Well, with this idea my entrepreneurial path begins. I always worked as a freelance, then I started a digital venture with some friends, then I continued alone putting together a new team and at the time I had a window of time to create something that was always in my head… a form of expression, of connecting with people, that’s how Mayan Pitz came about, an idea that I managed to materialize to rescue a bit of our culture in a creative and interactive way in my own way with a mobile game, a launch that I remember negotiating at the Art Museum, which was packed to my surprise and that of everyone, which had a great personal impact for me and the entire team at the time, which opened doors and opportunities, some taken advantage of and others that had to be worked on.

I believe this was the first window that opened in my travel path and that expanded my ideas by understanding the value and potential of the culture that is appreciated and well exploited in other parts of the world and that can be enhanced in my country. The first time I understood the concept of entrepreneurship, I had the opportunity to meet extraordinary people in 1 week of training, networking and opening of knowledge. A memorable adventure that taught me the importance of the cultural openness that we must have towards others and the collaboration that you can find in other places. This would not have happened without the good disposition and invitation to participate in a contest that the Ministry of Culture of my country made me, the truth is that I never looked for the event, I came because of the launch we did of Mayan Pitz.

This experience, which lasted three days of mentoring and presentation to present the venture, gave me encouragement and empowerment, and allowed me to meet extraordinary people and diverse ideas in other fields. Although it was a competition and the investment objective was not in my favor at that time, the IDB team really played an important role in changing my way of seeing the potential of ideas, the opportunities we can create, and the value of the things we create. It was an event that I remember with great gratitude for making me grow as a professional and as a person and allowing me to overcome my frustrations to transform them into opportunities that allowed me to continue with my venture.

Thanks to the support of the IDB, who invited me to give a talk in Peru, I learned how to tell stories to connect with the audience. I had personalized mentoring for almost 3 months to know what to tell and how to tell, write and prepare… although it was a challenge for me at the time and I felt that I was very nervous… I greatly appreciate having had that support that continues to help me today in my way of selling and telling my ideas.

This acceleration and coaching opportunity opened up almost a year after having participated in Idear soluciones. In this activity there was a special category that promotes culture. At this moment I understood the potential that digital media have to transform many contents or places into recreational or virtual spaces so that new generations can interact. I learned about new ventures and it helped me grow professionally to make better negotiations at that time in my life.

One of my goals when I started out in the gaming category was to go to the GDC (Game Developer Conference). Fortunately, a collaboration program between Agexport and GIZ gave me the opportunity to make this a reality. It was through a market study in which I was involved to gather the potential talent and opportunities that exist in Guatemala and Costa Rica, with the GIZ program that I was able to meet more young people with similar visions and of whom the most advanced were selected to participate in this event as a country block, a very satisfying experience to learn about negotiations, publishing, networking and much more.

This experience taught me about the power of an idea and public relations, since thanks to the collaboration of a friend we were able to call on many talents from Guatemala to join this idea and thus we were able to make a unique launch with a social message to inspire through a mobile game. This initiative also allowed me to validate the potential of 2 digital business models in games, the game worked well at the time and opened the door to other projects, although it is no longer active it helped me continue to find my way and I discovered that through a game I can express my ideas.

In my quest to learn, how to make my mobile game ideas work knowing that there is no industry in Guatemala? led me to make a risky decision, in which I first had to win a local contest to access a small fund which I invested in knowledge, by taking a business course in Finland, this course opened my mind about the budgets that are invested in digital ventures oriented to games or applications, business models in applications and the entire ecosystem of acceleration of creative ideas based on games, which can be applied to other businesses and which are VC companies. In the end I decided to return to Guatemala, because one of my goals is to make my ideas work knowing that in my country the ideal conditions do not exist, so you have to be more creative with the resources you have.

This was a personal experience in which I had the opportunity to be a kitchen assistant at a very unique event for the transfer of culinary culture. I learned about the order, presentation and discipline of this category of kitchen businesses, as well as about the cultural challenge of communication in cities where only one language is spoken.

Through the ICrea commission at Agexport, I applied for a business coaching session and we were selected as a company in the German Cooperation GIZ support program to learn about the technology ecosystem in Germany, which brought 40 Central American companies to visit a large, medium and small city. This was an experience that broadened my vision of how digital ventures scale in first world countries, the importance of collaboration between large and small companies, and the perception of the distance between countries to do business.