Building AI that Understands How Businesses Think

At first glance, it might not seem like there are many similarities between scaling a mountain and building a startup. For Abhinav Mahata (MEM '22), there is a clear connection. 

"They've taught me many of the same lessons," said Abhinav, who summited Manaslu in Nepal, the eighth-highest mountain in the world. "Prepare relentlessly, stay humble, trust your team, and remember that meaningful progress is made one step at a time." 

Abhinav is training to summit Mount Everest, the world's tallest mountain, in 2027. When he's not focused on climbing, he's working as co-founder of Foundrly, a startup designed to help business owners get their time back.  

Abhinav is also an AI product manager at Lynx, a fintech platform that streamlines healthcare payments, benefits administration, and e-commerce for health plans.  

“What makes it worthwhile is that the two roles continually reinforce each other,” Abhinav said. “At Lynx, I learn how to build reliable, scalable AI products in a highly regulated environment. At Foundrly, I get to apply those lessons in a completely different setting, where every decision directly shapes the future of the company.” 

Juggling the responsibilities takes great time management and a healthy dose of the lessons he learned in Northwestern's Master of Engineering Management (MEM) program  

Abhinav said he was drawn to MEM by its flexibility that allows students to build an interdisciplinary curriculum across Northwestern's schools and institutes. 

During his time in MEM, Abhinav took courses in Northwestern Engineering, the Kellogg School of Management, the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications, the Farley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, and the Segal Design Institute.  

“Looking back, I think the greatest value of MEM wasn't any single course,” he said. “It was learning to approach complex problems from multiple perspectives. Whether I'm working with engineers, designers, business leaders, researchers, or investors today, I can appreciate how each group thinks and communicates effectively across disciplines.” 

That ability has been invaluable to Abhinav, both in his role with Lynx and as he serves as CEO of Foundrly.  

With Lynx, Abhinav leads strategy and development of AI-powered products for some of the nation's largest healthcare organizations. With Foundrly, he’s building a company whose mission is to improve the lives of small-business founders.  

“Millions of small-business owners are still doing everything themselves, answering customer calls late at night, chasing invoices, responding to reviews, managing schedules, and wearing every hat imaginable,” he said. “They don’t want another dashboard. They don’t want another CRM. They don’t want another analytics platform. They want their time back.” 

Foundrly aims to give them that time by being an AI co-founder that grows alongside the business. Abhinav calls it the Business Cognition Layer for AI, a persistent intelligence layer that sits between the software businesses already use and increasingly capable AI models.  

Rather than simply connecting tools, the goal is for Foundrly to continuously learn how a business operates, from its customers and workflows to priorities and historical decisions. As that happens, AI can eventually make informed decisions and take meaningful action while the business owner can focus on higher-value work. 

“If we can help even one business owner leave work a little earlier to have dinner with their family, coach their child's soccer team, or finally take a weekend off without worrying that everything will fall apart, then I think we're building something that genuinely improves people's lives,” he said.  

Abhinav credits MEM with helping make that building process possible. 

“MEM's greatest strength is that it doesn't teach you what to think; it teaches you how to think,” he said. “That mindset is far more valuable than any single framework or methodology.”