Dr. Helen Gu on Building InsightFinder, AIOps, and the “Last Mile” of Enterprise AI
In this episode of Triangle Tweener Talks, we unpack what it really takes to go from professor to CEO, how InsightFinder built trust in a skeptical enterprise market, and where LLMs help (and don’t) when you’re dealing with machine telemetry data. They also explore multi-agent workflows, “composite AI,” practical enterprise adoption hurdles, and Helen’s advice for students navigating an AI-shaped future.
Highlights covered
- Helen’s origin story: NASA Pathfinder work → distributed systems reliability → ML-based prediction
- The Google chapter: being invited to evaluate anomaly-detection algorithms with SRE teams
- Bootstrapping InsightFinder via NSF/SBIR funding + early angels, before raising traditional VC
- The professor-to-CEO transition: prioritization over “balance,” and learning to adapt daily
- Why founders should lead early sales (especially when the product is new-to-the-world)
- How InsightFinder runs enterprise PoCs using a “replay mechanism” on historical incidents
- “Composite AI” + using LLMs to translate technical insights into understandable narratives
If you’ve ever wondered what “AI that actually works” looks like in the enterprise, and how a research-driven founder earns trust at Fortune scale, this one’s a must-listen.
Timestamps
- 00:02:12 — Intro to Helen + what InsightFinder does
- 00:04:32 — Helen’s background at NC State
- 00:05:49 — Google discovers the research
- 00:06:24 — NSF/SBIR bootstrap + company start
- 00:07:10 — Early ML roots (since 2000)
- 00:08:54 — NASA Pathfinder origin story
- 00:12:03 — Teaching + student questions evolving
- 00:13:28 — Student → PhD → InsightFinder spark
- 00:14:36 — Professor + CEO time management
- 00:17:39 — Learning sales as a founder
- 00:21:24 — Funding path: SBIR + angels + first VC
- 00:22:44 — IDEA Fund connection story
- 00:24:19 — LLM era impact + “composite AI”
- 00:26:45 — LLMs as the interface layer
- 00:28:20 — Plain-English explanation of InsightFinder
- 00:31:04 — Agent workflows (Jira, probing, reports)
- 00:32:31 — Multi-agent + SLM orchestration
- 00:35:32 — PoCs: dogfood + replay mechanism
- 00:37:41 — How early detection works (hours ahead)
- 00:39:00 — Series B + scaling go-to-market
- 00:43:00 — LLMs: maturity + “last mile” problem
- 00:45:30 — Fine-tuning + trust risks
- 00:47:14 — Advice for students + fundamentals
#TriangleTweenerTalks #TriangleStartups #NCState #AIOps #Observability #SiteReliability #SRE #DistributedSystems #MachineLearning #EnterpriseAI #LLMs #AgenticAI #MCP #StartupJourney #FounderStories #B2BSoftware #DeepTech #RaleighDurham #NorthCarolinaTech
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This episode of Triangle Tweener Talks is hosted by Scot Wingo, presented and produced by Triangle Tweener Fund, with creative assets and design support from Walk West.
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- Automated Consulting Group: https://automated.co
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