Athena has earned its reputation. Its Philippine executive assistants are well trained, the delegation playbooks are genuinely useful, and plenty of founders swear by the service. But it is not the right fit for everyone, and the two reasons come up again and again:
Before the list, three questions that decide which provider fits:
Who manages the person? This is the biggest hidden difference. Some providers recruit and hand off - you train, manage, and QA. Others, including Athena and Talent Trellis, own performance management. If you wanted another direct report, you would have hired locally.
For many founders, yes - the assistants are strong and the delegation coaching is real. The question is whether comparable quality is available at a lower price without a 12-month commitment. We believe it is; a two-week free trial is a low-risk way to test that claim.
Wing Assistant, at roughly $699-$999 per month for a general VA. The trade-off is more junior talent and more of your own training time.
Talent Trellis covers seven managed service lines - EAs, support, trust & safety, AI data operations, engineering, design, and marketing - so one provider scales across roles.