Cleo and Andrew have both worked in hospitality — Cleo as a full-time waitress, Andrew as a barista and line cook — and share a deep appreciation for the service workers whose effort is the invisible engine behind every great guest experience. That time on the restaurant floor gave them a genuine respect for back-of-house labor and a conviction that the people doing this work deserve far better tools and recognition than they typically get.

Before Harvard, Andrew developed his strategic and operational instincts at McKinsey, diagnosing organizational inefficiencies and building scalable solutions across industries. Cleo spent three years at Accenture designing and implementing enterprise technology solutions for Fortune 500 clients, learning to bridge engineering, design, and business in complex, regulated environments.

Both are completing their Master's in Design Engineering at Harvard University (Graduate School of Design + School of Engineering and Applied Science, Class of 2027), one of the few programs in the world that trains innovators spanning engineering, AI, design, and user experience. It is precisely the kind of training that Hestia demands: a product that lives in the physical world of hotel floors and linen carts, runs on intelligent software, and must be intuitive enough for a first-week employee to use without friction.

In a space where most solutions are built for managers, Cleo and Andrew are building for the people doing the work — with the business fluency, technical depth, and genuine empathy to do it right.