Founder Fridays: Why SEO Isn’t Enough in an AI-First World with Andrew Yan, CEO of AthenaHQ

Welcome to Founder Fridays - a Notion founder series - where we sit down with builders who’ve been in the trenches to talk shop - product, design, and the real lessons no one puts on a slide deck. Andrew Yan, Co-founder & CEO of AthenaHQ, joins Kyle Atkinson, Notion’s NAMER Startup Partnerships Lead, to break down how AI is reshaping the way people discover products and make decisions. Drawing from his time on Google Search and building Athena through YC, Andrew explains why Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) is the next evolution of SEO - and what founders need to rethink as AI becomes the default interface to the internet. To learn more about how Notion is supporting startups, please visit: https://ntn.so/founderfridays Timestamps 00:00 Intro 01:13 AI Changes Discovery 06:22 From Idea Product 09:00 Finding Your Edge 11:32 The Tool Stack 12:50 Building Great Teams 14:43 Advice Block