Charles Yeomans is the co-founder and CEO of Atombeam Technologies, with more than 30 years of executive leadership experience across investment banking, technology, private equity, and M&A. He has led several companies, including Trigemina, Inc. and Portal Group Holdings, serving as President and CEO. A proven entrepreneur, Charles has founded and grown multiple businesses, including large insurance brokerages. Before entering the business world, he served as a U.S. Navy intelligence officer.
At Atombeam, Charles leads a company at the forefront of a data revolution. Its innovative solutions are redefining how data is managed, transmitted, and stored. By leveraging industry-changing machine learning and artificial intelligence, Atombeam is unlocking new levels of efficiency, security, and connectivity across industries.
Career Journey: Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you started your career, especially one that shaped your leadership approach at your current company?
My first real job was with an aviation squadron in the Navy. When I checked in, I had no handoff or guidance from my predecessor, who had essentially imploded and left the team in chaos. I had about twelve people working for me- mostly photographers and a couple of intelligence specialists- but I didn’t even know what the job of a squadron intelligence officer entailed in that context. There was no playbook. I had to figure out everything from scratch. What that experience taught me was how to lead without a roadmap, how to bring order to dysfunction, and how to rally a team toward shared goals. That foundation has deeply shaped my leadership approach at Atombeam. In a startup, ambiguity is everywhere, and you have to learn quickly, adapt constantly, and bring people with you.
Career Path: What initially brought you to this specific career path, and how did it lead to your role in this company?
I’ve always been drawn to solving hard problems, especially in areas I know nothing about at first. That curiosity and willingness to dive in has taken me through investment banking, insurance, biotech, and now deep tech. What brought me to this path wasn’t a straight line, but a consistent desire to try new things and master them. Each role required me to quickly absorb technical complexity, build relationships, and drive execution. That mindset made Atombeam a compelling challenge, because it’s not just about building a company, it’s about translating a hard-to-understand technology into something people get excited about.
Company Differentiation: What makes your company stand out from competitors in the market? Can you share an example that highlights this?
Atombeam stands apart because our core technologies, Neurpac, Neurcom and PCM all solve problems no one else is solving, and in a revolutionary way. Take Neurpac, for example: it enables compaction of very small datagrams, something traditional compression tools just can’t do. It’s also homomorphic and inherently secure, meaning data can be compressed, secured, and analyzed without needing to decompress it. There’s effectively no real competition in this space. When you combine compression, security, and efficiency for edge devices and IoT, Atombeam is in a category of its own.
Product Innovation: Are you working on any exciting new products or projects? How do you think this innovation will positively impact your customers?
Right now, we’re working on something called PCM, a physics-based generative AI that goes far beyond traditional LLMs. Unlike most AI, it doesn’t rely solely on the cloud, and it doesn’t just memorize, it actually learns and adapts over time like a human does. It’s proactive, operates 24/7, and makes decisions based on the most efficient path forward, like choosing between its own cache or a cloud-based LLM depending on the task. This means our customers could save significantly on compute costs while gaining a more intelligent, responsive system. It’s not just a better chatbot, it’s a smarter machine that acts on its own, with reduced hallucinations and greater reliability.
Success Insight: What was the tipping point for your company’s recent success? Was there a change in strategy or approach that others might learn from?
The real tipping point for Atombeam was moving from what was essentially a science experiment to a product. That transition came after we raised a significant round of funding, which allowed us to bring in experienced professionals who knew how to build, sell, and scale a real enterprise product. It was a strategic shift from tinkering to delivering. That’s what made large companies start to take us seriously. The lesson here is that great tech isn’t enough, you need to turn it into a solution that customers recognize, value, and are willing to pay for.
Challenges and Lessons: Can you share a significant challenge your company faced and how you overcame it? What key lesson did that experience provide?
The real tipping point for Atombeam was moving from what was essentially a science experiment to a product. That transition came after we raised a significant round of funding, which allowed us to bring in experienced professionals who knew how to build, sell, and scale a real enterprise product. It was a strategic shift from tinkering to delivering. That’s what made large companies start to take us seriously. The lesson here is that great tech isn’t enough, you need to turn it into a solution that customers recognize, value, and are willing to pay for.
Leadership Impact: In just a few words, what differentiates your leadership role from others in the company? What impact does this have on company culture or product success?
What differentiates my leadership style is my focus on efficiency, speed, and collaboration. I move fast, expect others to move fast, and gravitate toward technologies, and people that value execution. But I’m not top-down. I want people to buy in, not just follow orders. Everyone at Atombeam knows the goal, and they’re encouraged to think critically and challenge assumptions. That kind of leadership creates a culture that’s not only agile but also deeply accountable. In a startup, where you have no time or money to waste, that culture is the difference between surviving and scaling.
