AthenaHQ, a startup that helps brands monitor, protect, and optimize their visibility across conversational AI engines like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini was founded in 2025. The company, co-founded by Andrew Yan, built a platform that enables major consumer brands, B2B software companies, and marketing agencies to track their share of voice, correct factual errors in AI responses, and manage their reputation across generative answer engines.
In the case, “AthenaHQ: Building Brands for AI Search,” Yan faces a call with a global automaker after its newest vehicle has quietly vanished from chatbot recommendations. He must evaluate the platform’s expansion as he confronts core industry dilemmas: how AI disintermediates traditional marketing, who should own generative engine optimization (GEO) inside an organization, and how to prove value on an unattributable channel.
In this episode, Harvard Business School associate professor Julian De Freitas and AthenaHQ co-founder and CEO Andrew Yan join host Brian Kenny to discuss the case, exploring how marketers are navigating the new world of GEO, the so-called “dark funnel” of customer engagement, and the need for brand managers to optimize for brand sentiment and accuracy not just search rankings.
