Meet the team.

Athanor was started by two childhood best friends, one who builds spacecraft hardware and one who builds software for critical systems. Now we’re putting that work toward getting electricity to places that can’t wait for it.

Rishabh Srinivas

Rishabh Srinivas

Co-founder · Carnegie Mellon, Class of 2028

Rishabh builds hardware meant to survive space. At Carnegie Mellon’s REx Lab he engineers attitude-control systems and models orbital heat for CubeSats that the lab launches into low Earth orbit, including Argus-2.

This past summer at Redwire he worked on spaceflight payload hardware, cutting its peak operating temperature by 17°C and writing the thermal vacuum tests that clear it for launch. Before that, he simulated spacecraft components for orbital missions at NASA Ames and studied parachute materials for landing on Mars and Titan at the University of Illinois.

At Athanor, he brings that flight-hardware experience to the balloons, and to the long-term work on power from orbit.

Usman Khan

Usman Khan

Co-founder · Vanderbilt, Class of 2028

Usman builds software for critical systems. At AWS’s Mission Autonomy hackathon, his team won second place and $15,000 for HUSH-MESH, a fleet of autonomous drones that patrols the water, spots threats with on-board AI, and keeps passing alerts along even when a drone goes down. At NexHacks, he and Rishabh built Vectr, which turns live 911 calls into running summaries for EMS crews on their way to the scene, winning the Wispr Flow track out of more than 1,500 competitors.

He also founded LetNora, which builds AI voice agents for medical front desks and is live in practices today.

Away from a screen, he photographs the night sky with long exposures, catching Saturn, Jupiter’s moons, the Andromeda Galaxy, and more. It taught him how much light reaches us from above if you take the time to collect it, which is the idea behind Athanor, where he manages operations and works on the software.

Say hello.

We read every message, whether you need power at a site, want to build this with us, or just have a question.

Or write to hello@tryathanor.com