Workflow automation: solo-founder building AI employees for SMBs with Denzil Eden @smarty.ai

saas.unbound is a podcast for and about founders who are working on scaling inspiring products that people love, brought to you by https://saas.group/, a serial acquirer of B2B SaaS companies.

In episode #19 of season 5 of the saas.unbound podcast host Anna Nadeina sits down with Denzil Eden, founder of Smarty.AI. Denzil shares her inspiring journey as a solo female tech founder who is revolutionizing the way small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) operate by building AI-powered employees. This article dives into her background, the evolution of Smarty.AI, the challenges and pivots she faced, and her thoughtful approach to blending AI with human expertise to deliver scalable, outcome-driven solutions.

From Early Passion to Founding Smarty.AI

Denzil’s story starts in the Bay Area, California, where her passion for computer science took root early on. She pursued both a bachelor’s and master’s degree in computer science at MIT, focusing on AI and human-computer interaction. Despite developing a precursor to Slack for classrooms during her studies, she initially hesitated to dive into the founder life. Instead, she took a more traditional path by joining Microsoft as a product manager and later as a software engineer at Yammer, immersing herself in enterprise productivity tools.

Her entrepreneurial spirit reignited during her time at Harvard Business School, where she focused on AI and productivity. Inspired by the desire to create an AI assistant that could serve as an “AI employee” handling administrative tasks, she began building what would become Smarty.AI. Initially, it was a conversational chatbot aimed at consolidating tools like Calendly, HubSpot, and Superhuman into one seamless platform.

Facing Challenges and Pivoting Toward Product-Market Fit

Like many tech founders, Denzil experienced a common pitfall: building a product and hoping customers would come. Despite hard work and funding secured in 2020, Smarty.AI struggled to retain customers and hit revenue targets in an increasingly crowded market. The rise of generative AI further disrupted the landscape, pushing her to rethink the approach.

Last summer marked a major pivot for Smarty.AI. Denzil began experimenting with new business models, focusing on integrating “human-in-the-loop” elements alongside AI tools. This hybrid approach allowed Smarty to provide clients with not just AI automation but also human experts who ensure quality, context understanding, and customization—key factors that pure AI solutions often miss.

The Role of AI and Human Expertise in Smarty.AI’s Model

Smarty.AI today operates as a bridge between AI capabilities and human insight. Clients are paired with a dedicated engagement manager who understands their business goals and key performance indicators (KPIs). This manager oversees a team of human experts trained in AI tools and automation, who either use existing third-party AI or collaborate with Smarty to build custom AI solutions for clients.

This model addresses a critical challenge: while AI can handle bulk work efficiently, it lacks the nuanced understanding and quality assurance that human specialists provide. The combination ensures that SMBs receive reliable, high-quality outcomes tailored to their unique needs.

Scalability and Business Model Insights

Many of Smarty’s clients are coaches and small businesses with overlapping needs such as podcast editing, social media management, content creation, and newsletter distribution. The service is highly customizable, allowing clients to scale their engagement up or down monthly based on workload.

Denzil acknowledges the challenge of scaling a model that involves humans in the loop, especially as the client base grows. While still navigating this zero-to-one stage of product-market fit, Smarty.AI is focused on refining its foundational staffing model and identifying the ideal customer profile to scale sustainably.

Addressing AI Fatigue and Customer Experience

Many clients experience “AI fatigue”—the exhaustion from constantly having to learn, train, and quality-check AI tools. Smarty.AI alleviates this burden by managing the AI landscape for clients, selecting the best tools, and handling the training and quality assurance internally. This allows clients to benefit from AI-driven productivity without the overhead.

Defining AI vs. Automation

In conversations with clients, Denzil often clarifies what constitutes AI versus automation. While generative AI creates new content based on existing data—such as text, images, or code—much of what Smarty.AI currently implements is automation: structured workflows and “if-this-then-that” processes that streamline repetitive tasks. This distinction helps set realistic expectations for clients and guides investment in the right technology.

Challenges and Perspectives as a Solo Female Tech Founder

Denzil reflects candidly on the challenges faced as a solo female founder in tech, a space where less than 2% of venture funding goes to women and fewer than 1.5% of exits in Europe are female-led. She acknowledges the imposter syndrome she once felt but advocates for a growth mindset: “I can’t do this yet.”

Her advice to aspiring founders is to embrace resilience, maintain work-life balance, and separate personal identity from business outcomes. Taking care of mental and physical health, focusing on data-driven decisions, and objectively analyzing business metrics have helped her navigate the highs and lows of founder life.

Insights on Venture Capital and Business Fundamentals

Denzil admits that early on, she thought venture capital was the only way to start a company, but today she recognizes the ease of bootstrapping or starting with customer revenue. Though she pursued VC funding through an accelerator, she emphasizes the importance of focusing on business fundamentals like revenue, profit margins, and customer value rather than just chasing investment.

Raising venture capital, she explains, is a strategic game involving narrative and storytelling. However, founders should prioritize building a sustainable business with clear metrics before seeking funding.

Biggest Wins, Failures, and Key Metrics

Biggest Failure: Building a product without validating customer willingness to pay. Denzil stresses the importance of sales and chasing revenue early on.

Biggest Win: Progressing steadily towards product-market fit and gaining clarity from data and customer insights. Persistence and learning are the real victories for her.

Today, key metrics for Smarty.AI revolve around customer profit margins and identifying clients who deliver the highest returns. Revenue remains the most critical metric, especially in the zero-to-one phase, as it reflects real customer pain points and business viability.