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We help you plug highly-skilled and vetted global talent into your business, so you can focus on Building Brilliantly.
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See how talent quality, pricing, scalability, and support models stack up for your business.
The top global founders and companies scale with Oceans.
Choosing between Oceans and Belay Solutions comes down to what matters most in how you want support to work: the caliber and cost of talent, how you collaborate, how quickly you can scale, and how much structure you want around the relationship.
At Oceans, we place university-educated professionals with Fortune 500 backgrounds into EA+ roles—with a path to scale into marketing, finance, and operations. Belay is known for U.S.-based professionals paired with a guided matching process and ongoing support through their client success framework.
Both remove traditional hiring headaches. The difference is the operating model—and what you get for the investment.
Quick Snapshot: Oceans vs. Belay Solutions
Pricing: What You'll Actually Invest
How Belay Typically Positions Pricing
Belay's pricing is consultation-based rather than a simple posted rate. In practice, cost depends on:
• The service line (assistant vs. marketing vs. accounting)
• The complexity of the work
• Contracted hours and support expectations
As a U.S.-based talent service, Belay's pricing naturally reflects U.S. labor market rates. They include a guided onboarding experience and ongoing client success involvement as part of the engagement.
How Oceans Handles Pricing
At Oceans, pricing starts at $3,000 per month based on role and seniority. That investment includes:
• A university-educated professional with corporate-grade experience
• AI workflow training built into onboarding
• A Pod Leader who oversees quality
• An Account Manager who helps you scale
• A path to expand across functions without switching providers
We start with a 3-month trial, then move to a rolling agreement.
The practical takeaway: For similar or lower investment than U.S.-based services, Oceans provides professionals with strong academic credentials and corporate backgrounds—plus a built-in support infrastructure (Pod Leader + Account Manager) and a clear scaling path. It's not about "cheaper." It's about more value per dollar invested.
Talent Quality: Caliber, Credentials, and Where It Comes From
Oceans: University-Educated Professionals with Corporate Backgrounds
At Oceans, we recruit from a pool of university-educated professionals—many trained in the British-style education system and holding credentials from internationally recognized institutions. A meaningful portion bring corporate backgrounds at organizations like Ogilvy, KPMG, and other Fortune 500 companies, along with international work or study-abroad experience.
Every Diver completes a month-long in-person training program before placement—covering AI workflow tools, communication standards, and proactive execution frameworks. Our selection process accepts fewer than 5% of applicants.
This isn't about geography—it's about caliber. We source from a less-saturated talent market, which means access to experienced professionals who bring genuine business acumen at a fraction of comparable US costs.
And our AI advantage is tangible: when your EA is trained in AI workflows, they can turn recurring work into documented processes faster—so your support function becomes a compounding system, not just a person doing tasks.
Belay Solutions: U.S.-Based Talent Bench
Belay emphasizes a U.S.-based bench, which can appeal to leaders who prioritize same-timezone availability and U.S. cultural context when hiring an executive assistant. However, U.S.-based talent comes with U.S.-based pricing—plus Belay's service markup on top—which means you're paying a significant premium that doesn't automatically translate to stronger output or better results.
Belay's recruiting process and large bench allow for relatively quick matching, and they include guided onboarding as part of the engagement.
Collaboration Rhythm: How Work Feels Week to Week
Why this matters: Oceans' full-time model is built to maximize output—your Diver collaborates with you in real time *and* uses dedicated execution time to build systems, process deliverables, and move work forward independently. Belay's model offers same-timezone availability, but availability alone doesn't equal productivity. The question is whether you're paying for someone to be online, or someone to drive results.
Service Model: What You're Actually Buying
Oceans: EA+ Plus Team Buildout
At Oceans, executive support is a leverage function, not a task list. Our EA+ model is built around proactive execution—staying ahead of deadlines, reducing decision fatigue, and tightening your operating cadence.
What makes Oceans different is how naturally the model scales:
1. Start with an EA+ who stabilizes your calendar, inbox, meetings, and internal coordination
2. Add specialists as needed (marketing, finance, operations)
3. Build a dependable team without rebuilding your process every time you add a new hire
We include a dedicated integration success infrastructure to keep execution quality high as the relationship grows:
• Pod Leader: Oversees your Diver's work quality, provides ongoing coaching, and ensures standards stay consistent. They're the quality layer between you and your EA—catching issues before they reach you and helping your Diver level up continuously.
• Account Manager: Helps you scale intentionally—identifying when and how to add capacity, aligning new hires to your business goals, and ensuring your team buildout follows a real plan, not ad-hoc hiring.
