MEXpreneurs Podcast

Jovan Rebolledo is Co-founder and CEO of SkySpec.

SkySpec is a SpaceTech startup based in Tokyo, Japan. SkySpec is focused on satellite and aerial-driven Earth observation, combining real-time satellite images with AI monitoring. Through its technology, SkySpec helps businesses, governments, and other organizations in the real-time monitoring of oil spills and wildfires, as well as in the optimization of high voltage electricity grids. SkySpec is currently building pilots for power companies, has produced two patents, won an entrepreneurship contest in Japan, was selected in an acceleration program in Australia, and is participating in the XPRIZE Wildfire, a global competition for wildfires recognition.

Jovan is originally from Xalapa, Mexico. He is an innovator, scientist, and engineer focused on the application of exponential technologies to solve the world’s greatest challenges. He has more than 20 years of experience in AI research and applications. He is a serial entrepreneur who has founded companies across Mexico, USA, Japan, and other countries in different domains like SpaceTech, EdTech, and Drones, all having exponential technologies at their core. He is also a fellow and a faculty member of the Singularity University, a US-based global organization focused on exponential technologies. In addition, Jovan leads Exponential Japan, a Japanese consultancy helping clients like SONY to succeed in the creation of new disruptive business models leveraging exponential technologies.

Content:

03:20 Jovan’s roles as a future creator, innovator, inventor, scientist, and engineer

05:30 His North Star: accelerate the progress and positive impact from exponential technologies in humanity and in the world

06:15 What are exponential technologies and why they are key to solve our world’s greatest challenges today

09:25 “Exponential Development Goals” as a continuation to the current Sustainable Development Goals

12:15 Jovan’s introduction to computers and entrepreneurship (e.g. a “Mexican Facebook”) in Xalapa

16:35 His tenure at Laguna Verde, the only nuclear powerplant in Mexico, and his experience with cutting-edge technologies

17:15 Jovan’s first exposure to the Silicon Valley

18:30 Why and how Jovan moved from Mexico to Japan to focus on robotics and AI at the Kanazawa University

22:55 Jovan’s participation in the inaugural Graduate Studies Program in 2009 (GSP09) at the Singularity University in the US

27:15 Why Jovan chose entrepreneurship vs other career paths

29:45 His contribution back to Mexico from Japan in fields like entrepreneurship and AI

32:00 Jovan’s best advise to aspiring founders

Learn more:

Jovan in LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jovandavid/

SkySpec in LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/skyspectech/

SkySpec website: https://skyspec.tech/

Episode page: https://www.mexpreneurs.com/podcast-skyspec

Our supporter for this episode: https://www.partnershipleaders.com/

Juan Carlos Elizalde from LightEd Play joins us again together with his co-founder, Pamela Elizalde, to talk about their startup and team.

Juan Carlos and Pamela, together with Luis Eduardo Barragán, Arturo Cortés, María Fernanda Torres, and Ivan Pérez, are the founders of LightEd Play, an Ed Tech startup based in Mexico City.

LightEd Play keeps the mind active and makes learning a fun experience through Artificial Intelligence and Gamification. Its lighthouse product, Zoombers, is an app for children in elementary and middle school which changes emotions towards mathematics into positive and happy moments and also fosters the development of STEM competencies and 21st-century skills. Zoombers is helping thousands of students at schools across Mexico, Latin America, USA, and Spain. LightEd Play has received multiple international awards and recently established a legal entity in the USA as part of its international expansion strategy.

Juan Carlos is CEO and Pamela is Art Director. In addition, they are siblings, brother and sister.

Juan Carlos is responsible for the overall company leadership, strategy, and go-to-market.

Pamela leads user experience, user interface, and graphic and brand design to make Zoombers fun and appealing for children.

In addition, Luis Eduardo is responsible for the technology back-end and cloud infrastructure, Arturo for the videogames conception and creation, Ivan for the math curriculum and the AI engine development, and Maria Fernanda for customer success and building relationships with schools. Together, all six founders cover the critical domains to build and scale an EdTech venture like LightEd Play.

Content:

04:30 The fear for math and how LightEd Play is solving it and turning it into an engaging experience

08:10 How fun and personalization are key in this new experience, both for children and teachers

12:50 The evolution of the math class powered by Zoombers

14:55 How the role of teachers and parents evolves and expands beyond the classroom

17:40 Zoombers impact in key education metrics

21:50 The positioning of Zoombers in the Ed Tech space and its “secret sauce”

25:30 Why six founders, the contribution of each one, and the extended team

29:10 Traction of LightEd Play in Mexico and abroad, including its USA expansion

32:15 Growth as the key priority for the next 12 months

35:00 Juan Carlos’ and Pamela’s advise for aspiring founders

Learn more:

Pamela in LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pamela-elizalde-2935a59/

LightEd Play in LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/zoombers/

LightEd Play website: https://lightedplay.com/

Episode page: https://www.mexpreneurs.com/podcast-lightedplay

Our supporter for this episode: https://www.partnershipleaders.com/

Juan Carlos Elizalde is Co-founder and CEO of LightEd Play, an Ed Tech startup based in Mexico City.

