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Oceans places rigorously vetted business operations EAs with Fortune 500 backgrounds. Athena offers personal productivity assistants.
The top global founders and companies scale with Oceans.
Athena markets itself as a premium EA service with a highly selective hiring funnel. And for what it does — personal productivity support like calendar, travel, and inbox management — it's a solid option.
But if you're looking for more than a personal assistant, the comparison gets lopsided fast.
Oceans places rigorously vetted, university-educated professionals with Fortune 500 backgrounds into business operations roles — EA+, marketing, finance, ops — backed by a Pod Leader, Account Manager, and the infrastructure to scale into a full offshore team. Our EAs are AI-trained from day one, complete a month-long in-person training program before placement, and support a 2:1 executive ratio that effectively halves your per-executive cost.
Same category. Very different product.
At-a-Glance: Oceans vs. Athena
The bottom line: Athena gives you a capable personal assistant. Oceans gives you a business operations partner with room to grow into a team.
What You're Actually Getting for Your Money
Athena charges $3,600/month (month-to-month) or approximately $3,000/month if you commit to an annual contract ($36,000/year). For that, you get a dedicated 1:1 EA focused on personal productivity — calendar management, travel booking, inbox triage, and scheduling.
Oceans starts at $3,000/month based on role and seniority. For that, you get:
• A university-educated professional with corporate experience and international credentials
• AI workflow training built into the role — your EA creates systems, not just task lists
• A Pod Leader who actively oversees your Diver's output and professional growth
• An Account Manager who helps you scale strategically as your needs evolve
• A 2:1 executive ratio — one Diver supports two executives, effectively cutting your per-executive cost to ~$1,500/month
• A clear path to expand beyond EA work into marketing, finance, and operations without switching providers
Put differently: Athena charges $3,600/month for a personal assistant working 1:1. Oceans starts at $3,000/month for a business operations professional with a support layer, AI training, and the ability to scale into a full team.
The price is comparable. What you get for it is not.
The Core Difference: Business Operations EA vs. Personal Productivity Assistant
This distinction matters more than anything else in this comparison.
Athena is built for personal executive productivity. Their website, playbooks, and service model center on helping busy founders and executives manage their personal workload — calendar, travel, inbox, scheduling, and day-to-day logistics. They do this well, and if that's all you need, it works.
Oceans is built for business operations. Our EAs manage cross-functional projects, coordinate teams, build operational systems, track deliverables across departments, produce reporting, and create the documentation and SOPs that make your business run more efficiently. They're trained in AI workflows from day one — not as a supplementary perk, but as a core part of how they work.
Where this shows up in practice:
• Athena EA: Manages your calendar, books travel, triages your inbox, schedules meetings, handles personal admin
• Oceans EA: Runs your weekly ops cadence, manages vendor relationships, builds dashboards and reporting, coordinates marketing and finance deliverables, creates SOPs, automates repetitive workflows using AI
Both are valuable. But one caps out at personal productivity. The other grows with your business.
Talent Quality: How Each Provider Selects, Trains, and Prepares EAs
Oceans: 6-Stage Vetting, Fortune 500 Backgrounds, Month-Long In-Person Training
We recruit from a pool of university-educated professionals — many with credentials from internationally recognized institutions and corporate experience at organizations like Ogilvy, KPMG, and other Fortune 500 companies. These aren't entry-level virtual assistants. They're experienced professionals with the communication skills, business judgment, and work ethic to operate as genuine extensions of your team.
Our selection process has six stages: language proficiency, technical skills, behavioral interviews, third-party assessments, personality alignment, and work-style fit. Fewer than 5% of applicants make it through.
Every candidate who clears selection then completes a month-long in-person training program before being placed with any client. Training covers AI workflow tools, communication standards, proactive execution frameworks, and the systems that make our EA+ model effective from day one.
The result: an 86% first-match success rate — meaning the vast majority of clients are paired with the right Diver on the first try. And if it's not the right fit, rematching is free.
Athena: High-Volume Funnel, Remote Onboarding
Athena markets a "top 0.5% of 300,000+ applicants" stat. That's an attention-grabbing number, but it's worth understanding what it means in practice. Athena is screening for personal productivity capabilities — calendar management, travel booking, inbox handling. That's a narrower skill set than what Oceans requires, where candidates must demonstrate business operations competency, cross-functional coordination, and the ability to handle complex, multi-stakeholder work.
Athena's EAs are primarily based in the Philippines and Africa, with training and onboarding managed remotely by Athena's internal team.
