# Eric Olson

> Eric Olson is the co-founder and CEO of Consensus, an AI search engine that pulls evidence-based answers out of more than 200 million peer-reviewed scientific papers. A former Northwestern University offensive lineman who became a data scientist at DraftKings, Olson built Consensus with his college teammate Christian Salem so that ordinary people would not feel like outsiders to science. The company launched publicly in 2022 and raised an $11.5M Series A in 2024 led by Union Square Ventures, with backing from Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross.

- **Role:** Co-Founder & CEO at Consensus
- **Organizations:** Consensus, DraftKings, Northwestern University
- **From:** Sudbury, Massachusetts, United States
- **Nationality:** American
- **Education:** M.S. in Predictive Analytics, Northwestern University, B.S. in Organizational Change (School of Education and Social Policy), Northwestern University
- **Known for:** Co-founded and leads Consensus, an AI search engine drawing on 200M+ peer-reviewed scientific papers, Raised $11.5M Series A led by Union Square Ventures (total funding reported around $19.6M-$40M across rounds), Grew Consensus to serve more than 5,000 universities worldwide

## Career timeline

- **2012-2016** — Offensive lineman (right tackle) for the Northwestern University football team while earning his undergraduate degree
- **2016** — Graduated Northwestern; later completed a Master's in Predictive Analytics
- **post-2016** — Worked as a data scientist / sportsbook analytics specialist at DraftKings in Boston
- **2021** — Co-founded Consensus with former Northwestern teammate Christian Salem
- **2022-09** — Publicly launched the Consensus AI science search app
- **2024** — Raised an $11.5M Series A led by Union Square Ventures, with Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross participating

## Achievements

- Co-founded and leads Consensus, an AI search engine drawing on 200M+ peer-reviewed scientific papers
- Raised $11.5M Series A led by Union Square Ventures (total funding reported around $19.6M-$40M across rounds)
- Grew Consensus to serve more than 5,000 universities worldwide
- Division I college football player at Northwestern University
- Earned a Master of Science in Predictive Analytics from Northwestern

## Latest updates

- **2024-07** — Consensus closed an $11.5M Series A led by Union Square Ventures with Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross participating.
- **2024-02** — Launched the Consensus Copilot feature for its AI research search engine.

## Links

- Website: https://consensus.app
- LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-olson-1822a7a6
- Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/ConsensusNLP

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Profile page: https://yespress.io/eric-olson
Published by YesPress — https://yespress.io
Last updated: 2026-06-04