n SEED ROUND: MEET THE FOUNDER
David Sypnieski
ATHENA INTELLIGENCE
For more than three years, David Sypnieski has been aggregating and integrating public
data from various California agencies focused on land, food, water and energy. Different
formats made the data hard to organize. Some information was missing or outdated some
had typos. It was a logistical nightmare.
But he managed to compile the information into an accessible data
processing and visualization platform to help solve that problem.
The platform is called Athena Intelligence. Sypnieski launched his
Sacramento-based startup because he wanted to put critical informa-
tion in the hands of movers in the agtech space, from farmers to con-
servation groups, to various companies that want to mitigate risk for
maximum growth.
Fluentem, which is
My backup name for the startup was.....................................................................................
Latin for flowing
...............................................................................................................................................................................
Racecar driver
If I could have any other job, I’d be a...........................................................................................
The Inner Philosopher by
The most inspiring book I’ve read is................................................................................................
Daisaku Ikeda and Lou Marinoff
..........................................................................................................................................................................................
Not knowing if Sacramento’s
My biggest fear about launching was ............................................................................................................
tech-startup scene was evolved enough compared to Silicon Valley’s
.....................................................................................................................................................................................................
If I could give my younger self one word of advice, that word would be...........................
Simplify
.................................................................................................................................................................................................
What was the hardest part about compiling all that public data? “There are
85 agencies in California measuring 98 different kinds of data, like weath-
er and water flow. You realize those 85 companies don’t talk to each other,
right? They don’t even label their data the same way. It’s a data debacle.”
What has been the most surprising thing you’ve found in the data? “It was
shocking to discover the large number of disparate organizations collect-
ing data related to land, food, water and energy with no coherent system
to connect and make sense of it all. This crystallized Athena’s purpose
and value, and has been the driving force behind our efforts.”
For more on Sypnieski and Athena Intelligence, read Russell Nichols’
“Startup of the Month” column at comstocksmag.com.
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comstocksmag.com | January 2018