Art Agrawal is a serial entrepreneur and a champion for his customers. As Co-Founder and CEO of Jerry, Art is making owning a car as easy as taking a drive.
A car ownership super app, Jerry was born of Art’s desire to eliminate the hassle from his own frustrating, expensive and time-consuming experiences with car insurance, financing, repair, maintenance, warranties and parking.
After incubating Jerry at Y Combinator, Art and his co-founders, Lina Zhang and Musawir Shah, first redesigned and disrupted the century-old car insurance process. Jerry turned stacks of pages and hours of calls into a handful of clicks by powering insurance comparison and purchase with custom artificial intelligence, machine learning and bots. Today, Jerry is the No. 1 rated and most downloaded app in its category and saves customers an average of $800 a year.
Art’s leadership, passion, and relentless focus on customer experience results in strategic partnerships, sales, and industry-leading customer satisfaction.
Previously, Art founded and led the on-demand car repair services provider YourMechanic, the 2012 winner of TechCrunch Disrupt. As CEO, he grew YourMechanic from an idea to the largest company in its industry, with more than 2,000 mechanics making housecalls in all 50 states.
Art attended Drexel University and started his first company at the age of 22.
Musawir Shah is co-founder and chief technology officer at Jerry. A hardware and software enthusiast passionate about building highly usable and scalable products, Musawir leads the Jerry software engineering team to create the slickest, fastest and smartest AI, machine learning and bot-powered customer experiences.
Prior to Jerry, Musawir and his Jerry co-founders, Art Agrawal and Lina Zhang, built YourMechanic, the largest on-demand car repair services provider. There, as vice president of engineering, Musawir was responsible for consumer-facing product research and development, establishing and maintaining software architecture for scalability and rapid iteration, evaluating and integrating the tech stack, and leading a team of engineers and UI/UX designers. The trio left YourMechanic to incubate Jerry at Y Combinator in 2017.
Before YourMechanic, Musawir held senior software engineer positions at NVIDIA and was a graduate teaching and research associate at the University of Central Florida.
Musawir holds a doctorate in computer science from the University of Central Florida.
Lina Zhang is co-founder and vice president of operations at Jerry, where she leads a global team responsible for operations, talent acquisition, content, legal, and compliance. Lina’s operational excellence was a critical enabler of Jerry’s 10x growth in its first year of operation.
Prior to Jerry, Lina and her Jerry co-founders, Art Agrawal and Musawir Shah, led YourMechanic, the largest on-demand car repair services provider. In one year, Lina built and scaled YourMechanic operations from five markets to more than 50. The trio left YourMechanic to incubate Jerry at Y Combinator in 2017.
Lina’s previous roles include intellectual property attorney at Morrison & Foerster LLP and a biomedical researcher at Stanford University.
Lina holds a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry from Nanjing University, a doctorate in biochemistry from Dartmouth College, and a juris doctorate from the University of California Berkeley School of Law. She’s a member of the State Bar of California and a licensed property and casualty insurance producer in all 50 states.
Ed Chung is chief financial officer for Jerry. Ed is responsible for all the company’s financial functions, including accounting, audit, treasury, corporate finance and investor relations. He brings more than 20 years of deep financial expertise to support Jerry’s exponential growth.
A proven financial leader and advisor, Ed most recently was co-founder and co-chief investment officer of View Ridge Capital Management, an event-driven hedge fund. Previously, Ed’s experience included roles as managing director at institutional asset management firm Farallon Capital Management, and as an analyst at Warburg Pincus, Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, and UBS.
Ed also co-founded Help Children with Epilepsy, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping children and families suffering from pediatric epilepsy.
A CFA charterholder, Ed holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business and a master’s in business administration degree from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
As the Chief Operating Officer at Jerry, John Spottiswood executes business strategy and operations for Jerry. John leads teams, including marketing, product development, partnerships, administration and customer experience, while actively expanding service offerings into new categories of fintech and related automotive services.
John brings to Jerry 25 years of deep experience in building operations teams and generating growth and revenue at technology startups including Match, LendingClub, DemandTec, QuinStreet, and Inflection, where he held executive leadership positions.
John holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and Japanese from the University of California, Los Angeles, and a master’s degree in business administration, with distinction, from Harvard Business School.
Neima Shahidy is vice president of partnerships at Jerry. She finds new customers who desire faster, smarter ways to save money on car ownership, and builds products and partnerships to reach them.
Prior to Jerry, Neima spent three years at Amazon Alexa, spearheading the go-to-market strategy for Alexa built-in devices. She worked with partners to lead first-of-its-kind partnerships with companies, such as Bose and Samsung, to introduce Alexa built-in devices to consumers across multiple categories. Her responsibilities included business development, product marketing, and product management.
She also developed, launched, and led the sale of the Asian beauty skincare startup, 3B.