The key difference: Oceans invests in a month-long in-person training program before placement. Athena handles onboarding remotely. Both can produce good EAs — but the depth of preparation is different, and it shows up in the complexity of work each EA can handle from day one.
How It Works Day to Day
Work Structure and Coverage
What You Can Hire — and How Far You Can Scale
This is where the comparison gets most one-sided. Athena is a 1:1 personal EA service. If you outgrow that scope — or if your needs extend beyond personal productivity from day one — you'll need a different provider. Oceans is built to start with one hire and scale into a full offshore team across functions.
How Each Provider Protects Your Results
Oceans builds in multiple layers:
• Before placement: 6-stage selection → month-long in-person training → AI workflow certification
• During engagement: Pod Leader actively monitors quality and coaches your Diver. Account Manager helps you scale intentionally and adjust scope as your business evolves.
• If something's off: 86% first-match success rate, with free rematching if needed. Your Pod Leader and Account Manager ensure continuity during any transition.
Athena relies on:
• A selective hiring funnel (self-reported 0.5% acceptance)
• Remote onboarding and management infrastructure
• Security controls including managed devices and policies
• Temporary EA replacement coverage when your primary EA is unavailable
Athena's security posture (managed devices, formal policies) is a genuine strength worth noting — particularly if you're delegating sensitive personal financial or scheduling tasks.
But in terms of depth of quality infrastructure — selection rigor, training investment, ongoing oversight, and structural redundancy — Oceans operates at a different level.
Which Service Fits Your Business?
Oceans is the right fit if you need:
• A business operations EA who can manage projects, coordinate teams, and own real outcomes — not just personal admin
• AI-trained professionals who build systems and automate workflows, not just complete task lists
• A 2:1 executive ratio that doubles your coverage and halves your per-exec cost
• Pod Leader oversight and Account Manager support from day one
• A path to scale into a full offshore team across marketing, finance, and ops — without switching providers
• University-educated talent with Fortune 500 backgrounds and a month-long in-person training investment
Athena may be the right fit if you need:
• A dedicated personal productivity assistant for calendar, travel, and inbox
• A straightforward 1:1 EA model with published pricing ($3,600/month or ~$3,000 annual)
• Formalized security controls and managed device policies
• A simpler engagement without plans to scale beyond personal support
The honest take: If all you need is someone to manage your calendar and book flights, Athena does that. But most businesses that reach the point of hiring an executive assistant quickly discover they need more — project management, team coordination, operational systems, reporting. Oceans is built for that trajectory, and you won't need to switch providers when your needs grow.
Frequently Asked Questions
What's the biggest difference between Oceans and Athena?
Scope and depth. Athena is a personal productivity EA — calendar, travel, inbox, scheduling. Oceans is a business operations platform: project management, cross-functional coordination, AI-enabled execution, and a path to scale into marketing, finance, and ops. If your needs go beyond personal admin, Oceans delivers significantly more.
How does Oceans' talent compare to Athena's "top 0.5%" claim?
Athena screens for personal productivity skills from a large global applicant pool. Oceans runs a 6-stage selection process with third-party assessments, accepts fewer than 5% of applicants, and requires every hire to complete a month-long in-person training program before placement. Our talent comes from university-educated backgrounds with Fortune 500 experience — and we measure outcomes: an 86% first-match success rate.
Is Athena cheaper than Oceans?
No. Athena charges $3,600/month (month-to-month) or ~$3,000/month on an annual commitment — for a 1:1 personal assistant. Oceans starts at $3,000/month and includes a Pod Leader, Account Manager, AI-trained EA, and a 2:1 executive ratio that effectively halves the per-executive cost. At comparable or lower pricing, Oceans delivers more infrastructure, broader capabilities, and better economics.
Where are Oceans and Athena EAs based?
Oceans recruits university-educated professionals with Fortune 500 backgrounds and international credentials. Athena's EAs are primarily based in the Philippines and Africa.
Can I scale beyond one EA with either service?
With Athena, scaling means adding separate EA memberships — each a standalone 1:1 engagement. With Oceans, you can add Divers across functions (marketing, finance, operations) and build a full offshore team under one provider with consistent quality, management, and infrastructure.
How fast can I get started?
Both services can typically get you matched within about two weeks. Oceans then runs a structured 90-day integration runway — not because setup takes 90 days, but because that optimization period is what turns a good hire into a high-performing long-term partner.
