Exploring Mexico's Rapidly Growing Tech Hub | Alejandro Martinez, Parvada Cowork & Co

Today's founder journey comes to you straight out of Monterrey, Mexico. We're talking to Alejandro Martinez who has been instrumental in galvanizing the tech ecosystem in Monterrey. It's a young tech ecosystem that's got a lot of potential. Alejandro is going to share us his journey of building a co working space, but also engaging a new class of entrepreneur.

3, 2, 1.

What's up everyone? I'm here in beautiful Monterey, Mexico doing our international tours, kicking them back up again now that Covid's starting to subside. I'm in Monterey at Parvada, co working space with Alejandro Martinez. You're the administrative manager. Yes.

Alejandro, welcome to Monterrey.

Thank you. It's been a real reminder of Vancouver because the weather is cloudy and apparently it's very rare that.

Yeah, we are, we are like on a semi desert weather.

Yeah, normally.

So these are really strange weather. But you feel like home.

Yeah, for me it feels like home. So thank you for bringing this cloudy weather. Tell me about you, Alejandro, and your journey. What brought you here? And then we want to talk about Parvada but more importantly talk about the Monterey ecosystem.

Okay. So I'm an industrial engineer and I like a lot to manage companies and communities. So basically I have a startup called Everest. But this is a good example of what a co working will be on a future. So we are now living what we are going to expect on the future for co workings. So this is an idea that emerges with the idea of co working and it didn't adapt from other offices or an existing space. So we tried to make a cozy space and I really like the concept so that's why I'm working here and I'm really happy. And we're expanding a lot here on.

Parvada Corp. And when did Parvada start?

Like four years ago.

Four years ago, because. So two years in. Yes, you got Covid and then of course slowed down.

It was, it was a road, a tough road. But right now people is starting to coming back here and Monterey is a business city. We have a lot of entrepreneurs, a lot of startups, people what we call millennials. They are starting to make a company and they need a space. So I'm a believer of this project of Parvada and I really like, as you can see, there's a lot of birds because the word Parvada is like when the. When many birds they arrange and travel to a destination and they work with each other and they make a really good dynamic so they can help each other to reach their goals or their destination.

It's actually really a good analogy because entrepreneurs need a flock to work together. That's one of the things that we always say, like you never know who's around you, but everybody has something to teach, everybody has something to learn. And startup entrepreneurs learn more from other entrepreneurs than they do from the mentors or other advisors.

Totally.

And so obviously Covid has been very disruptive. What are you seeing now? It's February or end of January 2020. What's the sentiment? What are you seeing happening in the ecosystem?

Many changes and they are quick changes. So you need to adapt quickly. What is happening? We have new products almost each month to make people to work as they are doing right now with COVID because there was higher companies with big offices and right now they are making home office, but they actually need a space where they can come and people can get a proper space to work and not on home. Because as you may know, sometimes you're working and then you go to the kitchen and start eating and then the workflow is. You stop the workflow. So people has a lot of. It's not fear or anxiety, but they're just trying to adapt quickly so they can continue with their business and don't losing track. So many adaptation might be the work that the world. And it's kind of strange because sometimes the cowork is full of people and then the other day is almost empty because people is trying to guess what is next.

Well, like on a day today when it's cold outside, everybody maybe I won't go to the office, of course.

And we are not used to these weather. So more today.

And so there definitely was the sentiment that the corporate office is dead. Everybody can work from home, everybody can be remote. But you're seeing people coming back and that's changing. Yes. What trends are you seeing outside of the work environment for the Monterey tech startup scene?

There are many right now. We know that disruptive companies are the future. So many people is trying to make the traditional business a disruptive organization. And in this process they need to see what is happening in the world because Mexico depends in many aspects of other countries. We have great engineers, we have creative people here. And Monterey is really close to the United States. So we're always trying to lead. But many people and also with startups, they are looking at the global markets to adapt their company. So right now we see a lot of people, maybe a construction business, they are trying to to add technology so they can disrupt and they stop the linear growth and they can make an exponential growth so many people is trying to do something here.

A lot of traditional businesses looking to adapt and grow and adopt to new technologies.

And many people is trying to make their own business. I'm talking about 25 or 30 years old.

So the younger gen millennials, Gen Z, they're being entrepreneurial, they see the opportunities around the world and say, why can't I have that myself?

That's great. And also because the economy as many other places is hard. Monterey is very competitive. We have 6 million citizens. 10 years ago we were like 1.5 or 2. So it is a lot of competition. So many people try to do a side project.

That's another point that's yeah very on point around the world. I've seen that trend everywhere. Give us some examples of some success stories from Monterey, primarily in the tech space. Like young hot startups. What do you like? Who do you think is exciting? What do they do?

