Wikipedia
Zirtual, founded in 2011, is a privately held American company that provides virtual assistant services to professionals, entrepreneurs and small corporate teams. Zirtual is headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada, with an office in San Francisco, California.
The company employs over 400 virtual assistants, called “Zirtual Assistants” or ZAs, in 39 states, making it an all U.S.-based workforce, that serves clients in both the U.S. and internationally. Zappos.com CEO Tony Hsieh was a seed round investor and is an active board member and advisor to the company.
Zirtual is considered a part of the sharing economy, similar to ride-sharing services Uber and Lyft, car-sharing service Zipcar, and home-sharing service Airbnb. Zirtual assigns ZAs to serve multiple clients within their time zone to perform administrative tasks. Each client, however, interacts with one, dedicated assistant. ZAs perform duties such as: responding to emails, scheduling meetings and appointments, researching and ordering products, services and gifts, making travel arrangements, coordinating events, performing market research, and other tasks as requested.
Zirtual hires ZAs as full-time employees, rather than independent contractors, providing employment benefits such as health insurance, paid vacation, on-the-job training, growth incentives, and 401k program. This full-time employment model safeguards Zirtual against lawsuits related to employment status in the collaborative consumption industry, such as those faced by Uber and Lyft.