Transitioning from a freelancer to a full-fledged agency owner is a fundamental shift in mindset. It requires moving from executing tasks to designing systems, empowering leaders, and taking accountability for client growth.
On an episode of the Scale You Podcast, hosted by Le-an Lai Lacaba—co-founder and CEO of an Executive Assistant Agency, 2xYou—sat down with Penn Camille Lat, co-CEO and founder of Virtua Solutions Outsourcing. Moving from her early days in cold calling and customer support to leading a high-performing remote agency, Penny shared how her team supports SaaS startups and global enterprises across the US, Canada, EU, and Australia through values-driven operational excellence.
From Freelance EA to Startup Operations Leader
Penny’s entry into agency ownership was built on a foundation of frontline experience. With a background in broadcast communication from the University of the Philippines, she spent over 11 years in sales, appointment setting, and account management before securing a role as the first remote team member and fifth hire for a tech SaaS startup.
“I was looking at their support tickets and saw no one was handling them. I told them, ‘If you aren't going to handle it, I can take it on since I'm already demoing the software.' That's how it started.” — Penny
Her role expanded rapidly:
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Documentation & Knowledge Base Creation: Leveraging her communication background to document instructional processes.
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Team Building & Performance Management: Scaling the remote Philippine team from 1 to 15 members, handling hiring, KPIs, and operational management.
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Direct Leadership: Working closely with the onshore executive team to streamline customer support and lead generation.
Recognizing her success, an onshore customer success manager referred Penny to another startup. Realizing the broader potential of her operational model, Penny partnered with Francis Quinto to launch Virtua Solutions Outsourcing.
The Growth Journey: Freelancer to Business Owner
Transitioning from freelancing to agency leadership requires stepping away from solo execution and building sustainable infrastructure.
Key Milestones in Scaling the Agency:
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The Mindset Shift: Recognizing the agency as a standalone business rather than a collection of freelance side projects once the team reached 30 members.
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Delegating Internal Operations: Hiring internal support for recruitment, screening, marketing, and finance to free up executive bandwidth.
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Appointing Functional Leaders: Bringing in dedicated managers for HR, compliance, and client operations who bring specialized expertise.
“The switch really is having a team that knows their area of expertise enough that you don't even know what they're talking about at some points. You know the overview, but the nitty-gritty details—they are the experts.” — Penny
Deep Client Collaboration: The “Nosy Divas” Approach
Rather than operating as a conventional call center focused strictly on basic metrics like 30-second chat response times, Virtua Solutions Outsourcing positions itself as a strategic partner.
Penny and her co-founder playfully refer to their team as “nosy divas”—a title that reflects their proactive approach to client operations:
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Cross-Departmental Visibility: Understanding how marketing campaigns, development updates, and product changes impact customer support.
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Information Cascading: Establishing structural communication lines—such as dedicated Slack channels and feature-release calendars—between onshore developers and remote support teams.
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Proactive Problem Solving: Designing support systems tailored directly to a client's annual growth goals.
This collaborative framework allowed the agency to expand from serving early-stage SaaS startups to supporting global corporations, regional brokerages, and enterprise-level software providers.
Cultivating Team Culture and Sustainable Impact
As a solo parent, Penny built her agency around core values of continuous learning, psychological safety, and human-centered leadership.
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Supportive Environment: Balancing high performance standards with open feedback, humor, and team camaraderie.
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Empowering Team Growth: Investing in team development—such as supporting team members advancing their professional certifications (CPAs) and taking on leadership roles.
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Tangible Life Impact: Celebrating real-world milestones with team members, from securing home deposits to purchasing personal transportation.
For Penny, true business impact stems from empowering individuals with the resources, skills, and confidence to improve their lives and expand their opportunities.
Watch the full episode here.
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