Tatenda Makunike is building an AI assistant that takes on small business admin

Tatenda Makunike is a frontend engineer in Johannesburg, moving into AI engineering. Pic-A-Site is the result of trying to start businesses and finding out how much of the work has nothing to do with the idea itself. Tatenda describes it as "an AI assistant that gets to know your business and helps with the admin and day-to-day tasks that take time away from building it."

The work around the idea

After working on a few business ideas, Tatenda saw where the effort really goes: getting organised, building a brand and a website, keeping information up to date, and preparing to share plans with other people. For a small business owner, that can mean "juggling different services, experts and documents, often on a tight budget."

"I know that feeling from trying to start a business myself," Tatenda says. A career spent building digital experiences gave both the reason and the skills to look for a better way. "I built it because I wanted to make the process of starting and running a small business feel more manageable for people like me."

Where the name came from

The first version was an AI-powered website CMS, which is where the name Pic-A-Site comes from. A business owner could buy a website, it would be deployed with their business information, and they could manage their content through the CMS. It was built for small businesses that needed a straightforward way to get online and keep their information in one place. Over time, Tatenda realised the bigger opportunity was helping owners with more of the work of running a business.

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"It's tempting to try to build everything at once."

That has been the hardest part of the beta: deciding what to solve first. Pic-A-Site started with websites, but the vision is wider. The beta is helping Tatenda focus on what people actually need, make those parts work well, and grow the product from there.

Tatenda's ring is Leap: "I put myself out there." For the people using Pic-A-Site, that means not having to figure out every part of building a business alone. "I know taking an idea into the world takes courage," Tatenda says, and the aim is to make the practical side lighter so people can spend more energy bringing their ideas to life.

Johannesburg matters to the work. The city has an active community of emerging entrepreneurs, and being close to them gives Tatenda the chance to learn from their experiences and shape the product around real business needs. The ambition is to build something useful "for businesses here and beyond."

What Tatenda needs now is more small business owners and solo entrepreneurs to try the beta and say honestly what helps, what feels confusing, and what they wish it could do. Emerging entrepreneurs in Johannesburg are especially welcome. "The goal is to learn from people using Pic-A-Site in their day-to-day business—not just build from assumptions."