Conversation
Highlights

Welcome to another episode of Category Visionaries, the show that explores the future of tech with innovative B2B founders. In today’s episode, we’re speaking with Harry Xu, CEO and Co-Founder of Breeze ML, an AI governance platform that has raised $4.6 million in funding.

• Harry’s background as a computer science professor at UCLA and UC Irvine, and his experience working on education research and building machine learning systems.
• The misconceptions about life as an academic, and the similarities between running a research lab and a startup, including the need to secure funding and nurture students.
• The decision to start Breeze ML with co-founder Ravi Netravali, driven by a desire to produce real-world impact and push technology into actual products.
• The challenge of raising seed funding in March 2022 amidst a market downturn, and the unexpected speed at which generative AI and chatbots have captured public attention.
• Breeze ML’s focus on providing AI governance tools that enable compliance with emerging regulations like the EU AI Act, which carries significant fines for non-compliance.
• The broad applicability of AI governance across industries, with sectors like healthcare and finance already facing strict regulations around model training, data collection, and bias prevention.
• The importance of having numerous conversations with stakeholders in different roles to guide product development and identify the most pressing problems to solve.
• The dual nature of AI governance as both an existing market and an emerging one, with a need for concrete tools and solutions to help companies navigate the regulatory landscape.
• The lessons learned from fundraising, including the importance of timing, preparedness, and paving the way with team assembly, IP clearance, and customer validation before approaching investors.
• Harry’s vision for Breeze ML to become the leading AI governance platform in both the US and EU markets within the next 3-5 years, serving most large companies.