• Structured 90-day integration: Defined projects, milestones, and goal-setting from the start so the relationship compounds rather than plateaus after onboarding.
Belay Solutions: Service-Line Based Outsourcing
Belay positions their offering as a staffed service with structured onboarding and ongoing support through their Client Success Consultant framework. You typically engage one of their service lines (assistant, accounting, marketing), and their support team stays involved to improve fit, process, and continuity.
That model works well if you want:
• Strong guardrails in the first 30 days
• A guided onboarding approach
• A process that feels less like "hiring" and more like plugging into a managed service
Vetting and Match Quality
Oceans: Precision Matching from an Exceptional Talent Pool
We run a 6-stage screening and matching process:
• Skill verification and third-party assessments
• Communication style evaluation
• Work ethic and personality alignment
• Role fit and operating tempo matching
Candidates are drawn from a pool of degree-holding professionals—many with Fortune 500 experience, team management backgrounds, or postgraduate credentials. Our selection process accepts fewer than 5% of applicants, and every hire completes a month-long in-person training program before placement.
The result: an 86% first-match success rate, with free rematching if needed, as demonstrated in our client case studies.
Belay Solutions: Selective Recruiting + Fast Matching
Belay emphasizes selective recruiting from a large U.S.-based bench, with Client Success Consultants actively involved in the match process. They're vocal about onboarding and helping clients get results within the first month—important if you want speed without chaos.
Practical takeaway: Oceans optimizes for long-term fit + scalability across functions with university-educated professionals (unlike broader platforms like Magic or Prialto). Belay optimizes for U.S.-based pairing + guided setup + service consistency.
Which One Should You Choose?
Choose Oceans if you want:
• University-educated professionals with Fortune 500 experience and international credentials
• An EA+ who thinks ahead and builds leverage, not just completes tasks
• AI-trained talent that increases output through faster research, automated processes, and documented SOPs
• A full-time (40 hours/week) model structured for both collaboration and deep execution
• The ability to scale into marketing, finance, and ops without vendor sprawl
• A long-term plan to build a multi-hire team (even 10+ roles)
• Pod Leader + Account Manager support included at every tier
Choose Belay Solutions if you want:
• U.S.-based talent as a firm requirement (and are comfortable with U.S. labor costs plus Belay's service markup)
• A guided onboarding experience with ongoing client success involvement
• Same-timezone, real-time collaboration as the default work style
• A service model that feels structured and managed from day one
• An established option among top virtual assistant services
• Support across assistant + accounting + marketing within defined service lines
• Fast matching with a process-oriented wrapper
If your goal is to build real operational leverage and scale across multiple functions over time, Oceans delivers exceptional talent with a built-in growth path—starting with an EA+ and expanding into a dependable team. Book a call to get started.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Oceans or Belay better if I want more than a traditional assistant?
If you're planning to expand beyond admin support into a broader team (marketing, finance, operations), Oceans is the stronger fit. Our model is designed for multi-role team buildout with university-educated professionals. Belay supports multiple needs through separate service lines (assistant, accounting, marketing), but each operates somewhat independently.
What's the biggest day-to-day difference in how support works?
With Oceans, your Diver works full-time (40 hours/week)—collaborating with you in real time and using dedicated execution time to build systems, process deliverables, and drive projects forward independently. With Belay, you get U.S.-based, same-timezone availability with structured check-ins—but at a higher price point that reflects U.S. labor costs plus Belay's service markup.
How quickly can I get started with each service?
Belay highlights fast matching and guided onboarding. Oceans gets you working with your Diver within about two weeks, then runs a structured 90-day integration runway—not because it takes 90 days to start, but because that optimization period turns a good hire into a high-performing long-term partnership. If speed alone is your priority, Belay may feel faster; if talent caliber and long-term scalability matter most, Oceans pays off within the first quarter.
Do both services help with marketing and finance tasks?
Yes, but differently. Oceans places specialized team members across marketing and finance as part of a broader team buildout under one talent framework. Belay offers marketing and accounting as distinct service lines with their own processes and support structures. For more guidance on outsourcing executive assistant work, we've created comprehensive resources.
What should I budget for each service?
Oceans ranges from starting at $3,000 per month based on role and seniority, with Pod Leader and Account Manager support included. Belay's pricing is consultation-based and reflects U.S. labor market rates, which typically means a higher baseline—especially as work becomes more specialized. For many businesses, Oceans delivers comparable or higher-caliber talent at a more efficient price point.
