The Team Behind AthenaHQ

Built by leaders from Google Search, DeepMind, and ServiceNow.

“AI is fundamentally changing how people discover brands.

We built AthenaHQ to help businesses thrive in this new world, giving them the tools to see, act, and win on AI Search”

Andrew Yan, CEO

Andrew Yan

CEO

Former Google Search PM, DeepMind alum

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Andrew Yan

CEO

Former Google Search PM who helped define the future of AI-powered search with Google and DeepMind. B.A. in Computer Science & Math from Columbia University.

Today, helping global brands adapt to AI Search disruption.

Alan Yao

CTO

Formerly at ServiceNow

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Alan Yao

CTO

Former ServiceNow platform engineer and founder of Cribbly, an AI property management tool. Building with GPT‑2 since 2020. Studied Computer Science and Statistics at UIUC.

Has mass-deployed Claude Code agents to every corner of the codebase. Runs daily sauna standups; attendance is optional but discouraged.

Ganesh Asapu

Member of Technical Staff

Former ML engineer at Cohere, Voiceflow

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Ganesh Asapu

Member of Technical Staff

Former ML engineer at Cohere, Voiceflow, and Wisedocs. Built SOTA LLMs, shipped AI agents into finance, healthcare, and insurance, and somehow still likes datasets. On leave from the University of Toronto to build AthenaHQ.

James Moreno

Founding GTM

Formerly at Reputation.com

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James Moreno

Founding GTM

Formerly at Reputation.com, where he helped brands and agencies optimize their public image and digital presence, with a focus on reputation management that drives growth and protects brand equity.

Grant Harvey

Founding GTM

D1 athlete turned GEO strategist

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Grant Harvey

Founding GTM

Grant enjoys long walks on the golf course when he is not helping folks crush their GEO goals. He will always find a way to tell you he played D1 college sport and how much his back hurts. When people ask him where he went to college, he just shrugs his shoulders and says a small school in Boston.

Natã Blum

Member of Technical Staff

Willson Liu

Operations

Previously in Private Equity (NYC)

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Willson Liu

Operations

Will always talk about how he prefers Windows over Mac because of Excel shortcuts.

When asking Willson what he does at AthenaHQ, he often responds with 'What do I NOT do at AthenaHQ?' Willson grew up in Vegas and will always talk about how hot it gets in the summer, and how it was so different from his snowy days at Cornell. The hot summer days trained Willson to not sweat in the sauna.

Matthew Arnold

Member of Technical Staff

Ryan Jin

Member of Technical Staff

Guido Curcio

Member of Technical Staff

Shashi Gowda

Member of Technical Staff

Want to Join the Team?

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Our Investors

We are grateful to be backed by industry-leading investors and advisors.

Firms

Founders and Leaders From

Our Advisors

We are fortunate to be guided by industry veterans and thought leaders.

Rachel Ten Brink

Co-Founder, former CMO Scentbird.

Former marketing exec at Estée Lauder and Bacardi

Ashley Stirrup

Former CMO of Algolia

Ethelbert Williams

Head of Retail Media Search & DTC Marketing, PepsiCo

Eli Schwartz

SEO leader, advisor to Coinbase, WordPress, Tinder, Shutterstock, and more