Building for a future where the humans win.
Optimise the World
We are on a mission to Optimise the World, in particular, how we can optimise for people doing their best work together.
We believe the world gets better when people do their best work. When people contribute to purposeful work, feel confident, driven, and aligned with the mission, great business gets done. When organisations reach their goals, we all win.
Everyone prospers
Our vision is that everyone prospers as AI transforms the world
We choose to optimise for people. Where AI amplifies human potential rather than replaces (or annihilates) it, and where the gains from this transformation are shared broadly. Where people everywhere have the tools to do meaningful work and live well.
We can create the future we want, and we want to lead by example.
What drives us
Amplify human agency
AI should make people more capable, not replace them. We want humanity and purpose to come out on top
Relationships over funnels
We look our customers in the eye as real people. Real relationships come first.
Take responsibility to get it right
Our customers trust us to get the best out of AI on their behalf, ethically and effectively. We own that responsibility.
Optimise for our customers over our business model
We build what customers actually need, and our business model will adapt. We don't optimise for 'engagement' and we don't need predatory ways to make money off of usage.
Lean into the uncertainty
We're building in an emerging world where nobody has all the answers, including us. We accept that, and we're building a business that can learn and adapt for the long haul, whatever the destination turns out to be.
A journey of experience
After years leading in technology and operations, our founders wanted to solve a problem facing all businesses. Clarity.
The ability to have one source of the truth for everyone, to learn from our past, understand whats happening in real time, and predict what might impact us in the future has been nearly impossible to consistently determine. The pace of change happening now has made this much worse.
With the advent of Generative AI, Diana and Sam saw an opportunity to try to solve this once and for all, and in 2024, spent time researching and developing early iterations of the concept. Seeing that it was feasible, they launched Ask Astro's first version in 2025, with major developments in AI deepening the product by the end of 2025 to include agentic capabilities.
As a fully AI-native, AI developed organisation, they have been able to keep the company lean and growing, pushing the boundaries of what an 'all-in AI company' can produce, as well as experimenting with business models, operating models and ways of working unburdened by pre-Gen AI constraints.
The founders also recognise the imbalance of how enterprise systems and larger companies often gain the most from innovations, so by focusing on smaller businesses, they hope to have a wider impact to the world, by empowering those those who contribute roughly 50% of the worlds GDP who are usually last on the list.
Our founders
Diana Minnée - Founder // CEO
Diana has been looking for ways to scale what she does as a COO for many years now. She has worked in startups and larger tech organisations such as Arcanum AI, Tapi, JRNY, Common Ledger, Silverstripe and Trade Me since 2010. She moved to Fractional COO’ing in 2019, as one way of bringing value to many, but always wanted more! Diana’s brain is now embedded in Ask Astro, and her COO intuition captured, to help other businesses at scale.
Sam Minnée - Founder // CTO
Sam is an experienced technology CTO and CEO and serial founder (starting Silverstripe with his friends at 17 years old). Since moving to the board, he has worked in and mentored startups to support the local ecosystem. He loves getting deep into code, building tech teams, and working out how businesses can make decisions. He thinks 2023 was a watershed year for AI and is excitedly diving into the Ask Astro to see how these new tools can solve some crunchy problems.