Maritza Diaz - CEO of ITJuana

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And welcome back to the Tacos and Tech Podcast. I'm your host Neal Bloom and we are here here live at Nest Co Working Podcast Studio. And I am joined by Maritza Diaz, Chief Executive officer of it. Juana, thanks for being here.

Thank you for having me.

Do you want to give us a high level overview of what Itjuana is?

Yes, Itjuana is a fairly newly created company in 2019 and we're here to enable companies to create software centers of excellence in Tijuana. You probably have heard about the digital disruption that's impacting almost every company and every industry that wants to become relevant in the future. So this phenomenon is driving tremendous amount of pressure in companies to hire digital talent and unfortunately there's not enough digital talent in the country. And so it Juana is offering this new Pool of talent accessible to us only 20 minutes down the road.

Awesome. Well, thanks for being here. We're excited to hear more about that, especially get to know more of the TJ community. But let's get to know you a little bit. Where did you grow up? Where are you originally from?

So I'm originally born and raised in Quito, Ecuador, and I moved to the US 20 years ago and I loved it. This is now my home.

What brought you to the US Originally?

So I was very happy down there with my first job out of college, and then my company offered me to move to the US for one year. And being in technology, I'm a software engineer myself, I didn't think twice because technology here in the US Is way more advanced than Ecuador. And so I figured I'll be there for a year, learn a little bit more, and come back. And it's been 20 years, and I'm still here, and now this is my home.

Got it. Okay. So you studied software engineering in School? Yes, man. 20 years ago, software was a little bit different, I guess.

Very.

Yeah. But what specifically kind of products were you working on 20 years ago?

Well, back in the day was the boom of E commerce, and you probably remember the 2000s, where Y2K was about to happen, and all the E commerce boom in the Bay Area. And so I was working on E commerce implementations.

Okay, and where were you when you first came to the U.S. i came.

To Chicago out of all places in January 1999.

Not a good weather city for January.

Yeah, exactly. I quickly realized I moved to a very different part of the world where I needed to own a coat.

Very different than the equator.

Oh, yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

But what brought you eventually to San Diego again?

Work. So back then I was working for a company called Thermo Fisher Scientific, and they were headquartered back here in California. And so they offered me to relocate, and I did.

Okay.

So 2010. I've been here for 10 years now.

Oh, wow.

So what? Looking back 10 years ago, what was San Diego like from a technology center in your mind?

Well, coming from the east coast back to the west coast to me was, okay, west coast is all the Silicon Valley and all the major tech companies. When I moved to San Diego, I realized it's not necessarily Silicon Valley here, but still there's a lot of influence of the technology here in California, just in general. So for me, it was very exciting to be part of the California move, I guess.

Yeah.

And in the biotech space too, which was interesting for a software engineer to apply yourself to the biotech world?

Absolutely. Yeah. One of the first trainings I got at Thermo Fisher was biology. And you know, it's fantastic because as a software engineer, putting your skills, technical skills, to do something for somebody's life is very amazing.

Yeah, definitely. So that was. Was that North County, Carlsbad area? Is that where you are?

Carlsbad? Yes, north county, yep.

And that was pre acquisition or.

No, pre acquisition.

So Life Technologies.

Life Technologies.

Okay.

Really cool. So and then you stayed through the acquisition?

Yes, I. I was with the company for 19 years before I decided to leave.

Okay, that's a big deal.

Yeah.

And so when you started, you were in Carlsbad, you're in North County.

Yes.

And did the company have any presence in Mexico at the time?

No. So like any other company, Thermo Fisher was looking to become the leaders in digital science. And so they. I was a senior executive in the company and they asked me to build this digital capability for the company. So we started creating software centers of excellence in India and it went very well. We grew that site to 400 people, but we needed more. And so when that time came, we decided to find a second location for center of excellence just to minimize risk and other aspects. And so we were considering Asia, Europe and Mexico. But Mexico, we were looking at the traditional places like Guadalajara or Monterrey.

Sorry, just for our audience, why traditional and what does that mean?

Means because in Mexico, Guadalajara is known as the tech hub for companies. So we were looking at that, and we're members of the San Diego edc. And so those folks mentioned to us, hey, what about Tijuana? And we were like, what, are you crazy? Tijuana is not tech. And so they're like, well, you should come one day for a day trip and see if it might be a possibility. And so we did.

Okay.

