We couldn’t talk about iUPixel, all our products, the work we’ve been doing and where are we going without having to mention the team behind it.
It’s not just any team, it’s an amazing team of people, all with great values. And they drive the efforts of everything we are doing. Today, you’re gonna be the first to get to know about us, how this project started and what drives us to do what we do.
There’s a story behind how we all met, and some events that brought us together. And this story will be written from my point of view: I’m Hugo Olivares, 32, I have founded two digital marketing companies, I live in Guatemala. I have two beautiful daughters. When I was younger, I was an avid gamer and spent most of my life in front of a console or PC. It wasn’t until I was swamped with homework at the University that I stopped doing it. I couldn’t finish the university, my dad got laid off when I was in second year. But that never stopped me following my dreams and fighting for what I wanted in life. Nice to meet you :)
February 2019, a very good friend called me very hyped and asked me: “Do you know anything about setting up nodes to run the infrastructure of a blockchain?” — and my confident answer based on the computer science knowledge I had was: “I have no idea man! But let’s find out how to do it!” and then my friend said something like “awesome dude, I’m gonna introduce you to some people. I’ll send you a link for a call.”
Long story short, I volunteered to do something I didn’t knew anything about, but life doesn’t take your effort for granted. During the process of setting up nodes for the infrastructure, my lack of knowledge came as fortune. I said I was having troubles setting up the nodes and someone in the organization said “You should talk to Cristina Manrique and Jorge Ruiz. They are blockchain developers from Mexico. They have helped set up some nodes already.”
And on I went, into a call with Cristina and Jorge, and they were glad to help. After countless days of meetings, gallons of coffee and headaches, the nodes were running. With so much time, we learned a bit about each other and I found we had good values in common.
While this was happening I was all pumped up about what has happening in the crypto space with DeFi and I really wanted to get involved in a DeFi project, or even better, START one in Latin America (I’m from Guatemala).
Days after, I found out that there was an organization that wanted to help DeFi projects launch their tokens and provide the technology needed to make it happen. I told myself: I NEED to make this happen. I’ll see it happen.
I reached out, got into a meeting and asked: what do I need to do so you can help me build the first successful Latin American DeFi project? And the short answer was “You need a team, your founders, that believe and want to see the Latin American DeFi come to life, as much as you do. Build a solid vision, a team, and a community and come back to us with a name, a team and a community.”
Guess who were the first two I asked after that meeting to join me on the journey to build the First Latin American DeFi? Jorge and Cristina. Besides the tremendous amount of knowledge and expertise they could bring to a project in this space, I knew they were amazing people, with great values and big hearts. Here’s an overview of them:
Jorge Ruiz, 31, vast knowledge in blockchain, finance and software development. He has developed tokenomic strategies for multiple blockchain projects and has extensive experience in writing smart contracts and interactions with web3. He co-founded and was CTO of AirTM, a P2P USD wallet, he left the company to start up a decentralized P2P transaction protocol named Air Protocol where he is currently CEO. In his free time he creates projects involving crypto and blockchain, such as investment algorithms. He’s also an avid gamer, participating in international Counter Strike championships (we can never win against him when we play together.)
Cristina Manrique, 31, has vast knowledge in blockchain technologies and software development. She’s worked in different projects from initial research to launch in different software areas, such as blockchain, Fintech, AR, VR, videogames and artificial intelligence. She is the Co-Founder and leads innovation and gamification in a software development company in Mexico. Together with Jorge, they’ve been able to make the company grow 10x. She loves animals and is always looking for ways to help stray cats and dogs, and animal shelters. In her free time, she enjoys petting and playing with her 2 dogs and 2 cats.
I talked to them, told them what I wanted to do, asked if I had their support, and they said “We’re all in!”.
Right after the great news, I thought about what we needed going forward to make this happen. We would need a marketing team, people helping spread the word across Latin America, and definitely, more developers.
I founded my first marketing company with my best friend, Jorge Galindo, and I knew we needed him here.
Jorge Galindo, 31, one of the best designers I’ve met in my entire life. He started working in marketing agencies when he was 16. He has extensive experience in everything marketing and digital strategy, and specializes in digital marketing and creative. He’s super into crypto and blockchain technologies, so much that he’s the founder of a national organization of cryptocurrency in Central America. He’s also the founder of an NFT collection story that has gained traction over time and has reached the top sellers in the marketplace. He occasionally enjoys playing first person shooter (FPS) and strategy games.
I knew he was also a great fit for the project, called him, told him about the challenge I wanted to bring to life, and it was an immediate yes!
Then I called Javier Borrayo, 36, also one of my best friends here in Guatemala. He studied social sciences, has an associate degree in acting, he’s a professional drummer, a software developer, an amazing storyteller and a great Film Director. He’s also a crypto enthusiast and has a lot of knowledge about blockchain technologies. In 2019 he was able to complete his first fiction feature film called Luz, winner of the best script at the Boston SciFi Film Festival, official selection of the Oaxaca Filmfest and one of the three films shortlisted to represent Guatemala in the 2021 Academy Oscars. And if that isn’t enough, Luz is the first Latino film to be financed with cryptocurrency using blockchain technology, through a token called LUZTKN, using Dapp tools developed by Breaker.io (formerly SingularDTV.)
Javier was on board after we spoke. He was curious and at the same time, he wanted to look after me, and make sure I made good decisions on the way.
I also thought about some connections we needed to expand the community in South America, so I talked to a cousin living in Perú, who usually lives there, and because of work, travels a lot around South America and the rest of the world.
