# Andrew Yan

> Andrew Yan is the co-founder and CEO of AthenaHQ, a Y Combinator-backed San Francisco startup building tools to help brands get discovered inside AI answers from ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity. A former Google Search product manager who also worked at DeepMind, the US Army Lab and Vimeo, he finished a Columbia degree in computer science and math in three years. Before tech, he was a touring jazz saxophonist who played in the band that inspired the Oscar-winning film Whiplash.

- **Role:** Co-Founder & CEO at AthenaHQ
- **Organizations:** AthenaHQ, Google, DeepMind, Vimeo, DEVCOM-DAC (US Army Lab), Quantime, Almaworks, Columbia University
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** B.A. in Computer Science and Mathematics, Columbia University
- **Known for:** Co-founded AthenaHQ, a Y Combinator (W25) generative engine optimization platform, Raised $2.2M seed funding with backers including Y Combinator, FCVC, Red Bike Capital, Amino Capital, and angels Eli Schwartz and Ashley Stirrup, Grew AthenaHQ to 80+ companies including Coupons.com, Checkr, Artisan and Ollie

## Career timeline

- **2020** — Built E-Insights e-sports analytics platform; won Best E-Sports Hack
- **2021** — Honorable Mention, Mathematical Contest in Modeling, for modeling invasive hornet spread
- **Earlier career** — Cybersecurity research on ML attack surfaces at DEVCOM-DAC (US Army Lab)
- **Earlier career** — Built content-moderation microservice at Vimeo in Go/Docker/MySQL
- **Google era** — Associate Product Manager on Google Search information acquisition; also Google Drive and Google Cloud
- **DeepMind era** — Worked on DeepMind's generative media team
- **2025** — Co-founded AthenaHQ with Alan Yao; joined Y Combinator W25 batch
- **2025-06** — AthenaHQ raised $2.2M seed and launched from stealth

## Achievements

- Co-founded AthenaHQ, a Y Combinator (W25) generative engine optimization platform
- Raised $2.2M seed funding with backers including Y Combinator, FCVC, Red Bike Capital, Amino Capital, and angels Eli Schwartz and Ashley Stirrup
- Grew AthenaHQ to 80+ companies including Coupons.com, Checkr, Artisan and Ollie
- Former Google Search product manager on the information acquisition team
- Completed a Columbia B.A. in computer science and math in three years
- Performed jazz at Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, Abbey Road Studios and the American Museum of Natural History
- Played in the band that inspired the Oscar-winning film Whiplash

## Latest updates

- **2025-06** — AthenaHQ raised $2.2M seed and launched publicly out of stealth, reporting 80+ customers.
- **2025-05** — Featured in the interview 'How AI is Changing Product Discovery: A Conversation with AthenaHQ's Andrew Yan.'

## Links

- Website: https://andrewyan.xyz/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-yan-200/
- Twitter/X: https://x.com/andrewyan200
- GitHub: https://github.com/andrewyan200
- YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N5DUqlvfPS0
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andrewyan__

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/andrew-yan
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-25