Looking for a new pair of slippers or a set of golf clubs? Online purchasing has never been easier. You can simply grab your phone, add an item to a virtual shopping cart, enter some details, and click “purchase.”
After the order is placed, however, the behind-the-scenes work requires lots of administrative care and attention. Shipments may get lost or delayed. Your address might have been entered incorrectly or, once the item arrives, you might need a different size.
That’s where Handled comes in. The new operations automation platform simplifies unglamorous tasks by using AI to handle processes.
Djiya cofounded the company alongside Peter Nsaka, with whom she completed the competitive Y Combinator startup accelerator program. Djiya is now leading Handled as the sole remaining founder.
The business idea came when she noticed pain points in workflows while working for high-growth, e-commerce brands. “As order volume picked up as these brands grew, operational chaos scaled alongside that growth. Teams were just drowning in manual work,” she says.
Handled connects directly into a brand’s existing software stack and works across all its systems the way a skilled employee would.
Djiya spoke with Kevin Lawton on his podcast The New Warehouse about challenges facing third-party logistics partners that work with brands to fulfill orders. Lawton says it’s exciting that Djiya is “able to fill in some of these gaps that we’ve seen expand and grow through time as we see more systems come into play and more apps.”
Launching a new business is arduous, but Djiya is no stranger to tackling hard challenges. She earned an M.B.A. from Stanford, gained experience at startups such as Peloton and Zola.com, and consulted for retailers. She was named to the Forbes “30 Under 30” list for retail and e-commerce in 2025.
