Beyond Resumes: Helen Huang on identity, what AI can't answer, and building Trove

Helen Huang on Trove, Behavioral Identity, and Building an Authentic Life in the Age of AIOn today’s episode, we speak to Helen Huang, a product leader and two-time founder building Trove, a “behavioral identity layer” that helps people understand and represent themselves through what they do rather than what they say. Helen recounts immigrating from China to Canada, studying earth science at Waterloo, pivoting into product roles at Zynga, Microsoft, and GitHub, then bootstrapping edtech company CoLab to seven figures while graduating 2,500+ learners before taking a 2024–2025 gap year to learn AI and explore playful experiments (including a garbage-bag fashion show). She describes Trove’s interactive story “Tangles,” early traction and intense user responses, and her aim to invert typical AI use: AI prompts us, and we supply instinctive answers. All while fundraising and hiring a founding team!00:00 Show Mission Shift00:48 Meet Helen and Trove02:38 Reconnecting and Background06:05 Earth Science to Tech Pivot08:14 800 Applications and Resume Limits10:28 PM Lessons to Founder Leap14:55 Building CoLab and Scaling Education18:19 AI Hype and Learning Friction24:59 Gap Year Doubts and Rediscovery28:01 Garbage Bag Fashion Show28:26 Immersive Fashion World29:44 Fun Over Goals31:48 Civic Tech Detour34:11 Finding Trove Mission35:46 What Trove Is37:54 Actions Reveal Identity39:58 Early Drops And Metrics41:59 Real Life Impact Stories44:47 What Comes Next46:25 AI Prompts Us49:36 Use Cases And Ethics52:51 Closing Reflections