Prior to her startup career, Neima worked at Microsoft on the Surface business. She joined when the devices group was an emerging business and held a variety of roles across product management, retail marketing, and lifecycle operations. Neima’s primary responsibility was to drive profitable quarter-over-quarter growth across the consumer and commercial business.
Neima holds a bachelor’s degree in honors science and business from the University of Waterloo.
As Vice President of Insurance Operations at Jerry, Josh Damico leads teams across product development, operations and carrier relations, integrating Jerry’s smart and fast car insurance customer experience with that of traditional carriers to help customers find savings and coverage. Josh’s nearly 20 years of insurance-industry experience and knowledge generate partnerships with more than 55 name-brand and specialty insurance partners that enable Jerry to serve customers with all types of vehicle and policy needs.
Previously, Josh held executive roles at Geico, where he had vast regional oversight and leadership opportunities. In his most recent role as director of sales, servicing, and underwriting, Josh developed and executed profit and growth strategy for the New England states and New Jersey.
Josh holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration and management from Medaille College.
Maggie Leung is vice president of content and organic growth at Jerry. She has extensive experience in making information as user-friendly as possible and building remote teams to do that.
As NerdWallet’s founding vice president of content and a member of its executive team, she was instrumental in building the personal finance platform from early stage towards an IPO. During her tenure, NerdWallet grew from an unknown brand into a trusted one, helping tens of millions of users monthly to make informed decisions. By the time she left the company, she was leading about 100 full-time staff writers and editors remotely, and NerdWallet had acquired and integrated companies in the U.S. and U.K.
Maggie also led content teams at venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz and B2B startup ClickUp, a global productivity and project management platform. During her first career, she spent decades in news, at outlets such as CNN, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from San Francisco State University. She worked her way through college to avoid student debt, reflecting a longstanding belief in optimizing financial decisions.
Armando La Rocca is vice president of data science and business operations at Jerry, focused on driving insights that grow the impact of the app’s services for both customers and business partners.
Previously, Armando held leadership positions at Better.com and Life House, where he led teams across strategy, analytics, sales, and operations. Armando’s experience includes helping launch new business lines, optimizing processes for scale, and revamping the end-to-end customer experience.
Armando holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Finance from Bocconi University, and a master’s degree in business administration from the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia.
Elin Nozewski is vice president of communications at Jerry. She leads the development of the company’s strategic communications and supports growth for the fast-growing AllCar™ app through internal and external channels. Elin brings 20 years of experience planning and executing reputation-building communications campaigns for global brands and start-ups.
Most recently, Elin was senior vice president and partner at global communications firm FleishmanHillard. There, she co-led the brand marketing team at the company’s headquarters office and served clients across the automotive, travel, consumer technology, fashion, logistics, and retail industries. Previously, Elin held roles at public relations firms Airfoil Group and Golin. Her clients have included Enterprise Holdings, eBay, PayPal, Nintendo of America, Fossil Group, UPS, and many others.
Elin holds a bachelor’s degree in communication studies from the University of Michigan and is a 2019 graduate of the Leadership St. Louis program.
Jonah Van Zandt is the general counsel at Jerry.
Jonah brings to Jerry a blend of corporate and litigation experience, representing growing fintech and Fortune 500 companies alike. Previously, Jonah managed all legal aspects of marketplace lending platform Freedom Financial Network and guided the growth of its thriving investment fund. Prior to Freedom, Jonah represented some of the largest financial services companies in America and led complex litigation at Severson & Werson and Skadden, Arps, Slate Meagher & Flom.
Jonah holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of California-Santa Cruz and a juris doctorate from the University of California Berkeley School of Law.
Gillian Li is the vice president of finance at Jerry, leading the company’s accounting and finance operations.
After kicking off her career in public accounting at Deloitte in Shanghai, Gillian earned nearly a decade of extensive finance experience spanning the corporate finance and strategy and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) worlds. Previously, she held the position of Head of Finance at Enuma, an award-winning edtech startup with a global footprint. Before that, Gillian provided advisory services on M&A and strategy within the consumer goods sector, led corporate financial planning and analysis (FP&A) teams, and facilitated significant acquisitions at Fortune 500 companies, including Clorox and Constellation Brands.
She holds dual bachelor’s degrees in English Literature and Accounting from Fudan University and a master’s degree in Finance from the University of Rochester’s Simon Business School. Gillian is also a CFA charterholder.
As Vice President of People Operations at Jerry, Haley Park develops competitive strategies that attract and retain top talent.
Previously, Haley held leadership roles at rapid-growth technology companies, including Windfall and Subsplash, where she effectively scaled high engagement and strong performance. Haley is able to bring a unique approach to people and culture at Jerry with her diverse background, cultivating a multidimensional culture of winning and belonging. She fosters environments that increase employees’ potential to do their best work, more often.
Haley holds a bachelor’s degree in psychology with a focus in industrial and organizational psychology, and a master’s degree in human resources and industrial relations from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She is also a mother of three charming boys, David, Ethan and James, who inspire her to bring fun to the workplace everyday.