Okay, so I don't know if this is a Monterey startup, but there's like a virtual market that is called, which is like. I don't know how to spell it in English. What is something like justice. Someone who is just. Or just in time, maybe something like that. That is a market that goes to your house. This is an idea that was already, that already exist. But they are making it sound more traditional here on the culture of Mexico. Also, I believe Kabak is a Mexican company. I don't. Maybe I'm making a mistake. But this is a car deal. They are car dealers. Yeah, but like really quick you can change your car in one day and they use technology to do that kind of of work.

And they're a unicorn. They're over.

They are unicorns.

Yeah.

And there are many unicorns that I can't remember right now. But I'm pretty sure that there are many projects working here in Monterrey. Successful projects.

And so if I was to ask you Monterey technology startups, what sectors popped your mind? Fintech, health, tech, ag tech. Like what pops you first comes to your mind?

I would say construction and financial services people are like going through there.

And so construction, prop tech, construction tech, that's actually really hot sector right now. There's lots of opportunities and especially when you looked at the in the US the build back better Canada and other countries look at trying to build bridges out of the COVID downturn in the economy. The best way to do is invest in infrastructure and you naturally go to industrial infrastructure, bridges, buildings, other type of things. But we were just talking about the virtual infrastructure, the metaverse web3 and then building things in that front. What are you seeing around web3 here in your core space, your fellow entrepreneurs, your fellow Gen Z millennials.

So many. I'm a tech freak or geek, so I really like this metaverse thing.

Industrial engineer as well.

I'm an industrial engineer and I like a lot of managing with new technologies. But the metaverse, when you see the word metaverse to someone new more than a half, they start reacting like, whoa, I like my physical world, why do I need a metaverse? But when we expand our minds and think about this person, that he cannot go out from home because something happened to this person and he can go to the market again using the lenses, then you can see that there are some applications, that they are good applications. The metaverse is not like taking our physical world, but it's just trying.

There is also the VR metaverse, but then there's augmented reality and the mixed reality and so there's all these different layers to it.

Yeah, so I'm really interested in this topic. And actually, as I was telling you some minutes ago, I bought some land on a virtual metaverse Air 2. And it has been fun. But also I have gained some little money right now because it is just starting up. But I believe this is the future and change is the only constant.

The layers of financial participation that were never there before, but also the creativity and the ability to start thinking outside of the box, outside the norm. What can you do? What can you build? And just sparking a lot of creativity, people.

Yes. Actually there's right now a lot of virtual architects. They are 12 years old, what's happening. And you can see also that technology on your cell phone, on the bank, applications you can invest in five minutes, you can do a transaction in seconds. So this is the way I'm living all this part of Web3, all that disruptive technology that it will go just higher and higher and higher. So right now I try to be on the top of what is happening, but also trying to not to lose my mind on the. On the technology future, but also leave the moment of the physical world. Many people like to come here on the core, just to talk, just to have physical interaction.

Even interactions will never be replaced. Except that there are new ways to enhance the world around us.

That's correct. So people here in the Corg come and sometimes just to have a coffee and to work 15 minutes, but to get out of the environment and actually get to have a talk.

Alejandro, it's amazing talking to you and learning about Monterey. Thank you for having us At Parvada, we're doing our info session around Vancouver, startup ecosystem and startup visa here with your entrepreneurs. What's your parting words? What would you like our audience to know about Parvada, Monterrey and the startup ecosystem?

So again, welcome here to Monterey. We're very happy to have you here, Monterrey, Mexico and in Parvada. We hope this is not the, well, the first but not the last time to have you here to make community, to have a good time. But also maybe I would like to say to, to have a look at Monterey. It is a very interesting city. Many opportunities coming, many interesting investments to do here in Monterey. It is a very good place to. A really weird statement or analysis is that some days, some years ago, Monterrey was Inside the top 10 happier cities in the world. We don't know why, but we are really happy to live here in Monterey for every reason. We like to gather in our houses and make like barbecues. Maybe that's the best way people can see it. So we are very.

The quality of life culture. It's a happy place.

We like to meet with friends almost daily to really enjoy the city and have barbecues, see the soccer games. So we really, we like the traditions of Mexico, but we are really, we like to work a lot. We're workaholics.

So work hard, play hard. You have the tennis tournament coming up.

The tennis tournament coming up in three weeks. It is the WTA 250 tournament. The number one of the world is coming here and we are expecting to maybe have an interview here and we're, we're giving also tickets.

So it's awesome. So if you are visiting Monterrey, come and work at Parvada and dig into the startup ecosystem.