Velvet Ops · Strategic Operations

What I Do

Operations, elevated.

Strategic Operations

The backbone your business needs to grow without chaos. I build and manage the systems, workflows, and processes that keep everything moving, so you can lead from the front instead of fighting fires. Think of me as your Chief of Staff, without the full-time overhead.

Executive Assistance

Full-spectrum support for the investor, founder, or executive who needs their time back. Calendar management, inbox triage, event and travel planning, vendor coordination, and the thousand invisible tasks that drain your best hours. Handled with discretion, precision, and zero dropped balls.

The Velvet Touch

The service that makes people ask, "How did you know?" Curating your space, whether that's designing your office or refining a single room; personal styling consultations, thoughtfully curated gifts, handwritten notes, and all the high-touch details that build real relationships. In an age of automation, this is the differentiator people remember.

The Velvet Difference

"Let me organize your life and create space for you to fully live it. That's the Velvet Ops difference."

Handwritten Notes

Because a card in the mail still means more than a calendar invite. Every touch point is considered.

Curated Gifting

Not a generic gift basket. Gifts that say I actually paid attention, chosen for the person, not the occasion.

Styling & Spaces

How you show up matters, and so does where you work. From styling you for a board presentation to curating the office you walk into, I make sure both look the part and feel like you.

White-Glove Operations

The same care I bring to the personal details, I bring to your business. Everything handled with taste.

About

Precision with personality.

I started Velvet Ops because I believe great operations work is invisible until it isn't. When your systems run, your calendar is protected, and every client touchpoint feels considered, you're free to do the work only you can do.

I've spent years supporting investors, founders, and executives who move fast and expect excellence. What I bring that most virtual assistants don't: genuine taste, deep operational fluency, and the kind of attention to detail that turns clients into advocates.

I work with a small, select roster of clients. If you've ever sighed and thought, "I wish someone just handled this the right way," that's what I do.

Work With Me

Client Words

What they say.

Maria is a pleasure to work with. She once turned our entire office into a beautiful event venue for less than $500. Aside from the usual operational support, there were many occasions where she went out of her way to proactively do something to make my day better that wasn't even in her job description.

Maria Palma

General Partner, Unconstrained Capital

Maria is the rare mix of AI fluency with an analog sensibility, which is very often missing in today's world. She seamlessly blends the two and supports me in a way that can only be done by a high EQ human like her.

Dave Samuel

Founding General Partner, Freestyle Capital

Maria is the kind of partner every executive hopes to find. She understands how to create calm out of chaos — the systems, the people, the details, and all the small things that make a business and a leader run better. She is incredibly capable, deeply thoughtful, and brings genuine care to everything she does. Anyone who has the opportunity to work with her should take it.

Kelly Kovacs

General Partner, Zero Shot Fund & Founder, eaMafia

Let's Talk

Ready to operate at a different level?

I take on a limited number of clients. Let's find out if we're a fit.