Athena is different in two ways. First, our mission is a win-win for you and your remote Executive Assistant. With Athena, you'll form one-to-one partnerships where your goals become your Assistant’s to help you reach your highest potential. And your Assistant will access an incredible career opportunity not readily available for them locally. Second, your dedicated Assistant is more than just a one-off task taker. You'll leverage significant impact across your career and reach new levels of fulfillment, health, and stronger relationships. The goal of an Athena Assistant partnership is complete integration into the landscape of your life.

We hire and train the world's best Executive Assistants. We start with the top 1% of applicants, perform thorough background and reference checks, and provide ongoing training and education, so your Assistant continuously improves their skills. Every Assistant has a personal coach and an extensive network of peers they can rely on to answer their questions and conquer almost any obstacle. And to take additional work off your plate, your Assistant is employed through Athena and receives fair compensation, benefits, and more.

Yes, Athena teaches you how to delegate like the best in the world. Our Playbook Library is stacked with inspiration designed to supercharge the partnership with your Executive Assistant, sharpen your delegation skills, and take back more time. Playbooks use real-world experiences tested by delegators and their Assistants.

‍Explore the Library

We have an incredible employer reputation and receive nearly 1000 EA applications daily. Of which only 1% of applicants are accepted. Every Assistant undergoes our rigorous recruitment process. We screen each candidate for soft skills and enormous potential. Before being eligible to be partnered with you, they must take personality, cognitive, and English tests before undergoing immersive training on real-world tasks, including calendar, travel, and inbox management

Your Assistant undergoes extensive training, including remote classroom work, apprenticeship, shadow sessions with Athena leaders and high-performing, experienced Assistants. They also receive ongoing, one-to-one mentorship from their operations manager and continuing education to elevate their skill sets.

Our onboarding process lays the foundation for a long-term successful partnership with your Athena Assistant. You’ll spend 2-5 hours with our team in onboarding and delegation coaching calls as you prepare to launch your partnership. Once you start your partnership, you’ll meet monthly with your Assistant’s manager, and you should prepare to invest time daily with your Assistant.

When you sign your contract you’ll be added to the onboarding queue. This queue varies from a few days to a few weeks depending on our current demand, Assistant availability, and the ideal start date you specify. Once you reach the front of the queue you’ll have your Discovery Call, which marks the beginning of your onboarding. After your Discovery Call you’ll begin your partnership with your Assistant in about 2 weeks!

Athena's leadership has experienced 20,000+ Assistant-Member partnerships over the past 10+ years. We've learned that the most successful partnerships are when clients fully invest in onboarding their Assistant to transfer context effectively. Based on these insights, we've designed your onboarding journey to maximize the likelihood of creating a thriving, productive partnership. The work you put in is worth the investment.

The onboarding commitment period refers to your first three months of service. This period is critical to the success of your partnership. When you sign your contract you are committing to investing fully in this critical period without cancelation. During this time your Assistant and their coach will guide you through Athena’s proprietary curriculum to ensure you’re set up for success, you’ll have opportunities to engage with our delegation coaches to increase your skills, and you’ll meet with the team monthly to monitor your progress.

Athena staff are with you every step of the way. Your Delegation Expert guides through your discovery call, establishing a list of your immediate needs to pair you with the right Assistant. Next, you'll meet your Client Partnership Manager, who will champion your evolving needs throughout your Athena Membership. Additionally, your Assistant has a 1:1 coach whose primary goal is to support their growth so they continue to thrive in their role.

Our onboarding is designed to focus your attention, optimize your time, and manage your presence. You’ll take incremental (but meaningful) steps toward teaching your EA to become an extension of you. After that, the sky’s the limit for what your Assistant can take on.

By the end of your first 100 days, you’ll have:
✔️ A daily overhead view of your top goals, priorities, and commitments
✔️ A spotless inbox with zero unread emails and personalized, ready-to-send pre-drafts
✔️ A streamlined full-life calendar engineered to help you achieve more and live better
✔️ A seamless travel experience, wherever your leisure or business itineraries take you

No, your Assistant works with you and no one else. We believe in the power of a one-to-one relationship to maximize leverage in your professional and personal life.

No. Athena offers one-to-one, dedicated partnerships. Your Assistant will occasionally support colleagues and loved ones (organizing a team offsite or family trip), but you are their one-and-only delegator. We do not allow sharing because your Athena Assistant is unlike any other direct report—their primary focus is to help you achieve goals big and small so you can live a fuller life.

