Jerry Jao
CEO, Retention Science
Jerry started his path to entrepreneurship at the age 8, making $3 a day by recycling his classmates’ plastic cans after school. Years later, he moved on to e-Commerce and started selling comic books and video games online. He’s been an online entrepreneur ever since and is now the CEO and founder of Retention Science.
Prior to founding Retention Science, Jerry founded two other e-Commerce marketing technologies. He was an analyst with Morgan Stanley, and an engagement manager with BearingPoint Management Consulting (KPMG Advisory), where he advised FORTUNE 50 companies. He was most recently an advisor to the CFO of Clear Channel, working on digital sales initiatives and iHeartRadio. Jerry currently serves on the Board of Directors of Penango, an enterprise email & cloud security company.
Jerry is a graduate of UC Berkeley, where he received a B.S. in Business Administration and a full-tuition scholarship as an Alumni Scholar, and Yale School of Management.
Content & Articles by Jerry Jao
LA Tech Week 2025 Day 2 Recap: Startup Growth – Tuesday Oct 14
After a packed AI Building Day, we continued LA Tech Week with Startup Growth Day, a full schedule of sessions focused on go-to-market strategy, founder journeys, and scaling startups in...
LA Tech Week 2025 Day 1 Recap: AI Building – Monday Oct 13
We hosted three full days of events during LA Tech Week, each one focused on helping founders learn, connect, and build with the latest in AI and startup growth. Day...
Using Customer Feedback to Build a Product that Customers Will Love
Customer feedback is the lifeblood of successful product development, but many startups struggle with collecting, validating, and prioritizing the constant stream of input from users, advisors, and internal teams. In...
How Shaun Merritt Vibe-Coded Karrot.ai As A Solo Builder
I recently had the opportunity to chat with Shaun Merritt, cofounder and CTO of Karrot.ai, a LinkedIn ABM tool. Shaun was kind enough to share a comprehensive breakdown of how...
7 Steps to Build a Product That Sells Itself
The Founder’s Mental Health Playbook: What I Learned After Nearly Burning Out
A hard-won guide to staying mentally healthy while building a startup I founded Stitcher, the podcast platform, in 2007 and ran it for seven years until we sold in 2014....