Jake Ryan

Founder, Venice Consulting Group

Jake Ryan is the Founder of the Venice Consulting Group, a mobile + web custom application development firm. He is also the Founder and a General Partner of Tradecraft Capital. As a technology leader, he has 20-years of experience helping start-ups with SaaS/Mobile product development and Fortune 1000 companies on cloud-based Internet applications for commerce, mobile and digital marketing. Mr. Ryan is passionate about building systems and processes to support continuous improvement. He’s led 75+ application development projects to success with 20 case studies, 18 recommendations & 5 client awards generating over $30m in total revenue. Some of his clients include: Bio-Rad Labs, California Endowment, Insperity, SAG-AFTRA, FOX Sports, Houlihan Lokey, Lexus, Sony & Teleflora to name a few. Ryan holds a degree in computer science from the University of Texas at Austin. His degree concentration is in artificial intelligence (AI) where he is a published first author for his research work, “Intrusion Detection with Neural Networks”, which is now cited by more than 550 in the field. He was a keynote speaker at the American Association for Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) and the Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS) Conferences. Now Ryan is an angel investor and advisor to several startups focused on AI.

Articles by Jake Ryan

Startup Guide to AI Visibility: Be the Brand ChatGPT Recommends

Introduction Today, users aren’t just searching on Google. They’re asking ChatGPT, Claude, Google’s Gemini, Perplexity, and other AI systems for advice. AI visibility is the new frontier of brand awareness....

Practical Uses of AI & Automation for Startup Operations

In a recent Mucker Growth Series session, we invited Rock Vitale, Founder & CEO of Easie, to share how he’s helped early-stage teams move from manual, fragmented workflows to streamlined,...

2025 New York Tech Week Recap Of Mucker Sessions

Last week during New York Tech Week 2025, we joined more than 1,000 events hosted by founders, investors, and VCs. This post is a full Mucker recap of the three...

How to Build a Customer Support Function for Startups Using AI Tools with Alex Velinov

Delivering high-quality customer support can be one of the most resource-draining parts of a startup. The good news: we’re at a turning point where founders can use AI tools to...

Zero → 100: The Exact Steps We Took to Close Our First 100 Paying Customers

Going from zero customers to 100 in just four months sounds impossible—unless you’re a founder willing to roll up your sleeves and hustle relentlessly. I’m Gaurav Bhattacharya, co-founder of Jeeva.ai,...

Unblocking Startup Growth: Best Practices for Sales Discovery & Qualification with Richard Harris

Startups are in a constant race against time and resources, navigating complex sales environments with lean teams and limited margins for error. In a recent session from the Mucker Growth...