When choosing a partner to design and implement AI solutions for your organization, would you rather be two steps ahead — or two decades?

That’s the Quantum Rise difference. 

Our leadership team, composed of CEO and Founder Alex Kelleher, CTO and Chief AI Officer Justin Bass, and Director of Data Science Shahbaz Khan, has been immersed in AI long before it was in the headlines. With more than 40 years of combined machine learning experience, our team is better positioned than most to maximize your outcomes and deliver the results you’re looking for.

This is what an AI veteran looks like

When Quantum Rise was founded in 2024, it wasn’t to jump on the bandwagon. Rather, it was to address an alarming gap in the understanding of AI and its applications to make sure the bandwagon didn’t fall off the deep end.

“Rather than learning on the job, we avoid all the potholes that others will fall into because we can go straight to where the value is likely to be,” says Kelleher.

Alex has been working with artificial intelligence since the early 2000s, when he co-founded a London-based SaaS company that was acquired by what is now Adobe. He later created Cognitive Match that used machine learning in digital advertising to determine the connections between the data and user responses. There, he learned the importance of every piece of data, even if it was discarded by others. His early forays into the power of AI has fueled a career-long mission to help clients “utilize the best tech to get actual results.”

Though Quantum Rise is technically a startup, there’s nothing startup-y about the technical experience we bring to the table. Kelleher was hand-picked by Erie Street Growth Partners to create Quantum Rise to address a growing AI void — and that same intentionality has gone into growing our team.

“What we didn’t find was a firm or a set of resources we could tap into with a nativeness to AI and an ability to develop consistency across our portfolio in how to think about it,” said Jerry Graunke, Quantum Rise chairman and president of Erie Street Growth Partners. 

AI experience > Last-minute experts

AI is constantly evolving, which means there isn’t always time for trial and error. Our team has spent years building, iterating, scaling, and disrupting AI so that when you need a solution, we can rely on our background to get you answers — fast. 

“I’ve seen what works and what doesn’t. We will take the best approach to solve clients’ problems,” says Justin Bass. “Most others are trying to just take technology and apply it everywhere, rather than understanding the problem and applying the right technology for that problem.”

Bass’ hands-on AI experience also dates back to the early 2000s, when he was still a student. His diverse education in engineering, physics, financial modeling, and applied statistics gives him a holistic understanding of how and where machine learning can make the most impact. He holds two patents for machine learning software. That’s the kind of leadership our clients can expect when they work with Quantum Rise.

From pet project to production ML
Director of Data Science Shahbaz Khan’s self-described obsession with production machine learning was born of a nontraditional — albeit cute — project.

“In 2015, I wired up a computer-vision pipeline that used a lightweight CNN to tell whether my Labrador was hungry — classifying posture, pace around the bowl, and even tail angle,” says Khan. “It sounds whimsical, but building that showed me how small, focused models can solve real-world problems.”

In the years since, Khan has led an impressive career developing all sorts of tools to improve workflows and create efficiencies, including automated data-mapping tool integrated into 11 workstreams, an MLaaS product designed to extract and audit large financial documents, and a flagship LLM platform for 5,000+ users — resulting in more than 8,000 hours of time saved each month.

“I’ve logged the reps. Being an AI veteran means we respect experimentation: we trial, measure, sometimes fall short, and carry those scars into the next build,” Khan says. “For partners, that translates to faster cycles and fewer costly surprises.”

'Even the best tech can’t win by itself.’

Opening clients’ eyes to the possibilities beyond large language models is a big part of what we do. We’re not new to AI, while novice consultancies may be limited by what they don’t know.

“AI is a huge field. LLMs are a growing subsector,” says Kelleher. “Our clients get to benefit from all of our expertise and experience in a world where everyone is a last-minute expert, and the risks of technology are increasing as quickly as the capabilities.”

We create solutions most can’t even dream of yet, because we’ve had the time to figure out what works and what doesn’t.

“We can hash out feature-store design or fine-tune bespoke RAG-system guardrails in minutes, because the team has already run them at scale. We combine battle-tested engineers, product managers, and change-management pros in one squad,” Khan says. “We don’t just ship models — we decompose fuzzy problems, lay out the technical roadmap, and operationalize change so value sticks.”

Let our AI-first expertise be your secret weapon. Together, we can solve hard problems, transform your organization, and stand out in a crowded field.

“I learned early in my career that machine learning can do incredible things,” says Kelleher. “But without all the other work that Quantum Rise puts around the technology, even the best tech can’t win by itself.”