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Meet Our Team
Executive Team
Ocean Crist, Founder
Ocean didn't set out to build an AI company. She set out to be a good real estate agent, and then life did what life does.
She became a licensed real estate agent while pregnant with her second child, trying to figure out how to build a business and a family at the same time without losing either one. That's when she found AI, not as a buzzword, but as a lifeline. A way to stay in touch with every client, every lead, every "just looking for now" contact, without spending every waking hour behind a laptop.
That's the whole reason Automated AIgent exists. Ocean built the system she wished she'd had: one that keeps relationships warm automatically, so the humans behind the business can actually live their lives. She still works as an agent with Realty ONE Group Premier and works overnights as a Newborn Care Specialist, so she's not theorizing about busy. She's living it, and building the tool for everyone else living it too.
Her rule for every email, every automation, every client campaign: it has to sound like a person, because it's still supposed to protect a relationship, not replace one.
Jason Phou, Developer
Before Automated AIgent had clients, a team, or even a name people recognized, it had Jason up late, building the thing from scratch.
He's the original developer behind the systems that got this business off the ground. Every automation, every workflow, every piece of technical infrastructure in those early days ran through him. Without that foundation, none of what Automated AIgent has become would exist. He's the reason it made it this far.
As Ocean’s spouse he's also been there since the very beginning. Back when this was just a scrappy idea and a lot of late nights, through now from the back row, he's still all in.
Colleen Sawatzky, Partner
Colleen is the partner who believed in this before there was much to believe in.
As both an investor and a hands-on business partner, she brings the kind of strategic weight that lets Ocean think bigger instead of just staying afloat. She's in the sessions, in the decisions, and invested in seeing Automated AIgent hit the kind of scale that changes things for the solopreneurs it serves.
She brings a business partner's instinct for where the company should be headed, not just what needs to get done this week. That means thinking through positioning, pricing, growth plans, and the bigger decisions that shape where Automated AIgent goes next. She's a steady sounding board and a sharp strategic mind. Her fingerprints are on the direction of the business as much as the day-to-day of it. She's not just along for the ride, she's helping chart the course.
Our Staff
Kate Smith, VP Client Experience
Katherine "Kate" Smith brings a career built on getting people to actually care, about candidates, causes, and now, the future of AI. Before joining Automated AIgent, Kate spent 11 years shaping public perception across political campaigns, nonprofits, and entertainment brands, blending sharp strategic thinking with a knack for making complex ideas feel approachable. Her work has spanned everything from state legislative races to new musicals, always with the same throughline: message architecture that connects, and content people actually want to engage with.
At Automated AIgent, she leads marketing strategy with the same mix of rigor and enthusiasm that's defined her career: data-driven, audience-first, and never boring.
