver consistently over time.

“I don’t believe in overnight breakthroughs,” Filip says. “Anyone who attributes their success to a single moment is usually simplifying the story, selling something, or lying to themselves. For us, success came from doing many things well, consistently, over a long period of time.”

The delegation muscle works the same way. It doesn’t grow from a single hire or a single good month. It compounds. When the system is right, when the assistant is supported, when the founder learns to let go of enough control to let someone else own the execution.

The Mode of Operations Behind Every DonnaPro Placement

Every executive assistant placed through DonnaPro completes a six-stage selection process: multiple rounds of interviews, demo task assessments, reference checks, and personality evaluation. Once hired, they go through two weeks of intensive training before ever meeting a client. It’s not a marketplace transaction. It’s a placement backed by infrastructure.

Every Donna is also supported by a wider team: an account manager, quality manager, and IT support. Founders aren’t managing a solo freelancer. They’re working with a professional supported by a system designed to make them successful.

That system extends to how Donna’s work. DonnaPro’s EAs use AI tools strategically to multiply their effectiveness, not replace their judgment. They process information faster, draft better, and research deeper. But the thinking, the relationships, the context, that stays human.

“We’re very deliberate about that distinction,” Filip adds. “Founders aren’t hiring a bot. They’re hiring a thought partner who happens to use the best tools available.”