Beyond the Buzzwords: How Yehoyada Mandeel Makes AI Actually Work for SMBs

Yehoyada “Yoyo” Mandeel once stood on the sidelines of innovation, advising others on digital transformation. Today, he leads Marzipan Tech, an AI Implementation Agency helping traditional businesses evolve into agile, tech-driven powerhouses. In this Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur Spotlight, Yoyo shares how wiring his savings into a bold AI vision turned fear into fulfillment—and how focusing on depth over breadth became his superpower. From embedding AI into legacy systems to transforming skepticism into trust, his story is a masterclass in making technology work for people, not over them. This isn’t just entrepreneurship—it’s transformation by design.

Hi, Yoyo! Thanks for joining us today. Tell us about your business. Who do you serve, how do you serve them, and what's the impact that your business and work makes?

Marzipan Tech is an AI Implementation Agency that designs and builds proprietary, purpose-fit AI systems. We start by mapping each client’s workflows, data, and unique “secret sauce,” then craft tailored agentic AI solutions that integrate seamlessly with their existing tools.
Our offerings range from strategic advisory (AI Officer-as-a-Service) to turnkey execution, enabling clients to adopt AI without disruption or unnecessary complexity.

We work with established small and mid-sized businesses, particularly in traditional industries such as healthcare, logistics, real estate, manufacturing, and professional services  that are ready to modernize and scale through AI. These are companies with strong operations and expertise but limited access to advanced in-house AI capabilities.

Our work empowers traditional businesses to operate like tech companies:  faster, smarter, and more efficient. Clients have achieved measurable outcomes such as 35% faster response times, 20% cost reductions, and 10x scalability in operations. Beyond numbers, we help democratize AI adoption by giving every business, not just big tech, the ability to leverage intelligence, automation, and innovation on their own terms.

Tell us about the moment you finally felt like you went from wantrepreneur to entrepreneur.

For a long time, I was helping others build their ideas, advising, consulting, imagining what was possible but I hadn’t yet put everything on the line for my own vision. The moment that changed was when I decided to invest my own savings into building Marzipan Tech.

I knew I was risking a stable career, but I believed deeply in one simple idea: that every business can become a tech company if given the right AI tools. I didn’t just want to talk about that future I wanted to build it.

The day I wired that first investment, I felt both terrified and exhilarated. But instead of fear, what I felt most was joy the kind that comes from knowing you’re exactly where you’re supposed to be. That’s when I realized: I wasn’t chasing entrepreneurship anymore. I was living it.

Later on, I met an investor I truly admire and love working with, someone who believed in the vision as much as I did. That partnership helped turn the dream into a tangible, growing reality.

Describe the moment or period in your life/career that motivated you to make the entrepreneurial leap.

For years, I had been advising companies on digital transformation and always on the edge of innovation, but never fully inside it. The real shift happened while working with a client in the UAE who was struggling to grow sales despite having a strong product and team.

They asked if AI could help, but they were skeptical: they’d heard all the buzzwords. I built a Generative AI application to streamline their business. Within weeks, their conversions improved measurably. But more than the metrics, it was the look on their faces, realizing technology could finally work for them instead of intimidating them. That changed me.

That project made me realize I didn’t just want to consult on innovation. I wanted to build it, to make AI accessible and human-centered for every traditional business ready to evolve. That’s when I took the leap and founded Marzipan Tech.

Describe a tool, service, or software that has been a game-changer for your business. How does it contribute to your success?

One of the biggest game-changers for Marzipan Tech has been OpenAI’s GPT platform — not just as a tool we use, but as a foundation we build upon. It allows us to rapidly prototype and deploy custom generative AI systems for clients, turning abstract ideas into tangible products in days instead of months.

We use it to create AI agents that integrate directly into our clients’ workflows — from intelligent CRMs to logistics optimizers and sales assistants. This capability lets us deliver enterprise-grade automation to small and mid-sized businesses at a fraction of traditional development costs.

Beyond the technology, GPT has fundamentally shaped our business model — empowering us to focus on strategy, implementation, and integration, rather than reinventing core AI infrastructure. It’s the reason we can help traditional businesses join the AI wave efficiently and confidently, and it’s been key to scaling Marzipan Tech’s impact across industries.

We know that success is very often a non-linear path. Tell us about a failure, pivot point, or lesson that changed your course or direction and helped to get you where you are today.

In the early days of Marzipan Tech, I made the classic founder mistake, trying to build everything for everyone. I was energized by the potential of AI and wanted to show how it could transform every industry. But by spreading ourselves too thin, we started to dilute our focus instead of scaling our impact.

The turning point came when my investor told me, “This works brilliantly, but I wish you’d focus on your business model.” That feedback hit hard. It made me realize that AI doesn’t win on breadth, it wins on business impact and relevance.

So, we pivoted. We stopped chasing “AI products, services, and solutions” and built a proprietary agency model: one that delivers product-driven AI services for traditional businesses. We focus on creating systems that fit their organizations and guide them through every step of transformation.

That lesson: to focus deeply, not widely, changed everything. It clarified our identity, sharpened our strategy, and turned Marzipan Tech into a trusted AI partner rather than just another tech agency.

What unconventional strategy did you employ that significantly impacted your business?

One unconventional strategy that changed the trajectory of Marzipan Tech was building custom AI systems inside our clients’ existing operations rather than trying to replace them.

Most AI agencies focus on selling new tools or platforms. We took the opposite route: embedding our solutions directly into the software, workflows, and habits companies already use. This approach lowered adoption resistance, reduced costs, and made clients feel like they were upgrading themselves, not being disrupted.

It also turned out to be a growth engine. Every integration taught us something new about real-world business challenges, allowing us to develop modular, reusable AI components that we now adapt across industries.

By meeting businesses where they are, instead of forcing them into our technology, we built trust, delivered faster ROI, and transformed “AI skepticism” into long-term partnerships.

What’s something you wish you knew sooner that you’d give as advice for aspiring or newer entrepreneurs?

If there’s one thing I wish I’d learned sooner, it’s that growth lives in discomfort. As entrepreneurs, it’s easy to chase stability and to find what works and stay there. But real innovation happens when you keep a part of your energy exploring the unknown.

My rule now is simple: keep 80% of your business stable, but dedicate 20% to learning, experimenting, and doing what scares you, whether that’s launching a new idea, entering a new market, or having a hard conversation. That 20% is where the breakthroughs happen.

The more I leaned into discomfort, the more I realized it wasn’t a threat - it was fuel. So my advice to new entrepreneurs: keep learning, stay curious, and don’t wait until you’re “ready.” Growth rarely feels comfortable, and that’s exactly how you know you’re on the right path.

Want to dive deeper into Yoyo's work? Check out the links below!

• Visit Marzipan Tech's website: marzipantech.ai
• Connect with Yehoyada (Yoyo) Mandeelon LinkedIn: Yehoyada (Yoyo) Mandeel
• Follow Marzipan Tech on LinkedIn: Marzipan Tech
• Visit Nexty AI's website: nxty.ai/