Gary Gao
Co-founder at Chert; CS & Wharton student at Penn
gary-gao
San Francisco, California
Joined May 2026
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Summary
Entrepreneurship and product-building: Co-founded Chert to productize AI agents for outbound sales, combining research insights with end-to-end product and GTM work. trychert+2
Research-driven systems work: Active undergraduate researcher in neuromorphic computing and physical learning networks, contributing to lab prototyping and mathematical learning-rule formalization for energy-efficient AI. upenn
Applied machine learning in domain contexts: Built ML models to assist archaeology (pottery sherd segmentation and classification) and communicated results through museum publications. penn+1
Cross-disciplinary student leader: Combines computer science and business studies at Penn/Wharton with student leadership (entrepreneurship club, analytics fellows) and product roles in education-focused organizations. garyzgao+1
Work
Education
Projects
Writing
Old Sherds, New Tricks
April 1, 2025Blog post describing undergraduate research applying machine learning to archaeological pottery sherd classification and potential for automation in archaeology.
The Chert Thesis
January 1, 2025Essay outlining the thesis behind using AI agents to take on independent human roles (e.g., sales reps), and the importance of building an emotional layer of trust for agent adoption.