Intro Into Athena

I am excited to let everyone know that I have started my own company! After 12 and a half years at GPS, it being sold, and me helping integrate it into Corpay, it was time for a change of scenery. While I had been wanting to do this for over a year, this spring I gained conviction this is the right move for me and my family. The company is called Athena, and I will be building software for the "Office of the CFO." Tools that I wish I had while being the CFO of GPS.

Athena, in Greek mythology, is the Godess of wisdom and war. More specifically, she is the Godess of strategic warfare. Years ago, when we established our Business Intelligence team at GPS, I was looking for names to call the team. At GPS it was common to name things after Greek Gods, which is how I came across Athena and thought it was fitting. The name has stuck with me and is a great symbol of what the "Office of the CFO" does.

The "Office of the CFO" is a term for departments and teams that fall under the purview of the CFO. This is mainly corporate finance and accounting related tools, but it can encompass more than just those two departments. Ultimately, I want to build to solve problems that I faced at GPS, or will face at Athena. I want to be my own customer.

A lot of the tools I am building already exists, but those softwares are bloated, overpriced, and geared towards large enterprises. I plan on building a number of tools that are simplified, easy to use, reasonably priced, and geared towards medium sized companies; for companies that are too big for QuickBooks, but too small for large enterprise tools like SAP and Oracle. Most of the tools I will build will take things commonly done in excel and put them into a software package to add controls, processes, and automation.

Lastly, the plan is to bootstrap this myself, at least for the time being. It is a company of one. The goal is to run it as lean as possible and try to gain traction in the market before deciding to take on any capital or hire any employees.

Stay tuned!