‘How old are you?’: 12-year-old AI founder on pitching Voxa to businesses

Twelve-year-old Mana Jampala, founder of the AI-powered receptionist startup Voxa, says her age is often the first thing people notice when she pitches the product to local businesses in person. “The reaction I got was a bunch of, ‘Wait, how old are you?’ And I also got a bunch of, ‘Does a parent help you with this? Is it just by yourself?'” she said.

Jampala, who is based in British Columbia, Canada, launched Voxa in November 2025 to help small businesses avoid missing customer calls. The 24/7 voice assistant can answer calls, book appointments, take restaurant orders and generate call summaries, and Jampala said it is already handling hundreds of calls less than a year after launch.

She said reaching out to potential customers online drew a different reaction than pitching in person. “Their responses were not as age-focused,” she said. “Maybe it was the in-person effect, but these people are a bit more product-focused.”

Jampala’s interest in AI began at age 9, and she has since learned Python, attended coding camps, won a prize at a collegiate-level science competition in India, and received a grant from the 1517 Medici Project. She said working on the startup can feel isolating locally, but she has found a community of other young coders and founders online, including on Discord.

Her plan is to bootstrap Voxa for a year or two before applying to an accelerator such as Y Combinator, and eventually pursue venture capital as the business grows.