Brandon Yao

Brandon Yao is the Co-founder and Chief Operating Officer of Semiotic, a Y Combinator-backed artificial intelligence design and cryptography firm. Prior to assuming his current executive role, he studied computer science and economics at Columbia University before leaving the academic institution to pursue early-stage technology ventures. His professional background includes conducting economic research alongside the Chief Economist at OpenAI, focusing heavily on the intersection of global economics and advanced artificial intelligence. Yao also gained direct operational experience by working at multiple early-stage Y Combinator-backed startups, where he specialized in scaling computational design and Web3 infrastructure. At Semiotic, he currently directs operational strategy for a technical team that serves as a core developer for The Graph protocol. His current focus centers on leveraging artificial intelligence to deliver studio-grade computational design at scale while advancing decentralized network operations.