How Carbyn AI preserves manufacturing expertise with real

Startup: Carbyn AICo-founder & CEO Jungkeun Hong, MBA 26

When Jungkeun Hong came to the United States to pursue his MBA at UC Berkeley Haas, he brought with him a lifelong understanding of manufacturing.

A native of South Korea, Hong grew up around his family’s jewelry manufacturing business, where he saw firsthand how manufacturers struggled to find skilled workers and preserve institutional knowledge when experienced employees left the workforce.

During the Korean financial crisis, his uncle left a software engineering career to join the family business, where he helped modernize its operations. The experience planted the idea that technology could solve problems in traditional industries.

Before coming to Berkeley, Hong spent several years working in industrial consulting in Seoul, including at McKinsey. After arriving in the Bay Area, he worked as a machinist in Santa Clara, encountering the modernization challenges that inspired him to found Carbyn AI.

Carbyn AI uses smart glasses and computer vision to train factory technicians

Carbyn helps manufacturers capture, preserve, and transfer decades of hard-earned expertise by giving less-experienced technicians AI-powered guidance on the job. Using multimodal AI—including voice and computer vision—the platform analyzes equipment, references manuals and error codes, and walks workers through complex diagnostics and repairs. Workers can wear smart glasses or use a smartphone to access the platform.

Rather than replacing skilled technicians like master machinists, HVAC techs, and electricians, Carbyn AI is designed to make expertise available whenever and wherever it’s needed. Tasks that once required years of on-the-job training can instead be completed with step-by-step AI guidance, helping manufacturers reduce downtime while preserving knowledge that often disappears when technicians retire, Hong said.

Hong, who brought on UC Berkeley undergraduate students Anna Khulup, Sadie Muller, Andre Leung, and Arnav Bhardwaj as interns, said Berkeley’s entrepreneurial ecosystem played a critical role in the startup’s early development.

Entrepreneurship courses taught by Associate Professor Omri Even-Tov and Frederic Kerrest of the professional faculty, along with participation in UC Launch’s Fall 2025 cohort, grounded him in customer discovery and other early-stage startup fundamentals.

Beyond the classroom, professors connected him with venture capitalists, mentors, product leaders, and investors whose feedback helped shape the company and later supported its fundraising efforts.

One lesson, in particular, stuck with him. After Rhonda Shrader, executive director of the Berkeley Haas Entrepreneurship Program, encouraged him to talk to customers rather than build in isolation, Hong drove more than 10,000 miles visiting roughly 150 manufacturing plants and job sites.

The journey led to Carbyn’s first customer and, despite a roadside breakdown along the way, helped him uncover the industry’s biggest pain points. “If you don’t do these visits, you’re not able to hear real customer voices,” he said.

Since its launch in November, Carbyn has secured 20 letters of intent, two paid pilots, partnerships with manufacturing ERP software companies, and institutional funding.

The startup also plans to continue expanding its customer base while developing augmented reality capabilities for the platform. “Right now we are just focusing on building a stronger product,” Hong said.