The rest is history. Take us through a little bit. What kind of products were being built in India and Tijuana?

So we are the leader, Thermo fisheries, the leaders of serving science. So the customers are scientists. So we provide. We're essentially kind of like the Home Depot for science. So everything and everything you will need to do your science, you can find a Thermo Fisher. So the products we're building were very scientific in nature. Secondary analysis, applications for human genome, or storing your data from your lab results, et cetera. So we wanted to accelerate science.

Wow, that's incredible. And to do it all over the world.

Exactly, yeah.

What does a center of excellence mean, specifically?

A center of excellence is, first of all, high quality High quality in not just the people, but also the practices. The way you write your software guarantees no bugs, which is pretty amazing. Also, fast delivery, highly innovative, and very predictable.

Okay.

But it's not product specific or talent specific. It's just a focus on what kind.

Of product there is an aspect of congregating specific talent. So for Thermo Fisher, we did have a software center of excellence where we mainly had software engineers. And when you congregate the talent, the skill set, you could leverage the knowledge and the talent to always get even better and better and better.

Got it.

Okay, so what were some of those things that I guess I'm curious to think, like you said Tijuana, you kind of laughed at it at first. What were some of the first things that kind of shocked you as you started to open that first office?

Yeah, and I am sure I'm not the only one. But even today, Tijuana has a reputation, not just in the U.S. but even in Mexico, where people might think that it's not a safe place or not really a place where you will find high tech. And little that I knew. When I went there the first time in 2015, I realized that the gap between perception and reality, it actually represents opportunity because it's not dangerous and there are high tech talent. And it is an opportunity that we have not leveraged fully.

Yeah, definitely. Where is the talent? Is it kind of homegrown within tj or is it coming from elsewhere? And people are kind of moving to be close to the border.

So When I started 2015, we were the only Fortune 500 company doing this. So we were pioneering the software community, if you will, in Tijuana. And when we started, we couldn't really find a ton of technologists like local. And so we started relocating from Guadalajara, Mexico City, Monterey, even other countries like Venezuela, and you name it, even India and France. At some point we hired, we created this melting pot. But then five years later, we started to also invest locally with universities in Tijuana as well as San Diego. There are programs, partnership between the two sides of the border to continue to build that kind of talent. And so today you find the talent available and we continue to create those programs with colleges and universities to make sure that that talent continues to be there.

Interesting. We talk obviously in San Diego. It's not a hard sell to relocate to San Diego from anywhere else like Chicago.

Right.

Is that similar in tj? It considered kind of a gem of a place to move to, or are there other more desirable places in Latin America that you have to like, make the right offer to a software developer to say, hey, here's the full opportunity to be in tj.

Yeah. I'll say for the rest of Latin America, Mexico as a country is very attractive. Now, Tijuana is not because of that stigma or that perception that I spoke early, but when our tactics were to bring people to see it. Because you have to see it. You have to be there to know that those perceptions are not truth. And so we've invested on bringing folks to visit and to make a decision after that.

Okay. Yeah.

Seeing is believing, for sure. And maybe, you know, you have to make the right offer, the total package offer in that. To get the right person to come.

Yes. And one of the interesting aspects of being a border town in Tijuana is that the salaries are essentially in US Dollars. Right. And so for Latin America, that's a big plus.

Definitely. Interesting. See, I think most Americans would think even having talent right across the border, it's actually cheaper. But it sounds like it's pretty. Pretty similar to San Diego prices, no?

Oh, okay.

We pay in US dollars, but we pay the equivalent of a local salary.

Okay.

The cost is relatively low. A fraction of what will it cost you here in San Diego, for sure. And that's one of the benefits that companies are looking for.

Yeah.

And so close, obviously to San Diego.

Correct. There are essentially four key benefits of looking at D1 as an option. One is geography.

Right.

20 minutes down the road and you have access to your talent. Low cost, a fraction of what will you pay here in the us High quality. I mentioned software centers of excellence and essentially a large pool of resources that aren't available. It's just you can't find them.

Got it.

That's great. So you're setting up shop in 2015 or so. First company there. And it sounds like other companies started opening up too, or got out.

Right?

Yes.

Which is good for you because they pull more talent to the area too.

Correct.

Flash forward to 2020 now. How many companies now have software centers in TJ?

