In this exclusive interview with CanadianSME Small Business Magazine, Fineas Tatar, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of Viva Executive Assistants, shares his transformative approach to talent acquisition and executive support. With a passion for helping ambitious leaders boost productivity, Fineas discusses how his innovative platform connects high-performing executive assistants with fast-growing companies, all while fostering economic mobility for women in Latin America. Through his work at Viva, Fineas is not only revolutionizing the way businesses leverage executive talent but also creating meaningful job opportunities that drive long-term social impact. He delves into the integration of AI to enhance productivity, the importance of building diverse, high-performing teams, and the key strategies businesses can implement to scale sustainably. Fineas’s insights offer valuable lessons for small and medium-sized businesses looking to optimize talent management and expand their growth potential.
Fineas Tatar is the co-founder and co-CEO of Viva Executive Assistants, a talent-as-a-service company that hires, trains, and matches high-performing executive assistants with hundreds of executives at fast growing companies like Notion, Glean, Groq, etc. He’s Romanian-Canadian, relentlessly customer-obsessed, and passionate about helping ambitious executives be more productive.
Your vision to empower over 1,000 women in Latin America is inspiring. How do you see this initiative impacting the broader business landscape, and what strategies are you implementing to achieve this goal?
By creating meaningful, well-paying remote roles for women in LatAm, we’re not just unlocking economic mobility—we’re also delivering a better, more scalable support model to fast-growing companies. It’s a win-win.
Our strategy is simple but intentional:
- Quality-first hiring – Talent is evenly distributed—opportunity is not. We believe that the Latin American region offers great talent and we vet for this excellence throughout the entire hiring process.
- Ongoing enablement – We invest in our EAs with structured training, coaching, and community and support along their journey.
- Tech and systems – We build infrastructure that makes matching, onboarding, and ongoing performance seamless.
Viva has experienced remarkable growth, scaling from 0 to 150 employees in just five years. What key factors contributed to this rapid expansion, and how do you maintain a strong company culture during such growth?
- Clear ICP, clear offering: From early on, we knew exactly who our service was intended for—busy execs at fast-growing tech companies—and what problem we were solving: giving them leverage through world-class EAs.
- Relentless focus on quality: We didn’t chase headcount. (Meaning we don’t grow just to grow, we want to be intentional about growing sustainably.) We chased outcomes, consistently placing EAs who make an exec’s life meaningfully easier in tangible terms that they can recognize. That built trust, and referrals.
- Mission that attracts top talent: The best people want to do meaningful work. Our social mission—creating 1,000+ meaningful career opportunities for women in LatAm—makes great people want to join and stay.
- As for culture: We treat it like a product. It’s intentional and measured, and we evolve it as we grow. We bake in rituals, feedback loops, and leadership training to make sure our values don’t get lost. Culture is something we build with purpose.
Your executive assistants are leveraging AI to enhance productivity. Can you elaborate on how AI is integrated into your services and what benefits or challenges you have observed in this process?
We integrate tools like ChatGPT, Zapier, Notion AI, etc. into core workflows: pre-meeting briefings, inbox triage, resume formatting, scheduling, research—you name it. The goal is simple: Eliminate the repetitive so EAs can focus on high-leverage work.
The benefits have been huge:
- 50%+ time saved on routine tasks
- Faster onboarding and execution for new EAs
- Better consistency in outputs like briefs and decks
We’ve invested heavily in training so our team knows when to lean on AI and when human intuition needs to lead.
Bottom line: AI helps our EAs move faster, but it’s their strategic thinking and relationship-building that make the impact stick long-term. We believe the future is EAs + AI and that’s what we’re building at Viva.
As a predominantly female team, how do you believe diverse leadership influences your approach to executive search and talent acquisition, and what lessons can other businesses learn from your model?
Because we’re a predominantly female team, we spot bias others might miss. We ask better questions, we push for transparency on role expectations, and we’re intentional about matching talent not just on skills, but on fit, values, and long-term growth potential.
It also impacts how we advocate. Our EAs aren’t pigeonholed into roles—they’re positioned as strategic partners from day one.
For other businesses, the lesson is simple: diversity drives better outcomes. It’s not a checkbox—it’s a competitive edge. You can’t build inclusive teams if your hiring lens isn’t shaped by a range of lived experiences.
As a leader in innovative talent solutions, what advice would you offer to small and medium-sized businesses seeking to build diverse, high-performing teams and drive sustainable growth through effective talent management?
Start with this: you don’t need a massive budget to build a world-class team—you need clarity, consistency, and courage.
For small and mid-sized businesses, here’s what I’d focus on:
- Don’t just chase résumés—look for people who learn fast, take ownership, and grow with the role. That’s how you build durable teams.
- Codify your culture early. Values shouldn’t live in a Notion doc. Bake them into how you act, interview, onboard, and promote.
- Source beyond your zip code. There’s untapped talent everywhere—especially in global markets. Our LATAM model proves you can build diverse, high-performing teams that are both cost-effective and wildly capable.
- Invest in enablement. You don’t need a full L&D department—just commit to giving people the tools, feedback, and context they need to win.
Sustainable growth starts with sustainable teams. If your talent strategy scales with your revenue goals, you’re already ahead of the curve.
