Smruti TN, founder of VyomOne, marked a significant milestone on August 22, 2026, when she was honoured with the “AI Startup Founder of the Year” award at the International Excellence Awards 2026 in New Delhi. The recognition represents an important moment in her entrepreneurial journey and reflects her efforts to develop practical artificial intelligence solutions for modern business challenges, particularly in sales and go-to-market (GTM) operations.
For her, the award represents more than professional recognition. It reflects the ideas, uncertainty, experimentation, difficult decisions, setbacks and persistence that have shaped her journey as an entrepreneur. At the same time, she views the honour as a greater responsibility to continue developing technology that delivers meaningful business outcomes rather than simply adopting AI as a trend.
Her entrepreneurial vision has been strongly influenced by her experience working with businesses, customers, sales teams and technology. Through these interactions, she identified a significant challenge within contemporary GTM operations. While organisations have access to increasing volumes of data and a growing number of sales and marketing tools, converting that information into timely and meaningful action remains difficult.
Traditional GTM teams often rely on separate platforms for prospect identification, data enrichment, buying-signal detection, outreach, CRM management, engagement tracking and performance analysis. She recognised that while individual tools can perform specific functions effectively, sustainable growth depends on connecting these activities around the right customer and the right action.
This understanding became a central part of the vision behind VyomOne, an AI-powered GTM platform designed to bring intelligence across the sales and marketing journey into a connected ecosystem. The platform aims to support businesses in identifying relevant prospects, enriching account information, understanding buyer signals, improving outreach and making more informed GTM decisions.
Her approach is based on a straightforward principle: AI should not merely provide information; it should help businesses determine what action to take next. Questions such as which accounts deserve priority, which prospects demonstrate meaningful buying intent and what engagement strategy should follow are ultimately business questions rather than purely technology questions.
She believes the B2B sales and marketing landscape is entering a new phase. After years of focusing on data collection and automation, organisations are increasingly seeking intelligent systems capable of understanding context, identifying patterns and supporting better decisions. In this environment, AI can potentially transform GTM operations from fragmented and reactive processes into more connected and insight-driven functions.
Her experience building VyomOne has also reinforced the importance of outcomes over technology. She recognises that sophisticated models and advanced features have limited value unless they help customers achieve tangible results, including better conversations, improved opportunities, faster execution, higher productivity and more predictable growth.
The AI Startup Founder of the Year recognition therefore serves as both an achievement and a motivation for her. With AI evolving rapidly and customer expectations changing, she remains focused on improving VyomOne and addressing the practical challenges faced by modern GTM teams.
As she looks ahead, her focus remains on making go-to-market strategies smarter, making AI more useful and helping businesses convert intelligence into meaningful action. For her, the award is not an endpoint, but another milestone in an ongoing entrepreneurial journey.
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