Learn about Consensus
We’re an academic search engine powered by AI and we're on a mission to make the world's best knowledge more accessible.
Our vision & mission
Our mission is to make the world's expert knowledge discoverable and consumable. Searching for scientific research has long been a painful process, no matter your background. If used thoughtfully, carefully, and elegantly, we believe AI can change this equation.
Whether you are a lifelong researcher or an everyday consumer, we aim to be your go-to source in the search for expert knowledge.
And we’re just getting started.
Our story
Christian and I are former D1 athlete teammates from the families of professors, scientists, and teachers. We deeply love and appreciate the value of consuming evidence-based content. However, it felt inaccessible to us, we didn’t have the skills (or the attention span) to find and process the information with traditional academic tools.
We wanted to build a product that would allow anyone to engage with and consume the best sources of data on the planet. A product that would democratize access to science.
- Eric Olson, co-founder
Meet the team
We are a small, but scrappy, team of science-loving engineers and operators. We come from iconic tech companies like Google, Amazon, PayPal, and Salesforce.
Eric Olson
Co-founder & CEO
Past: DraftKings
Christian Salem
Co-founder & CPO
Past: NFL, TicketManager
Megan Van Welie
Head of Engineering
Past: Google, Waymo
Brett Nebeker
Head of Machine Learning
Past: Salesforce, Lighthouse
Chris Varano
Lead, Search Engineer
Past: Google, Amazon
Jimmy Longley
Lead, Software Engineer
Past: Amazon, BookNook
Namrata Kundu
Software Engineer
Past: PayPal, Airbase
Ali Farid, PhD
Founding Data Scientist
Past: CityFalcon, Arquaam
Sarah Wakeman
Director of Revenue
Past: Resolve, Procurify
Pablo Garces
Founding Product Designer
Past: Quora, Poe
Our advisors
We are lucky to be advised by experts in science, AI, product and more.
Dr. Nicholas Christakis, PhD, MD
Popular Science, Misinformation
Dr. Layne Norton, PhD
Evidence-Based Health & Fitness
Stephen Wolfram, PhD
Wolfram Alpha, Computer Science
Jevin West, PhD
Misinformation, Metascience
Konrad Kording, PhD
Deep Learning, AI
Our backers
We are backed by some of the best investors in the world.
We raised an $11.5M Series A in 2024 from Union Square Ventures, Nat Friedman and Daniel Gross.
Nat Friedman & Daniel Gross
Brian Pokorny
Former GP SV Angel
Kevin Carter
GP Night Capital
Des Traynor
Co-Founder, Intercom
Billy Draper
GP Path Ventures
David Rosenthal & Nat Manning
Kindergarten Ventures
Our partners
We are partnering with some of the most innovative research organizations in the world that empower us to build a trustworthy and quality product.
