Jerry Jao

Jerry Jao moved from Taiwan to the U.S. by himself at age 14. He found a legal guardian in Los Angeles by looking through classified ads. He learned English (thanks to a lot of hours of Dawson’s Creek) and was named valedictorian of his high school. Today, he spends his time running his third company, Retention Science. The Santa Monica-based startup is a SaaS platform that helps online retailers -- including Target, Dollar Shave Club and The Honest Company -- better understand and engage customers.

Jerry started his path to entrepreneurship at the age of 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. While selling online, he felt nothing really addressed the void between businesses and consumers, and no one really understood what it took to make marketers successful. ReSci was born. Using artificial intelligence to let real people create authentic interactions and experiences with their customers—ReSci is innovation with marketers in mind. In 2018, the company had revenue of $4.5 million.

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 an advisor to the CFO of Clear Channel, working on digital sales initiatives and iHeartRadio.

Jao was named "Innovation Agent" by Fast Company, "40 Under 40 Exceptional Marketer" by Direct Marketing News, and "Hot Shot Entrepreneur" by Business Journal. He is a contributing author for Entrepreneur Magazine, Forbes, CMO.com, and Practical Ecommerce. Additionally, Jao has made appearances on Fox News LA, CNBC, and BloombergTV. His work has been featured in Wall Street Journal, CNN, Inc. Magazine, Internet Retailer, and LA Business Journal. He also has been a speaker at SXSW, AdAge, Adobe Summit, Shop.org Digital Summit, 500 Startups' Commercism, and Saastr.