So as far as I know, there's still a small number of companies. As far as I know, Samsung is there and some others that have set shop because of manufacturing reasons. And then they started to grow their software there. But that's part of the reason why ITJ or itjuana was created, because I saw that there is a lot of interest I've seen in these five years. I always hosted companies interested in Tijuana because I was seen as the success story. And so they will always come through my door and tell me, oh, I really want to do this. But it never happened. And so I realized it's mainly because they don't have somebody that actually knows how to do it and wants to do it. And so that's the gap I'm filling with Itiwana, is that companies are interested, they continue to visit the region, and I will do it for them.

It's a big deal. It's a big leap for you, too, coming from a software background, jumping into this entrepreneurial role. How long did you kind of think on this before you took the leap?

So when working for Thermo Fisher, I took this role. I raised my hand and I said to the CIO back then that I wanted to do this in Tijuana. And he said, are you sure? Because you're a software engineer. I'm like, yeah, I want to do it. I had a personal passion, and I just wanted to do it. And sure enough, I had to learn about legal, hr, talent, acquisition, finance, you name it, even facilities. And, you know, a few years later, I told the cio, you know, I feel like I can. I can do my own now. I can open my own company. And he was like, yep, you probably can. And, yeah, I did.

Did it take. I mean, did you have to, like, get to a certain point mentally to do it, or, like, I'm just curious, like, when you're looking over the ledge and you said, okay, I'm in. I'm taking the leap. Like, what was that last. Last point to make you do.

Was timing. It was also opportunity. So I mentioned it's an opportunity that is not very well exploited. And I could see this through the years, and I had companies reaching out to me and saying, hey, Maritza, can you give us advice? Can you help me? And some company wanted to hire me to do this, and I said, wait a minute, I can definitely help you because I do want to bring more companies to Tijuana, but maybe I'll just do it myself. There was another aspect as well, of personal, like I mentioned, and being Hispanic. I'm not Mexican, but I'm Hispanic. And I do want to be able to help the community and create highly paid professional jobs in Tijuana so that they also have a really good style of living. And so I want to do that. It benefits both sides of the border. So why not?

Definitely.

Are you seeing. I'm curious, because Thermo Fisher was not far away. They're in San Diego. Are you seeing more San Diego companies of interest or are they companies from more like elsewhere, not on even the same time zone. With an interest in tj.

Absolutely. This capability will make sense for all of the US because when you see what happens, most of companies are going to India like we did. And the problem with that is that they are on the other side of the world. So when it's not here, is they there? And so somebody on the other side of the line has to be up and that's not sustainable. Whether here is same time zone or two or three hours at most, which is still very good. Now because we're starting, my focus is San Diego and in California in general. Why? Because geography. I, I do want to highlight the fact that it's only 20 minutes drive. You could be there in the morning, be with your team all day and come back for dinner with your family. You don't ever have to get on a plane. Yeah, I mean that's a big deal.

Yeah, definitely.

And I think what's interesting, I think more, at least tech workers like ourselves know more like the dev shops.

Right.

The outsourced development. But this really big deal is that these are your own employees that are literally 20 minutes away. I think that's pretty cool to highlight as well. Do you see a bit of a mixture of people who work say at an arcis Nexus Minehub, but then also are just as interested in working for a multinational kind of company? Being an employee?

I think absolutely. Who you work for is very important for people. When I recruit, I recruited probably four or five hundred people in the last few years. And one of the deciding factors for them to move is the company that you're going to work for and what kind of product you're going to work with. And that's where San Diego brings a unique aspect to Tijuana, which is, you know, we do have a large biotech sector here in medical device companies. And the products that we are working on today with Itijuana are touching people's lives, patience. And for a professional like me and like those in Tijuana, being able to work on a product that is going to change somebody's life means a lot.

Yeah.

And so it's not so much about how much money am I going to make, it's about what kind of benefit my product will bring to society.

Yeah, yeah, makes sense. Especially with the SD life changing mantra that we've kind of really adopted here in San Diego. I mean, it's true.

Exactly.

Yeah.

We want to work on impactful things.

Yes. And I've been fortunate to have customers in Those industries that are bringing those fantastic products. And so for me it's very easy to recruit because great product, great company and just. It just works.

Yeah, absolutely. So are you full time in TJ or do you go back and forth?

I commute, so I live here, My family's here, my kids are here. But it's close and so I go in the morning and come back for dinner.

Okay, that's great. Where are you working out of right now in tj? Take us through kind of like where a tech worker spends their day.

