Herbert Bay

AI Product & Engineering Leader · Builds and Scales Systems to Revenue · PhD Computer Vision (ETH Zurich)

7
AI Products
4
Ventures
2
Exits
40K+
Citations
Mia21 AI Platform Contact
Wikipedia GitHub LinkedIn

AI Product & Engineering Leader with 20+ years building and scaling AI systems to revenue. Led technical teams at Magic Leap, founded companies that reached successful exits (Qualcomm acquisition), and currently CEO of Earkick with 250K+ users.

PhD in Computer Vision from ETH Zurich, co-creator of SURF algorithm (40K+ citations). Combines hands-on engineering leadership with product strategy and P&L ownership. Proven track record taking systems from prototype to production at scale, driving user growth and monetization across consumer and enterprise markets.

Current

Mia21

Co-Founder & CEO · AI Memory Platform

Engineering & Product: Built enterprise conversational AI infrastructure from ground up. Multi-platform SDKs (iOS, Android, Python, Javascript), LLM-agnostic architecture, real-time memory system handling millions of conversations.

Scale & Revenue: Powers 250K+ active users across consumer and enterprise deployments. B2B SaaS model with API-based monetization.

Visit Mia21

Earkick

Co-Founder & CEO · Mental Health AI (2021 - Present)

Engineering & Product: Led full-stack development of AI mental health platform with real-time biomarker analysis, NLP-powered mood tracking, and privacy-first architecture (on-device ML).

Scale & Revenue: 250K+ users, 4.8★ rating. Featured by Apple, TIME, Forbes. Freemium model with premium subscriptions. Revenue-generating since 2023.

Visit Earkick

Background

Education

PhD Computer Vision, ETH Zurich (2009)

Lead-inventor of SURF algorithm · 40,000+ citations · Koenderink Prize 2016

Ventures

  • kooaba (2006-2014) — Co-founder & CEO · Built first cloud-based image recognition platform · Scaled to millions of queries/month · Exit to Qualcomm 2014 (now powers Snapchat AR)
  • 47nord (2012-2023) — Co-founder & Board Member · Built and scaled Shortcut (secure notes) and Inspiced (AI cooking) to profitability
  • Captural (2019-2023) — CEO & Co-initiator · Built AI photo-book system processing 100K+ books annually at Ifolor
  • Earkick (2021-Present) — Co-founder & CEO · 250K+ users, revenue-generating mental health AI platform

AI Products

  • Mia21 — AI memory platform for conversational AI
  • Earkick — Mental health AI with real-time biomarker analysis
  • PMF Engine — AI-powered product-market fit assessment
  • kooaba — Cloud-based image recognition (now Snapchat AR)
  • Captural — AI photo-book creation
  • Shortcut — Secure notes with AI features
  • Inspiced — AI-powered cooking recommendations

Engineering Leadership

  • Magic Leap — Head of Computer Vision & Machine Learning · Led team of 15+ engineers building AR perception systems
  • kooaba (Qualcomm) — VP Engineering post-acquisition · Scaled image recognition infrastructure to handle 10M+ daily queries
  • Ifolor — Board of Directors (2019-2023) · Technical oversight for e-commerce platform ($50M+ revenue)

Links

Media

Swisspreneur Podcast EP #524

Swisspreneur Podcast

EP #524 - How to Build a Product Dream Team, Oct 2025

Listen
Founders Weekly

Founders Weekly

Find Product-Market Fit with PMF Score, Sept 2024

Watch
Swisspreneur Podcast

Swisspreneur Podcast

Product Building from Start to Finish, May 2023

Listen
Products That Count

Products That Count

Solving Customer Problems, May 2023

Listen
The Midpoint Podcast

The Midpoint Podcast

From Sailboats to Startups, April 2023

Watch
Raw Startup

Raw Startup

Achieving Product Market Fit, March 2023

Watch
TalentKick

TalentKick

Coaching Entrepreneurs, Nov 2021

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TalentKick ethonAI

TalentKick

ethonAI & Mentoring, Nov 2021

Watch
Swisspreneur #21

Swisspreneur Podcast

EP #21 - Selling a Company and Sailing, March 2019

Listen
Swisspreneur #22

Swisspreneur Podcast

EP #22 - How To Build a Great Product, March 2019

Listen
ETH Globe

ETH Globe Magazine

The Explorer: Portrait, Dec 2018

Read
Giacobbo Müller

Giacobbo Müller

Presenting kooaba, Jan 2008

Watch

Get in Touch

Open to VP/Head of Product & Engineering roles, technical advisory positions, and strategic partnerships

herbert.bay@gmail.com LinkedIn