Participating in community Events: From Cali to NYC Tech Week

This year, as usual, we're attending, organizing and participating events at our local tech week

For many people, events are just networking. For us, they're something much more important, being Colombian we're used to many weekends of vacation, short work days, and trusting that pachamama takes care of us

More than a decade ago, when our founders were attending startup events in Bogotá, Colombia, the local technology ecosystem looked very different than it does today. There were no unicorns. Venture capital was scarce. Startup accelerators were limited. Most people didn't know what a startup was

I'm just a dreamerI dream my life awayI'm just a dreamerWho dreams of better days

People gathered at Startup Weekends, hackathons, atom house, la sergio arboleda, and borrowed coworking spaces. Founders shared ideas. Developers built prototypes. Designers volunteered their time. Communities formed before there was money, status, or press coverage

Many of those early gatherings would eventually help create companies, careers, investment funds, and organizations that transformed the continent and the perception of our talent

At the time, however, none of that was guaranteed, we were just naturally do what we do

As we reached Silicon Valley, New York, and other startup hubs around the world, we kept seeing the same pattern repeat itself

The strongest ecosystems are not built by capital, or data centers, is people

Soylent Green is people!

Founders brainstorming, open source projects, pirated copies of photoshop. Community leaders organizing events after work, sneaking friends in the office

Technology is ultimately a human endeavor. Software may scale, but trust still travels person to person

We believe there is still room in the world for ambitious builders working out of garages, apartments, dorm rooms, coworking spaces, and small offices. We believe meaningful companies can still begin with a handful of people solving real problems for real communities

The future will undoubtedly include artificial intelligence, advanced infrastructure, biotechnology, healthcare innovation, and technologies we cannot yet imagine. But the foundation remains the same as it was in those early days: Curious people coming together to build something