Inspired educational games
This small team of brilliant hackers and designers is building better educational games for K-12 children mainly on the iOS (iPhone & iPad) platform. They are partnering with educational institutions to build fun, educational adventures that help kids learn more effectively. The characters in the game are superheroes fighting against the Queen Ignorantia.
About the Team
Jesús Alberto Colín has a Degree in Graphic Design from Facultad del Hábitat, Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosi. After graduating in 2007, he worked at Santana Diseño, a design studio, and in 2008 joined Manolo to work on Clasesmovil. Since then he has been collaborating with Yepkema, Mindworks, and Magic Minds as a Graphic Designer. He has worked with Manolo on Yogome nights and weekends since the very beginning.
Manolo Diaz has a degree in Computer Science from ITESM. After graduating in 2005, he started working as a lead developer at Yepkema, a web design and multimedia company. In 2006 he founded Clasemóvil, an online educational platform with content from the Mexican Ministry of Economy. In 2008 he founded Localisalo.com, an online directory and review system for local entertainment. Since then he has been involved in two other projects: City Magazine, an online and printed social magazine; and Fast Bites, an online food ordering application. He started working on Yogome last year and went full-time a few months ago.
A simple, powerful phone for entrepreneurs and small businesses
Intrigued by how to measure conversions on advertising that displays phone numbers, the Fontacto team started working on generating analytics around phone calls. In the processed they learned how these metrics show clients different ways to improve their marketing messages, their conversation rates and their phone sales/support process. Now, they're bringing the power of VoIP to the long tail of small business entrepreneurs and independent professionals.
About the Team
Joaquín Martínez is a natural problem solver. When he was doing his Engineering degree he developed a mission critical system used to measure plague control on many acres of greenhouses. He design and implement the architecture of Fontacto which allows to receive, process and store thousands of calls from different countries with a low cost and high availability used by hundreds of users every day.
Toño del Río is the brains of the operation. While he was doing his Computer Science degree he was the president of the ACM chapter Mexico-Latam allowing him to break the record of participants and allowing him to participate with teams from different countries. He design the process and implemented the tools used by Fontacto clients. He is responsible for the automated invoicing system.
Daniel Martínez brings the energy to make things happen in the team. While he was working on his Engineering degree he participated in the development of digital certificated for register offices and notaries. In Fontacto he is in charge of testing and support, two of the big reasons why clients are happy with Fontacto!
Ricardo Cacique takes care of the infrastructure. During the time he was doing his Engineering Degree he designed and implemented the infrastructure for ACM Mexico-Latam. He was in charge of provisioning servers in 5 cities in 2 different countries. In Fontacto he designed the high availability and back up systems. This system enables them to back up and do data recovery at very low cost on complex systems used by clients every day.
Membership savings go mobile
Through their initial startup experience, the team learned the ins and outs of the restaurant industry, both from the vendor and consumer perspectives. Cactus now offers a geo-aware mobile app that grants access to discounts in a growing network of restaurants. The basic app is free, giving users instant access to thousands of discounts. Moreover, users can upgrade to a premium subscription and enjoy substantially larger savings on every affiliated restaurant.
About the Team
Juan Fernando Heyer began his entrepreneurial career at 16 when he started a company producing "soda pouches" and learned the challenges of creating a distribution network. From this experience he realized there were opportunities in product distribution, so he next started a small business importing clothing from the United States to Mexico. He began to work for the Agrana brand managing the relationship with their largest customers. At this point, he started his Business Administration degree while working part time. After graduating and gaining experience in the sales force, he started a company that manufactures, distributes and sells beer mixers (to create micheladas) to more than 50 bars in Guadalajara. After overcoming the difficulties of building a company from scratch, he sold his firm and started looking for the next challenge, which is when he founded La Comanda with his friend Miguel.
Miguel Ángel Martinez has a degree in Information Technologies from ITESO (Institute of Technology and Higher Education in Guadalajara). He has more than 5 years experience working as a professional software developer doing ERP integrations and web development. Most recently he worked at Nutrired, a startup providing software for nutritionists to create and manage diets for patients.
The local business directory of Mexico
Conekta is a local business directory that allows users to find and share information about any type of business across Mexico, through both mobile and web platforms. Conekta focuses on making its information accurate and up to date to ensure users find what they are looking for.
About the Team
Cristina Randall identifies herself as an entrepreneur aiming to solve big problems. She has prior experience working on several startups as part of an incubator program while at University. Her diverse background also includes working in enterprise software consulting in Canada, supply chain development in Southern Africa, offshore IT services in India, and investment banking in Japan. She studied Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo and spent her senior year in Monterrey, Mexico as part of an exchange program. After graduation, she returned to Mexico to start a clean energy company, and in the process, discovered the need for a business directory service across Mexico.
