About – TariffWolf™

Why TariffWolf was born.

Global trade compliance is structurally broken. We built TariffWolf to fix it.

Talent shortage

Qualified trade compliance professionals are rare and expensive — and the volume of work keeps growing faster than hiring can keep up.

Regulations move daily

EAR, ITAR, HTS, EU Dual-Use, SCOMET — large-scale changes happen constantly, and most teams cannot keep up manually.

Audits keep failing

For catalogs of 10,000+ SKUs, audit results are consistently poor. One bad classification can cascade into millions in penalties.

ECCN/ITAR consulting is expensive

Specialized consulting on dual-use and military-impact items costs more than most teams can sustainably afford.

AI tools are not audit-grade

Generic AI hallucinates. Public LLMs cannot guarantee traceability, defensibility, or regulatory accuracy at the level compliance requires.

No "expert + AI" middle ground

Until TariffWolf, you had to choose between expensive humans or unreliable AI. We engineered the human-in-the-loop layer that combines both.

The TariffWolf MOAT.

Hybrid Expertise + Dynamic Regulation

Combines deep HS and ECCN classification knowledge with real-time interpretation of evolving EAR and ITAR regulations — outperforming static rule engines and generic AI.

Justification-Driven Intelligence System

Delivers defensible classification outcomes (not just automation) via a proprietary platform integrating expert-in-the-loop validation and continuous auditing.

Scalable, Self-Improving Compliance Infrastructure

Ensures high-precision, audit-ready results in high-risk environments through a system that continuously learns and is difficult for competitors to replicate.

Our moat lies in combining deep HS and ECCN classification expertise with continuously evolving regulatory interpretation under frameworks such as the EAR and ITAR, outperforming generic AI and static rule engines. We deliver classification justification — not just automation — through a proprietary system that integrates expert-in-the-loop validation and continuous auditing. This ensures consistently defensible, high-precision outcomes in high-risk compliance environments, creating a scalable, self-improving infrastructure that is difficult for competitors to replicate.

TariffWolf vs. public LLMs.

Public LLMs optimize for fluency. TariffWolf optimizes for regulatory correctness and liability control.

TariffWolf™ is fundamentally different from public LLMs because it is engineered as a controlled, audit-grade trade compliance system, not a general-purpose text generator. Public LLMs are optimized for probabilistic language prediction — they generate plausible answers based on patterns in training data. That approach is inherently non-deterministic and non-auditable, which is unsuitable for high-stakes domains like HS and ECCN classification, where a single error can trigger regulatory violations, penalties, or shipment delays.

TariffWolf™, by contrast, operates on a human-in-the-loop compliance architecture. Every classification output is supported by structured regulatory logic, mapped to primary sources (e.g., EAR, ITAR, HTS), and validated by expert trade compliance professionals. This ensures traceability, explainability, and defensibility — three requirements that public LLMs do not natively guarantee.

Additionally, TariffWolf embeds domain-specific intelligence layers — including controlled taxonomies, precedent rulings, and decision workflows — rather than relying on open-ended generation. It is designed to produce consistent, repeatable, and audit-ready decisions, not just "likely correct" answers. In short, public LLMs optimize for fluency, while TariffWolf™ optimizes for regulatory correctness and liability control — which is the real requirement in global trade compliance.

Capability

Public LLM

TariffWolf™

Optimization target

Fluent language

Regulatory correctness

Determinism

Probabilistic

Repeatable & auditable

Source mapping

None / inferred

EAR, ITAR, HTS primary sources

Expert review

No human review

In-the-loop trade compliance experts

Audit defensibility

Not defensible

Traceable & explainable

Meet the Founders.

Shailesh Hegde

Co-Founder & CEO

Shailesh Hegde is a seasoned leader who scaled Hubilo from the COVID boom to acquisition in 2025. With roots at Cisco and BlueJeans where he pioneered award-winning innovations, he is obsessed with automation to save human effort. As tariff changes took over the world in 2024-25, he started diving deep into the field, talking to professionals in the space and learning every day. He surveyed the market and could not find solutions to problems that were considered very hard to solve. Partnering with Surajit, he then decided to solve these challenges head on and enhance the trade compliance teams' experiences at work. He remains focused on building scalable, practical tools that simplify complex regulatory workflows.

Surajit Roy

Co-Founder & CTO

Surajit Roy is a trade compliance specialist with 10+ years of experience in HTS/HSN and ECCN classification, customs valuation, export controls, AD/CVD, and COO determination. He has worked with Baker Hughes, UPS, STTAS, Avalara, and Portway International, gaining deep regulatory knowledge with AI-assisted classification. During this time he also observed many industry challenges from close quarters and was determined to solve them at scale. He brings strong analytical rigor and hands-on expertise in interpreting tariff schedules and regulatory frameworks. His approach combines domain knowledge with practical implementation to improve accuracy and efficiency in classification processes. He aims to build solutions that reduce ambiguity and support consistent decision-making across global trade operations and compliance program outcomes.

Talk to a Founder

Trade compliance built as mission-critical infrastructure.