Yan worked on Google Search and at DeepMind before starting AthenaHQ, which tracks brand mentions across 11 AI models and suggests content changes to improve them.
Andrew Yan is co-founder and CEO of AthenaHQ, a San Francisco, California, company that shows brands how they appear in answers from ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Claude and other AI models.
Studying at Columbia University
He earned a B.A. in computer science and mathematics at Columbia University, according to AthenaHQ. His Y Combinator profile also lists time at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory.
Working on Google Search
He was a product manager on Google Search and also worked at DeepMind, Google's AI research lab. AthenaHQ describes his work there as helping define the future of AI-powered search.
Starting AthenaHQ at Y Combinator
He started AthenaHQ with Alan Yao, a former ServiceNow platform engineer, and the pair went through Y Combinator's Winter 2025 batch. Their launch post argued that site traffic from generative engines had been rising month over month since ChatGPT Search arrived in October 2024. The company began with brand monitoring and has since added content recommendations and an AI agent for marketers.
Personal Life
His Y Combinator profile says that in a previous life he played in the band that inspired Whiplash, the Oscar-winning film about a jazz drummer. Yao is a former jazz trombonist.