LightEd Play keeps the mind active and makes learning a fun experience through Artificial Intelligence and Gamification. Its lighthouse product, Zoombers, is an app for children in elementary and middle school which changes emotions towards mathematics into positive and happy moments and also fosters the development of STEM competencies and 21st-century skills. Zoombers is helping thousands of students at schools across Mexico, Latin America, USA, and Spain. LightEd Play has received multiple international awards and recently established a legal entity in the USA as part of its international expansion strategy.

Juan Carlos is originally from Mexico City. He is a software engineer and right after graduating from university he started his first company, BitWorks, a software development firm. Juan Carlos founded BitWorks together with two of his university classmates, Luis Eduardo Barragán and Arturo Cortés. They later created their first product, Mi Auxiliar Contable or MAC for short, an accounting system. Soon after they launched Illumina, which then became Zoombers and expanded the team with three additional co-founders, including María Fernanda Torres, Ivan Pérez, and Juan Carlos’ sister, Pamela Elizalde. Juan Carlos is currently focused on scaling LightEd Play, although Bitworks and MAC continue running in parallel.

Content:

03:20 Juan Carlos’ passion for education and the challenges he realized in math learning

06:40 How he and his initial co-founders started in college building a solution combining fun and learning

08:20 Their entrepreneurial journey after college graduation: a software development company, an accounting product, an educational product

10:40 Why he, as a software engineer, decided to start a software development company right after college

13:40 How they built services and products, their pivots, and how they combined them to stay in business

16:45 The milestones leading to LightEd Play: Ilumina, European investors, Zoombers

17:55 The evolution of the software development company and accounting product

20:00 How he managed to build a portfolio of services and product companies with software development at the core

26:00 His impact in education beyond business

27:30 Juan Carlos’ advise to think international from the beginning

Learn more:

Juan Carlos in LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/juan-carlos-elizalde-moreno-37063b9/

LightEd Play in LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/zoombers/

LightEd Play website: https://lightedplay.com/

Episode page: https://www.mexpreneurs.com/podcast-lightedplay

Our supporter for this episode: https://www.partnershipleaders.com/

Erika Giorgana from Pitribe joins us again to talk about her startup and team. Erika is Founder and CEO of Pitribe, an HR Tech startup based in London, UK.

Pitribe is an Agile HR Management System for corporations to streamline their core human resources processes and to build an agile culture. Pitribe is used by over 20 large corporations across Europe and the Americas including Fortune 100 companies.

Pitribe is a solution developed in-house at Humand, a UK-based strategy and business transformation consultancy.

Erika is both the CEO of Pitribe and Humand and is currently, in parallel, managing Humand’s successful consulting business while also building Pitribe as a rising tech startup.

Content:

03:00 Why companies are becoming simpler, faster, and closer to the consumer and the market gap that gave birth to Pitribe

06:55 The challenges big corporations, “the elephants”, are facing to evolve vs startups, “the leopards”

08:50 Why big corporations should aim to become “elephopards”

11:15 The limitations of existing core HR management systems (HRMS) to support this transformation

12:45 How Pitribe integrates with the tech stack of big corporations

17:40 How Pitribe is ending with the “line manager monarchy”

19:20 Pitribe’s customer base, how it started within Humand, and is now ready to fly on its own

22:50 How Pitribe and Humand as organizations are evolving

25:45 The benefits of Pitribe growing inside Humand

26:50 Pitribe’s priorities for the next 12 months

28:55 Erika’s best advise for aspiring founders: solve a problem that resonates with you at a personal level

Learn more:

Erika in LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erika-giorgana-b5804516/

Pitribe in LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/pitribe/

Pitribe website: https://www.linkedin.com/company/pitribe/

Episode page: https://www.mexpreneurs.com/podcast-pitribe

Our supporter for this episode: https://www.partnershipleaders.com/

Erika is Founder and CEO of Pitribe.

Pitribe is an HR Tech startup based in London, UK. Pitribe is an Agile HR Management System for corporations to streamline their core human resources processes and to build an agile culture. Pitribe is used by over 20 large corporations across Europe and the Americas, including Fortune 100 companies.

Erika is originally from Mexico City. She is married and is the proud mom of three children. Erika had a 14-year tenure at Unilever, a multinational corporation behind leading consumer brands such as Dove, Knorr, and Ben & Jerry’s. At Unilever, she held multiple HR-related roles across Mexico, Latin America, and Europe. This led her to understand the importance for large corporations to evolve into agile and people-centric organizations and to start her entrepreneurial journey.

