Duke Alumni Startup Atlia Accepted into Y Combinator
Duke Class of 2026 alumni Shaan Yadav and Edmond Niu’s AI-native property management startup, Atlia, has been accepted into Y Combinator after early mentoring through Duke’s Christensen Family Center for Innovation.
Congratulations to Duke Class of 2026 alumni Shaan Yadav and Edmond Niu on Atlia’s acceptance into Y Combinator’s 2026 batch!
Atlia is an AI-native property management company helping short-term rental owners manage guest communication, pricing, maintenance, cleaning logistics, and other around-the-clock operations, with the goal of making rentals more profitable, less stressful, and better for guests.
The founders first connected with Duke’s Christensen Family Center for Innovation faculty Mike Salvino and Steven McClelland through the Center’s Founders Fridays monthly mentoring events.
“They were among our very first mentors, and their impact is hard to overstate. They helped us learn how to discover and deeply understand a problem rather than simply starting with a solution. Their questions pushed us to get closer to customers, examine the operational pain in detail, and become much more rigorous about what we were building and why.”
The Christensen Center’s emphasis on problem discovery, customer understanding, and real-world impact helped Shaan and Edmond turn broad entrepreneurial ambitions into a focused company. Duke’s engineering environment also gave them the technical foundation and community needed to take on a complex, operations-heavy industry.
Learn more about Atlia and follow their journey at: https://www.atlia.com/