Our Assistants are located overseas but work on a schedule determined by your needs. Whether your Assistant works during your time zone or asynchronously is up to you.

We recommend a fixed working schedule with daily overlap between you and your Assistant, especially at the beginning of the partnership. Most Assistants start one hour before their client to complete inbox sweeps and brief them at the top of the day. As the partnership evolves, you can shift to whatever schedule works best for you and your Assistant. Some clients build a team of Assistants to increase coverage and capacity.

Every Assistant works 40 hours per week (five business days) with two consecutive days off. You can discuss your preferences with your Assistant.

Some weeks are busier than others. But if your Assistant consistently works more than 40 hours a week, we recommend bringing on an additional Assistant.

Our most successful partnerships provide real-time, direct feedback on a daily cadence. During onboarding, we'll check in regularly, facilitate feedback sessions to get you up and running and send out regular surveys to ensure your partnership is progressing.

Substantial leverage is born from long-term partnerships between a Member and an Assistant. But sometimes, a partnership doesn't work out. If this happens, your Client Success Operations Manager will address any concerns or performance issues and work to resolve them. We will partner you with a different Assistant if things don't improve.

You will have a dedicated, full-time Assistant at $3,000 per month. That price includes training and continued education for your Assistant and best practices for you.

Your Assistant is employed and paid through Athena. They also receive health insurance, pet insurance (one of our most loved benefits), social perks, and mental health support.

Athena offers the following to every Assistant:
- Continuous training and programs for upskilling
- Best-in-class Health Maintenance Organization (HMO) for the Assistant and their family
- Pet reimbursement program
- Free COVID-19 vaccines and boosters for the Assistant and their family
- Established communication channels to share things they've learned, exchange best practices, and celebrate achievements
- Mental health support

Your contract stipulates that your Assistant is entitled to 20 days of paid time off per year (typically used for holidays, personal events, etc.). They will seek approval from Athena first. This process is in place because each type of leave has corresponding qualifications, conditions, and limitations. If Athena approves the PTO, the Assistant will then request your approval. When your Assistant takes PTO, your monthly payment remains the same. If your Assistant needs longer extended leave, we will coordinate the necessary training, shadow sessions, and meetings to ensure your life-work flow isn't disrupted.

We take security, privacy, and confidentiality very seriously. We have a Chief Information Security Officer in place, and in addition, every Assistant receives a comprehensive third-party background check, character references, and previous employers are contacted. Security and privacy rules are reviewed regularly during and after training to ensure your Assistant is aligned with all precautions. Information Security Awareness Training is required annually for all employees. Learn more about our Security Measures.

Yes, your Assistant can sign a company NDA. Your Assistant also signs a contract with Athena that covers client confidentiality.

Every Assistant receives an Athena-issued MacBook at the start of a partnership. They are not permitted to use personal devices.

Athena provides every Assistant with a MacBook, NordVPN, and OpenPhone.

Mobile Device Management software is installed on the laptop of every Assistant. It enforces security measures such as hard drive encryption, strong password setting, regular password updates, device lockouts, OS updates, location tracking, and more.

Yes, we provide your Assistant with a US phone number through OpenPhone.

We use a Mobile Device Management (MDM) solution deployed on all company-provided laptops to enforce security policies and ensure consistent configuration. This includes:

- Device Encryption: Devices are encrypted to maintain data integrity and confidentiality.
- Software updates: All devices are regularly updated to protect against vulnerabilities.
- Remote data wipe: In case of theft or loss, we can remotely erase data to prevent unauthorized access.
- Password complexity: We enforce strong password requirements to keep devices secure.
- Two-factor authentication: We add an extra layer of protection through 2FA, which is also applied across all company systems and applications to ensure that only authorized individuals can access sensitive information.

We deploy an Extended Detection and Response (XDR) solution to enhance threat detection and response capabilities. This provides real-time protection against malware and other threats on employee devices.

Athena follows and regularly updates comprehensive information security policies to meet industry standards. We also ensure our protocols align with client policies and comply with all relevant data protection laws. These policies cover confidentiality, integrity, and availability of our information systems.

Athena has a robust Information Security Awareness Program that all employees must participate in. Through this program, we:

1. Educate our team on the latest security practices and threats.
2. Encourage quick reporting of any suspicious activity or incidents.
3. Train employees to recognize and respond to phishing and other social engineering attacks.

To further demonstrate our commitment to data security, we are pursuing SOC 2 Type 1 attestation, with an audit planned for Q2 2025 and completion expected by December 2025.