Content:

02:45 Erika’s roles as mom, wife, and entrepreneur helping organizations become more human

04:30 Why companies are becoming purposeful, high-impact, human systems

07:00 Erika’s North Star to be light so others can shine

08:15 Her professional journey in HR at Unilever and the foundation of Humand, Erika’s consulting company

10:00 Why building her own business vs continuing her corporate career

11:40 How Erika came up with the ideas behind Humand and Pitribe

16:00 Erika’s initial business hypothesis and its validation

17:50 How new companies are being built following an agile mindset

19:40 Erika’s career abroad in Latin America and UK

21:30 Her connection to Mexico

23:50 Erika’s advise to pursue entrepreneurship if you have a big idea and have done an initial validation

Learn more:

Erika in LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erika-giorgana-b5804516/

Pitribe in LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/pitribe/

Pitribe website: https://www.linkedin.com/company/pitribe/

Episode page: https://www.mexpreneurs.com/podcast-pitribe

Our supporter for this episode: https://www.partnershipleaders.com/

Juan Ocampo from Skyflare joins us again together with his co-founders, Zaher Mazuq and Claudia Nagel, to talk about their startup and their team.

Skyflare is a cybersecurity startup from Berlin, Germany. It was founded in 2021 with the mission to make e-commerce safe for webshop owners. Last year, the company saved over 600,000 euros in marketing expenses to their more than 40 B2B customers through their click fraud protection solution.

Zaher is CEO, Claudia is CFO, and Juan is COO.

Zaher is originally from Israel. He moved to Germany in 2017 to become the CTO of KIWI, a PropTech market leader in the DACH region in access systems for residential buildings. Before KIWI, he worked at IBM and developed security solutions for banks.

Claudia is a German serial entrepreneur, tech investor, and holds a Professorship in Logistics. In 2018, she founded High Rise Ventures, which invests in early stage PropTech startups. Before High Rise, Claudia founded KIWI, worked for a decade at McKinsey, and founded other ventures in e-commerce and B2C.

Juan is originally from Mexico. He moved to Berlin in 2013 to study a Masters degree. He then joined KIWI, where he met Claudia and Zaher and raised through the ranks during 5 years, starting as a working student all the way to becoming Head of Operations. He later continued working with Claudia at High Rise as Venture Development Manager before co-founding Skyflare.

Content:

03:00 Skyflare’s mission to make every webshop secure, especially the small ones

08:00 The role Skyflare’s plays in the cybersecurity stack of their customers, starting with click-fraud protection

12:00 The initial ideal behind Skyflare based on the founders’ struggles with online shopping

15:00 The “Aha! Moment” who brought the founders together to start Skyflare

17:35 Why every euro spent in AdWords by a startup matters

18:30 The role from each founder and why they are deliberatively building a small team of max 10 people

22:20 Why the founders are the winning mix to make Skyflare a success

24:30 Skyflare’s priorities for the next 12 months: fundraising, customer acquisition, and integrations

26:10 The trust-based hiring process used to build the team and culture

28:30 Their top advise for aspiring founders building small, high-performing startup teams

Learn more:

Juan in LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ocampojuan/

Zaher in LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zaherm/

Claudia in LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-ing-claudia-nagel-0b66395/

Skyflare in LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/skyflare/

Slyflare website: https://skyflare.com/en/

Episode page: https://www.mexpreneurs.com/podcast-skyflare

Our supporter for this episode: https://www.partnershipleaders.com/

Juan Ocampo is Co-founder and Chief Operations Officer of Skyflare.

Skyflare is a cybersecurity startup from Berlin, Germany. It was founded in 2021 with the mission to make e-commerce safe for webshop owners. Last year, the company saved over 600,000 euros in marketing expenses to their more than 40 B2B customers through their click fraud protection solution.

Juan is originally from Mexicali, Mexico. He moved to Berlin in 2013 to study a Master degree at the Technische Universität Berlin. He then entered the German startup scene, holding multiple roles as VC investor, startup founder, lecturer, and researcher with focus on proptech, real estate, Internet of things, and e-commerce. Juan is passionate about initiatives in the intersection of technology, education, and diversity.

Content:

02:30 Juan’s work in the intersection of technology, education, and diversity

06:45 His transition from Mexico to Germany

15:00 Juan’s entry in the Berlin startup scene at KIWI, an IoT startup

17:25 How Claudia Nagel, KIWI’s Co-Founder, became Juan’s sponsor, opening new career possibilities

22:40 Juan’s 5-year career cycles and his evolution from startup operator to startup investor in PropTech

28:40 His connection to Mexico inspiring younger generations to pursue a path on technology entrepreneurship

31:20 His best advise for aspiring tech startup founders: resilience, who to take advise from, and reading

Learn more:

Juan in LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ocampojuan/

Skyflare in LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/skyflare/

Skyflare website: https://skyflare.com/en/

Episode page: https://www.mexpreneurs.com/podcast-skyflare

Our supporter for this episode: https://www.partnershipleaders.com/

Alan Ramos is Founder and CEO of Libre Foods.