Leo Fischer worked as a Controls/MES engineer in the manufacturing space, working onsite with a number of clients to commission new installations and enhance existing systems. He has also worked in the software industry in a few different roles for slightly different verticals generally working on server-side development. His role at Conekta is data administration and under the hood enhancements. Leo studied Systems Design Engineering at the University of Waterloo and was an exchange student in ITESM Monterrey.
Hector Cardenas has a passion for technology and business. He began his entrepreneurial career while in University creating an electronics eCommerce platform for Mexico that has grown exponentially and now serves all Latin America. Hector studied Mechatronics Engineering at the University of Waterloo in Canada and has gained experience working in several manufacturing and software companies during work terms. He returned to Mexico after graduation to follow his dream of creating technology and software companies that position Mexico as one of the strongest players in these fields.
Crowd distribution for indie entertainment
Founded by hackers passionate about the independent movie industry (the primary founder was a filmmaker herself), Nuflick is trying to solve how independent movies are distributed on the Internet by building a platform to connect independent producers and films with viewers worldwide. Having been in the industry, the team understands the incentives of filmmakers and the limitations of conventional distributors, and we feel they have a real shot at disrupting the current system.
About the Team
Celeste North has a major in communication from the Universidad Olmeca de Tabasco and briefly attended the film school at CUEC (Centro Universitario de Estudios Cinematográficos, a part of the national university UNAM). A technology enthusiast since a young age, she has worked as a producer for audio and video content for traditional media and the web, and left school to create her own films. Since then, she cofounded Don't Panic Films, a film production company with two feature films and several short films, and Emprende.la, an ongoing podcast focused on entrepreneurship and technological innovation with more than 60 episodes. From 2007 to 2009 she produced CinemaNET, a TV/radio/podcast show about movies, and this experience led her to have strong ties with the movie industry and a thorough contact list. With NuFlick, she has found a way to merge her two passions: films and technology.
Rodrigo Boyzo was an electrical engineering and social psychology student before dropping out of UAM(Universidad Autonoma Metropolitana) to focus on social behavior and community empowerment through Internet products and services for governmental, educational and financial institutions. From 2005 to 2011 he consulted for dozens of companies and focused on project management, product design and team productivity. Since 2008 he has been part of the organization team of the SuperHappyDevHouse. He is excited to use his knowledge of product design to help generate a community around Nuflick.
José Luis Espinoza is a student of Communication Studies at the National University in Mexico. From 2004 to 2009 Jose worked at different companies as a software engineer, where he became adept in Linux, Apache, and MySQL. From September 2009 to August 2011, José worked for a digital marketing agency called Tequila Digital, where he was the information architect, responsible for top brands including Domino's Pizza, Pedigree, Nissan, Quaker State, Absolut, and Grupo Modelo. He has been a key participant in communities like Super Happy Dev House Mexico City and Tequila Valley.
Online community of teachers and learners
Interested in learning Spanish? Want to take yoga during your lunch break? You are in the right place! ClasesD is a marketplace for in-person lessons taught by independent professionals. Earlier this year when founder Eduardo was looking for dance lessons for his sister, he realized there must be a better way to advertise classes than flyers tacked on corkboards around town. Now, his team is helping people craving for knowledge find the right tutor in their city.
About the Team
Luis Enrique Aguilera graduated from ITESM Guadalajara with a B.S. in Business Administration. He is an entrepreneur, creative mind, and music aficionado. He is passionate about web marketing and SEO. He previously worked as a marketing and business consultant, which taught him to create powerful and innovative business models that he is eager to apply to his own startup.
José Eduardo González graduated from ITESM with a B.S. in Computer Science. Before founding ClasesD, he worked for 2 years as a Ruby on Rails developer in a startup called Inovaz (now a 500 startups company with their product Ovia), where he got his first taste of entrepreneurship and learned agile development practices.
Share your event photos across social networks
We all know how important events are for our social needs, however it's still very difficult to find all the memories and interactions of an event in a single place. Pikhub is the place to gather everyone's experience within an event. People can share and find all the pictures, attendees and interactions that happened there through a beautiful mobile experience.
About the Team
Julian Ceballos is in his last semester of Computer Systems Engineering at the Merida Institute of Technology. Before founding Pikhub, he was a collaborator for Mozilla Mexico where he worked on the Firefox SDK add-on and on the CFX Init module. Julian is excited to apply his engineering and design skills to build Pikhub.
Rich Peniche is a graphic designer by profession and an energetic salesman by nature. After graduating from Anahuac-Mayab University in 2006, he started freelancing and created a graphic design studio that evolved into a strategy firm that helps companies improve their client communications.