About
About Mellonhead
Mellonhead provides AI solutions and education to IT leaders interested in using AI to improve decision-making, customer experiences, and productivity.
Mariena founded Mellonhead in response to a trend she saw selling Data and AI products within VC-backed private companies during her career. Although many mid-market companies wanted and needed Data and AI products, Sales efforts were consistently moving upmarket, catering to companies with large Data Science teams. This shift left a gap for organizations with smaller (or nonexistent) Data Science teams, who were also keen on utilizing Data and AI. With an initial focus on the development and deployment of Generative AI solutions and Generative AI education, Mariena hopes that Mellonhead will help everyone in society reap the benefits of AI.
Since its launch in January 2024, Mellonhead has developed an Internal AI Assistant for 5,000+ HumanGood employees. We provided our Basics of Generative AI course to thousands through small hands-on workshops and large corporate trainings. We’re just starting, and we can’t wait to see what’s ahead.
Our name comes from a nickname Mariena's husband gave her, "Mellonhead," because he admires her big Carnegie Mellon brain. CMU is a leader in AI and Computer Science; paying homage to her alma mater in a quirky and fun way, like me, seems fitting.
About our Founder and CEO
Mariena Quintanilla is the founder and CEO of Mellonhead, a company that provides AI consulting and education services to help individuals and organizations unlock their AI assistants.
As a tech industry veteran, Mariena brings 17 years of experience leading customer, technology, and product initiatives at old favorites like Yahoo! and Foursquare. A self-proclaimed data nerd, Mariena has been helping customers get value from Data and AI products in advertising, product development, and
analytics for over a decade.
Mariena is dedicated to talent development, focusing on programs that promote the advancement of female, black, Latino, and queer engineers. As an engineering leader, she established training and professional development programs. She also mentored early-career engineers and US Veterans. She advocates for and has
developed apprenticeships and alternative career paths into technology through mentorship and partnerships with organizations such as Pursuit.
Mariena holds a B.S. in Computer Science from Carnegie Mellon University. When she’s not geeking out about advancements in data and AI, she enjoys hiking in the Pacific Northwest and learning a little bit of everything, whether at home in Los Angeles or while traveling the world.
About our newsletter
Our bi-weekly newsletter comes out on Monday mornings. In it, we share perspectives on how the latest AI research can influence AI product development and share resources and guidance, from AI prompts and app reviews to guidebooks and frameworks — all designed to equip you with the knowledge to increase the impact of AI in. your organization.
For new workshop ideas, speaking opportunities, or questions about how I can help your organization adopt AI, please contact me at info@mellonhead.co.