A day in the life?

Yeah.

Well, we start with the location. So we are in Zona Rio and for those who are not familiar with tj, it's kind of like the financial district.

Right.

The nice, really cool trendy part of the city is actually only four minutes after you cross the border. So it's very convenient for folks in the San Diego side. We are at a co working facility called Easy Working. You have probably heard about it. If not, you should go visit. It's actually a really, really cool place. So we have our offices there. You come in, in the morning and we operate in an agile environment. So we have Scrum teams. And as a developer you start with your stand up, your daily standup, 15 minutes or less and you start working on day to day work assigned to you or that you decide to work with your team. We deliver a product every two weeks and it's working product. So companies can release that product after two weeks. And like I said, we follow Scrum and so there are specific ceremonies that we follow, retrospectives to make sure we always find ways to improve. And we do demos so the demos are open to everybody, can come in, critique and provide feedback. So it's a very cool, highly open communication between the two sites. Now typically folks in TJ come to San Diego and vice versa. So we also offer a shuttle service that is door to door to make sure that we have that collaboration, that open communication and face to face that you cannot have anywhere else. We want to highlight that. And so approximately 100 people from both sides of the border come and go every day.

Oh wow. Okay.

Specifically to within this co working space and then back to the other side.

Of the border for companies that are working with Itjuana.

Yeah. Oh wow. Okay.

And then after work, obviously it's, it's go and eat some of the local foods.

My God, yes.

Yeah.

So the best food that you can ever imagine is in Tijuana.

Yeah.

And it's not chain restaurants. It's all like amazing, amazing Places. I always make sure I have my lunch and sometimes dinner there. And then the breweries are also popping up everywhere and they're really good. Not to mention the wine from Valle de Guadalupe, which is also one hour down, is fantastic. So highly recommend it.

Yeah, we might as well do some shout outs. Usually on the podcast we ask people their favorite taco spot in San Diego. I don't think it's the right thing to do unless we're asked. Favorite taco spots in Tijuana. Do you have a few?

I have many. It's hard to pick the best, but you can never go wrong with Taco Nazo.

Okay.

What'S the right order there? What do the smart people order?

The tacos al pastor. You'll be blown away. And it's a very simple place. Plastic chairs and plastic tables. But the tacos are fantastic and they're open 24 7. There's another place called Telefonica which is a food truck scene with a lot of different options and it's just fantastic. So the Pulpo taco is fantastic.

Okay, awesome.

Good to know. We Startup San Diego, which I'm a part of just this Monday, did their first Mondays event in tj. We do it three times a year and next trip down we'll have to go and try some more of those, but we have with the startup community of tj. Yeah, we do three times a year meet up in TJ and they do a tour of a tech crawl throughout part of the tech community.

That's great. So what's your favorite taco place in tj?

Oh, I haven't had a taco in tj. I know I haven't been there at a time to actually eat for other reasons.

You have to.

Oh, I know it's on the list. I know you're calling me out and I will do it. I'll go with you.

I'll take you. Yeah, I'll take you.

Absolutely. Well, Maritza, thanks so much for being on the podcast. Thanks for giving us an insight into tj. Where can people learn more about it? Juana.

So we're on LinkedIn and also@www.itwana.com.

Okay.

And specifically give us a little bit more about what's the right size company that should be. When should they be looking to open a place in?

The opportunity is open to anyone. However, we're focusing on mid to large size companies, but we're welcoming anyone. I want to bring hundreds of Thermo Fisher companies to Tijuana.

Great.

I do believe that it will leverage its trends on both sides. This so called Calibaja mega region should become the next Silicon Valley.

Yeah, absolutely. Where do you see TJ in five.

Years becoming the Silicon Valley of Mexico.

Yeah.

Okay, well, let's help make it happen.

Let's do it.

It'll be great for everyone here, that's for sure. Well, thanks so much and all the best. Happy 2020.

Thank you. Happy 2020.

Thanks for joining us on the Tacos and Tech podcast with Neil Bloom. Thanks again to Cox Business for helping make this possible by expanding the reach of the San Diego tech ecosystem. Big shout out to School of Rep for our radio intro music. And thanks as well to Nest Podcast Network where we are recording live inside their studio at Nest Co Working in Bankers Hill. You can find Neil Bloom on Twitter eelbloom as well as fresh brewed tech and tacos and Tech Pod on Twitter too.

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