The Founders

The company was founded in June 1996 by Garrett Gruener and David Warthen. In 1983, Warthen had previously joined another company founded by Gruener where they had worked together for several years. Gruener was developing an idea for a question answering search engine and pulled Warthen in to work on it in late 1995. In June of 1996, each made a low six digit investment, incorporated, and hired some additional talent to develop AskJeeves.com. The rest, as they say, is history!

Both Warthen and Gruener attended UCSD, although not concurrently. In 2006 when IAC (which had acquired Ask Jeeves) retired the Jeeves character to rebrand as Ask.com, the UCSD Alumni Magazine featured the two entrepreneurs on their front cover. (Gruener is on the left, Warthen is on the right.)