Dr. Helen Gu on Building InsightFinder, AIOps That Actually Works, and the “Last Mile” of Enterprise AI
An NC State professor turned founder shares how anomaly detection went from NASA/Google research to 7-figure Fortune deals, and why LLMs still need observability.
Who is Helen Gu?
Dr. Helen Gu is an engineering professor at NC State and theFounder and CEO of InsightFinder. She’s spent decades working at the intersection of distributed systems reliability and machine learning, using AI to detect early signals of failures in complex systems (logs/metrics/traces), predict incidents before they happen, and help teams remediate issues faster. InsightFinder now supports large enterprise customers (Fortune 500/1000) with proactive reliability and “AI for system management” at scale.
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Hi I Know Helen
I first met Helen through the Triangle tech and startup community while tracking standout deep-tech founders coming out of NC State (Go Pack!). As I got to know her work, it became clear she was building something unusually real in AIOps, grounded in years of research and proven in production with major enterprises. Over time, we stayed in touch as InsightFinder grew, and I’ve been excited to support the company as an investor.
Listen/Watch Our Interview:
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.
How to watch:
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📌 What’s Next
Next on Triangle Tweener Talks, we’ll continue spotlighting founders who’ve built real companies in the Triangle, digging into the decisions that shaped their journeys, the tradeoffs behind growth, and what they’re building next.
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