Libre Foods is a biotech startup from Barcelona, Spain, which is reinventing meat with fungi. Libre was founded in 2021, has raised over three million euros in venture capital, and launched the first fungi-based bacon in the European Union.

Alan is a solo-founder. This fascinating, especially considering that Libre is a biotech startup and that Alan does not have a technical background. This is not the typical setup you would expect at a biotech startup. Nevertheless, Alan’s determination and his unwavering commitment towards Libre’s mission led him not only to overcome these constraints, but also build a great team from the beginning, cope with the ups and downs of every fast-growing startup, and achieve major milestones during the last 3 years.

Content:

02:30 Intro to Libre

03:20 How fungi-based food can outperform animal-based food

04:55 Libre's mission to reinvent meat with fungi and biomass fermentation and to fix the food system

09:30 History of FoodTech, alternative proteins, and Libre's journey so far, including latest grant won to double-down on R&D

13:50 Why Alan chose to be a solo-founder in biotech despite being a non-technical founder

18:15 Libre's leadership team evolution

22:05 Priorities for Libre in the next 12 months

27:30 His best advise for aspiring tech startup founders: have a clear why

Learn more:

Alan in LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alan-ivan-ramos/

Libre Foods in LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/libre-foods/

Libre Foods website: https://www.librefoods.co/

Episode page: https://www.mexpreneurs.com/podcast-libre

Our supporter for this episode: https://www.partnershipleaders.com/

Alan Ramos is Founder and CEO of Libre Foods.

Libre Foods is a biotech startup from Barcelona, Spain, which is reinventing meat with fungi. Libre was founded in 2021, has raised over three million euros in venture capital, and launched the first fungi-based bacon in the European Union.

Alan is Mexican-American, born in Laredo, Texas. After his bachelor in the US, he moved to Taiwan. He then worked and travelled during 3 years across 20 countries in Asia. During this timeframe, he became vegan, which led him to move to Germany to work at the ProVeg Incubator, the world's first accelerator program for plant-based, fermentation-enabled, and cultured-food startups. After 2 years and securing his initial investment, he moved to Spain to start Libre.

Content:

02:30 Alan Ramos and his different roles as a plant-based advocate, an environmentalist, and a social entrepreneur

05:20 His humanities background, his search to have a large-scale impact, and how he chose food as a way to help as many people as possible and the environment

08:10 Moving from the US to Asia and how this shaped Alan's career to focus on both what the planet needs and what people want

12:50 Germany as a gateway to business, entrepreneurship, and startups in the early days of the alternative proteins industry

20:15 Focusing on fermentation and fungi as a path towards protein sovereignty

24:10 Moving from Berlin to Barcelona driven by Spain's strong food culture and biotech talent

26:00 Connection and potential of Mexico and Latin America in alternative proteins and food transition

27:55 His best advise for aspiring tech startup founders: just get started

Learn more:

Alan in LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alan-ivan-ramos/

Libre Foods in LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/libre-foods/

Libre Foods website: https://www.librefoods.co/

Episode page: https://www.mexpreneurs.com/podcast-libre

Our supporter for this episode: https://www.partnershipleaders.com/

Today we have Humberto Martínez, Rodrigo Martínez, and Tom Leenders with us.

They are the founders of Nerit’e, an agricultural technology startup from Aachen, Germany, which was founded in 2022 and has raised 800,000 euros in private and public investment.

Humberto is CEO, Rodrigo is Chief Operations Officer, and Tom is Chief Technology Officer. Humberto and Rodrigo are brothers, originally from Queretaro, Mexico, who moved to Aachen in 2022 to build Nerit‘e. Tom is from Germany, is a mechanical engineer, and he joined Nerit’e after working at BMW and at his own startup.

Content:

02:20 Intro to Nerit'e and their mission to diagnose soils to keep them healthy

05:00 How big is Nerit'e today

06:05 The roles of Humberto, Rodrigo, and Tom at Nerit'e

08:50 The benefits of building Nerit'e in Germany

11:00 How the founders' mix impacts the chances of success of Nerit'e

14:00 Their journey as founding team

18:15 Priorities for Nerit'e in the next 12 months

22:45 Culture at Nerit'e

25:50 Their best advise for aspiring founders

Learn more:

Humberto in LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/humberto-martinezbarron/

Rodrigo in LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rodrigo-martinez-barron/

Tom in LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-leenders/

Nerit’e in LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nerit-e/

Nerit’e website: https://nerite.tech/

Episode page: https://www.mexpreneurs.com/podcast-nerite

Our supporter for this episode: https://www.partnershipleaders.com/