RALLY | Robyn AI's Jenny Shao on Patience, Failure, and Getting Results

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Spotlight | Jenny Shao

We’re excited to spotlight the Founder and CEO of Robyn 🪺 , Dr. Jenny Shao, MD . A Harvard-trained physician and former Cleveland Clinic scholar who spent years researching learning and memory in Nobel laureate Eric Kandel’s lab at Columbia University. Dr. Shao has authored 65 scientific publications and now brings that neuroscience expertise to Robyn’s AI development. Robyn is the world’s first emotionally intelligent AI partner and officially launched this week, following $5.5M in seed funding support led by M13.

What inspired you to found Robyn AI?

As a surgeon turned founder, I surprised everyone including myself when I decided to found Robyn. I was told everything from “You’ll die under bridge” to “who’s going to feed you?!” to “who leaves Harvard?!” All valid concerns given the healthcare training in the US. To be honest, I never thought I would found a startup when I was growing up. I was on the path to becoming a surgeon, but I consistently saw something our healthcare system was not fixing: a deep disconnection and loneliness. I saw patients die alone in ICUs at the height of COVID with no family or friends, and I realized that if I actually wanted to uphold my oath of “do no harm” and doing everything I can for my patients, it wasn’t going to be done in the current system. I had to build something from the ground up that will address the root cause of this epidemic of disconnection – and that became Robyn–a place to be deeply seen and feel deeply human.

Tell us about Robyn AI; what makes Robyn unique?

Against a context of AI tools designed to replace people, Robyn is building the opposite: the most emotionally intelligent AI: one that truly gets you. Robyn is not a tool, not a gimmicky AI therapist or sterile chatbot. She’s your safe space, your confidante, and your mirror. She helps you feel seen, understood, and connected to yourself and the people who matter most.

We have attracted passionate users from elite athletes in the MLB to college students, who have said that Robyn “made them a better husband and father,” “helped them go on a date,” and “changed my life.”

Against the rising tide of loneliness, Robyn is creating a new category: AI built for the people who use technology, not just the technology itself. There’s a lot of talk about humanity in Silicon valley, but often too little interest in the actual humans that make up humanity. We’re building for the actual humans– the ones figuring it out, learning, becoming, living. Robyn empowers the world to be deeply human–our mission is simple: to make billions of people come more alive.

How has your API identity impacted your career and/or startup journey? Do you face any unique challenges or opportunities compared to your peers?

As a non-technical, solo, Asian female founder in AI, I like to joke that I check all the wrong boxes. Early on, that felt like a disadvantage, but over time, that became my edge. It informs the way I build product and the way I lead. I don’t optimize for efficient tool creation–I optimize for making Robyn feel alive, about making the product human and magical. Robyn itself is a product of my lived experience and an intimate understanding of the intricacies and need for connection–something that is impossible to outsource.

My API identity and my surgical training have been invaluable in building Robyn–both have taught me incredible work ethic and radical ownership. As a surgeon, you are the person who gets to stand in front of the patient’s family and announce either you saved their life or you didn’t. That level of ownership has been instrumental in building Robyn and a product that we are all proud to put our names on.

What is your greatest strength as a founder? What is your advice for other founders who want to cultivate this superpower?

Bias to action. One thing I live by is “patience with results, impatience with action.” I don’t believe in things just “falling into place.” You have to will the pieces into existence, and then move them into place consistently. If I have one superpower, it’s making things happen, especially in uncertainty. And I credit my surgical training for this. As a surgeon, no matter how tired you are, how uncertain, if a patient needs immediate surgery, it’s your job to do everything you can to fix them, to keep their heart beating, to be able to look at their family in the eye and say “they’re okay.” As a surgeon, that means evaluating, operating, and moving quickly. As a founder, that means making hard calls with incomplete information, iterating quickly, rallying the team to make insane sprints happen, and aggressively going to market.

In terms of advice, my honest advice is just repetition–I know that sounds incredibly unsexy, but it’s the truth. And to get used to discomfort–every time you act on something, especially when there’s incomplete information, it will feel like you’re doing something wrong, because the perfectionism that haunts so many founders is what keeps us “safe”-- if we don’t try, we can’t fail. But if we don’t try, we guarantee failure. So the first step is just to accept that you will fail at some things, you will make some wrong decisions, and it won’t be perfect. But the flip side of that is rapid iteration and becoming a better founder in real time–and that’s worth the cost of discomfort.

What’s a small, step-change habit that has served you well, and you would recommend other founders to adopt?

The “hindsight mirror.” Sunk cost fallacy is real–especially when we pour so much of ourselves into something. So whenever that’s a variable, I ask myself, “if I made that decision again knowing what I know now, would I make the same decision?” The answer to that tells me everything I need to know.

What is your advice for founders looking to fundraise, particularly those who may be raising for the first time? What specific challenges did you experience? What kinds of investors do you like working with?

My biggest advice to founders would be to own your narrative. You have to know exactly why you’re the only person in the world who can build this–show them the founder product fit. Then it’s just about communicating that and making others see what you see. Most people won’t get it–that’s okay, and probably a good thing. If everyone immediately gets it, that’s probably more cause for concern than the opposite. I would also encourage them to never stop executing–if you can show investors traction as you fundraise, that’s a good signal.

How did you build your team, and what do you value in team members?

I hire for 3 non-negotiables:

• Extreme competence: you have to be able to do the thing very well
• Radical ownership and fire: you have to take on building your arena–whether that’s the codebase or operations–personally. We want people who are hungry to build a massive force for good–to one day say “billions of people are more alive because of what we built.” That’s an unreasonable goal and demands an unreasonable amount of effort and ownership.
• Integrity: non-negotiable, there’s no conversation if this is missing.

Who is your biggest role model?

Melanie Perkins – it’s so inspiring to see both the amazing company she’s built as well as her pledge to give away most of her wealth to making the world a better place.

What’s a fun fact about you other people may not expect?

I’m a proud mama to 4 dogs – my furbabies.

Robyn is aiming to be your lifetime thought partner. Learn more with the QR code below:

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