My Professional Life:
I‘ve been working in the digital space since 2012.
At the time I started as a part-time graphic designer and worked my way up to become the marketing manager for all of LATAM, Brazil, and the Caribbean at an international video game exporting company.
During that 2 year period, I had effectively replaced my previous position by creating an integrated e-commerce solution that allowed the company to sell video games at wholesale prices to all of their customer 24/7 instead of using phone/email as was traditionally done.
After successfully launching this platform without knowing much programming I decided it was time to start filling in some of the gaps in my knowledge.
I started by freelancing, building websites and email blasts, setting up digital marketing campaigns, and consulting on the technical side for various agencies and freelancers across Miami.
At the end of 2016, I decided it was time to bite the bullet and learn how to code. I took the money that I had saved for college (10k) and put that into a coding boot camp where I learned full-stack web development and became a software engineer.
I continued freelancing, this time primarily for agency owners who were looking to outsource specific areas of their contract where their team may not have been the best fit.
That’s how I met Ryan Stewart.
Ryan and I both worked at Miami’s first coworking space, which is also where the coding boot camp I attended was held.
After my daily classes were finished I would spend my time speaking to the various entrepreneurs in the space; often time it would result in work I used to supplement the material taught in class, as well as my income.
I worked on a few projects with Ryan, though never as a full-fledged team member. In early 2018 Ryan sold Webris to a company called I’m From The Future, and well, the rest is history.
I was invited one day to come and meet the new partners at FTF, seemingly just as a networking opportunity. I had no idea that they had codenamed me ‘Unicorn’, or that I would actually hit it off with Nick (CEO) and Vinnie (CTO), or that a month later it would result in a job offer for me to come in and scale up some of the design and development processes at the merging agency.
Since joining FTF in 2018 I’ve transitioned my efforts to building out a world-class UX department, leveraging my experience in graphic design, marketing, web development, and software engineering to ensure we can build amazing experiences, run on machines, meant for people, and optimized for business.
My Personal Life:
I watch anime, play with my dogs, read and sometimes I sleep too!
Fun Facts About Me:
- I was actually born in Havana, Cuba and came to the U.S. when I was only a toddler. So I can’t actually be president but I also can’t salsa dance!
- My favorite quote is:
“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”
― Seneca
