Mana Jampala, 12, Revolutionizes SMEs with Voxa AI

A Young Tech Prodigy

Mana Jampala, a young tech prodigy at just 12 years old, hails from British Columbia, Canada. She founded Voxa, a virtual receptionist powered by artificial intelligence. This innovation was designed to support small businesses that lack sufficient staff to handle all customer inquiries. To develop this solution, Jampala initially used ChatGPT to write the code before moving on to Claude, another AI platform.

The idea for Voxa was born when Jampala accompanied her father to work. She observed that many phone calls were missed, representing a lost opportunity for the business. In November 2025, she launched Voxa to fill this gap and enable small businesses to no longer miss out on business opportunities. According to her, even a few missed calls can accumulate into significant financial losses over time.

Voxa is a voice assistant available 24/7. It can answer calls, schedule appointments for staff, take restaurant orders, manage missed calls, and create summaries after each interaction. Although Voxa is still in its launch phase, its young creator claims it is already handling hundreds of calls, and she is currently seeking her first paying client.

Voxa Agents: A Platform for Everyone

In addition to Voxa, Jampala developed a platform called Voxa Agents. This platform allows users to create AI agents using simple instructions. Customers can thus achieve the desired results using everyday language, making the technology accessible to a broader audience.

Jampala envisions a growth trajectory for her company that would include self-funding for one or two years, followed by entry into a prestigious accelerator like Y Combinator or A16z. Once this stage is reached, she plans to maintain steady growth before turning to venture capital to continue developing her business.

Generation Alpha and AI

Mana Jampala is part of Generation Alpha, a generation growing up with artificial intelligence and other advanced technologies at their fingertips. She became interested in AI at the age of 9. Since then, she has participated in coding camps, learned Python, won a special award at a college-level science competition in India, and received a grant from the Medici Project, a fund that supports young entrepreneurs.

Although Jampala has friends and is active in sports, she confides that working on her startup is often a solitary activity. She has found support and connections with other young entrepreneurs on online platforms like Discord, where she has met many 13-year-olds who know how to code and run their own startups.

To develop Voxa, she initially used OpenAI's ChatGPT to create small pieces of code, which she tested and adjusted before moving on. She then adopted Anthropic's Claude for more effective support in developing her code. She gradually built a robust codebase by testing each part individually.

Jampala initially used third-party systems to build her agents, but she now uses her own custom backend. Developing the core system took two weeks, but she continues to add code, fix bugs, and integrate new features, making the improvement process ongoing.

The Challenges of a Young Entrepreneur

Starting a business at 12 years old is not without its challenges. Jampala first presented Voxa to local businesses in person, but her age often raised questions and doubts. She therefore opted for online approaches, where her age was less of an obstacle.

She tried various strategies to reach potential clients, including cold calling and leveraging her personal network. She even had the opportunity to speak with the CEO of her city's Chamber of Commerce.

Convincing some businesses to integrate AI into their operations remains a challenge, but Jampala is optimistic about the growing acceptance of these technologies by businesses in the near future. She believes that while some fear their customers may feel ignored, the adoption of AI will become increasingly common as businesses become accustomed to it.