Talk given in the #tsn15 @ Mexico City

1. Working at a startup
as the CTO
Tech Startups Nights #TSN15
Mexico City, 2013-Jun-20

2. Disclaimer
I’m not a CTO
I don't work at a startup
WTF?
Why I'm here?
Because I used to be a CTO at a startup
Because I have a story to share, a life story

3. The beginning
I quit my job as development manager at BMV
(Mexican Stock Market)
I joined a startup in the music business
With the most impressive technical team I ever had
With a lot of resources
With a very ambicious plan
Earning less money than my previous job

4. My first results
The most challenging project ever in my profesional life
Teamwork, agile environment, extreme programming
Multicultural
The better hires != the best team
Focus is key
More features, more time, we never delivered a product, lack of
MVP definition
After a year I was disappointed. So, I returned back to work in my
own company for a few months, until...

6. ¿Y si se trata de trata?

7. First reaction
“sarcasm”: “Seems legit”
I didn’t respond...

8. 3 months later...

9. Epic adventure began
A friend of mine asked me for some hints to hire
developers
Very difficult to find developers with a specific skills and
knowledge
After some weeks and more details, my friend asked
me to join the startup as the CTO

10. My first day
9:00 am. Conference call with the development team at
Berlin, Germany
11:00 am. Quick talk with the CEO
11:05 am. CEO to me: “have you been in Germany?,
No?, ok, Tonight, make your luggage. Tomorrow
morning you will travel to Berlin. We will launch the
store in 2 weeks”

11. Startup Spirit
Go as fast as you can
Build a team, the right team. Very risky.
Deliver, deliver, deliver...
fail fast?
Ecommerce platform built from scratch

12. Launch
Spent two weeks in Berlin, learning about the project,
very intensive days (Payment Gateway for Mexican
Market)
One week after I came back to Mexico, we launch
One week after Mexico launching, We launch in
Argentina
Platform not ready for latam market, huge efforts to
adapt

13. Global deployment
http://www.springstar.com

14. Global deployment
http://www.springstar.com

15. Global deployment
http://www.springstar.com

16. Next steps
Built the development team in Mexico
Took ownership of the platform
Hardware infrastructure
Software development
New business requirements
Flexibility, Agility

17. Some numbers
3 to 100 employees
0 to 5 million users
180 million emails sent a month
200k-300k visits daily
1.5M > page views daily
80K concurrent users
20K-50K new users daily
1000-3000 purchases daily

19. Good stuff
clickOnero bought several startups
National presence
Won the prize for “Best internet company in Mexico
2011”
Culture

20. “Ecommerce Company
of the year in Mexico”

21. Dev Team Culture
No control freaks
Freedom
Embrace innovation
Write code and take care of the code
Automate almost everything
DevOps

22. Bad stuff, very bad
Logistics
Call center
Customer service
Lack of commitment by Merchants
Crisis, end of the world¡

23. End of the world
No money, no more funding
Layoffs...
Affected Customer service
Decrease operational costs
Technology. <- Oportunity

24. ¡clickOnero by Mexicans!
New era
New business model
New team
New strategy
New CEO
New ecommerce platform, new technology
Oportunity¡

25. My personal profit
Learn, learn, learn a lot
Stronger,
More confident
Best experience in my life

26. Hey CEOs, don’t forget