Julio Lemus, 41, studied chemical engineering . Currently working as the regional director of support for Latin America in a renowned brand of laboratory equipment. Since he was a kid he’s enjoyed playing board games and PC games. That led him to open a couple of businesses dedicated to gamers. He’s given iUPixel a lot of his expertise in gaming, contacts and the social media management skills that he has developed as a side job.
I spoke to him, and he said that everything sounded great. But he wasn’t too much into crypto when we started, so he had a rough start learning as much as he could about the crypto space. Now he’s been brought up to speed and you can find him constantly learning.
Then, by recommendation of Jorge Ruiz, Adolfo joined the team.
Adolfo Freyermuth, 30, studied architecture in the UNAM, got a master degree at Virginia Tech University Architecture Center, WAAC. He’s the best friend of Jorge Ruiz. Due to his work in real estate development and his amazing charisma, he’s been able to build a nice list of contacts that we knew would help us when the moment of going public came, and also while we got there. He was in after Jorge told him about iUPixel.
And I’d be lying to you if I said that everyone I talked to said yes, and that everyone I talked to at the beginning is still here. It’s been a long ride and during the way we had to let go some people that were very excited at the beginning but when push come to shove, they had different priorities. We were initially close to 15 and on the way, we got back to the initial members described above.
After 5 months of arduous work, different LP dynamics, a lot discussions to define what was iUPixel and where do we wanted to go, why were we doing all of this, iUPixel was defined correctly as a gaming company that produces digital game experiences on the Ethereum blockchain utilizing NFT collectibles. And we also come to a very interesting moment in our timeline, we identified a bottle neck, a roadblock, in iUPixel: The development team.
Jorge and Cristina are amazing developers but most of their time was already booked by their business. We needed a team that could dedicate themselves full time to the development of iUPixel digital products.
So we had a meeting to discuss what was the right approach, and we got to the conclusion of what we needed the most: A back-end developer, a front-end developer and a full-stack developer with knowledge in contracts and blockchain. And we were fortunate enough because among the members of the team, we already knew 3 amazing guys that could fill those roles, and it was just a matter of contacting them. Here are these 3 amazing guys.
Erick Quijivix, 37, studied computer science at the University of el Valle de Guatemala, UVG. He’s one of the best friends of Javier Borrayo and of course, he recommended Erick. He’s a senior front-end developer with a large career and many web applications on his background. He teaches Jazz ensemble and double bass courses at the UTEC University in Uruguay. He enjoys playing and composing music and developing videogames in his free time.
We talked with Erick about his role in iUPixel, as a senior front-end developer, and he was really happy to be part of the iUPixel team. We knew that he would be an amazing fit because he loves games and actively develops indie games in his free time! We couldn’t be happier to have him on our team.
Pablo Contreras, 34, studied computer science. He started working as a developer when he was 17 years old. I met Pablo in the forum of a community from Spain. To our amazement, we were both from Guatemala and we happened to share the same interests. The first time we met was to trade DVD’s of anime series — before USB drives were available. He’s a senior backend developer. Most people know him for his nickname, Matrix, because of his love for computers and code that you can immediately notice when you see his Nvidia, Visual Studio and Apache server tattoos. He has a long trajectory as a DBA, Network Operations Specialist, Project Manager and Lead Software Engineer. He loves games and he’s a proud parent since 2008.
I knew Pablo so I called him to tell him about iUPixel, where we wanted to go and to tell him that with us his role would be as a backend developer. He loved everything and said yes immediately. Fun story — when he was little, he was scared of the dark and a computer helped him overcome his fear. His dad bought him his first computer when he was 14 years old. It was a 486 with Windows 98 and 256Mb of RAM. He was amazed by the computer and sneaked when the lights were off and his parents were sleeping to learn how to use every function.
Iván Flores, 31, founder and CTO at mecanica.mx, and Cristina’s best friend from the University. He’s a passionate entrepreneur and coder, always thinking about how businesses can be part of the digital transformation and how he can support the continuous development of new technologies, business models and solutions in a world where so many businesses still work the old way. He’s always learning, practicing with new technologies and developing skills. He enjoys sports, specially basketball, playing the piano and taking long walks.
Cristina talked to Iván and he was happy to join the team as our full-stack developer.
Ever since these 3 joined the team, the development efforts moved on a lot faster. What was an initial idea, quickly started becoming a reality. As time went by, the tests moved from being mostly code to local versions of the code where we could see the initial canvas for Billion Dollar Market Cap. The design mockups gradually came to life. Ideas that we didn’t think of at the beginning started coming from the developers, as part of their expertise. Adjustments were made to the interface, functionality was added to buttons, additional functionality was implemented to the user journey, to give the best user experience possible.
The project evolved so much during the last months that I cannot even remember our initial idea for Billion Dollar Market Cap, and I’m thrilled about it! Because it’s better, and it will continue evolving. We are so close to release the initial version of Billion Dollar Market Cap and we already have so many things that we want to build upon the first version, which you will be able to see in our timeline of ongoing updates that spans from Q3 2021 to Q1 of 2022.
Also, from our community we had a developer interested in joining us. She heard about what we were doing and it immediately resonated with her.
Jasmine Obas-Burdette, 25, college student majoring in Applied Computer Science with a Concentration in Computer Game Design at George Mason University. She’s also a Montgomery College Alumni where she obtained two Associates in Computer Game Design and Computer Science and was apart of the Women’s Basketball program. Her expertise are in Software Engineering, Social Media Content Creation, and Game Development. In her free-time she enjoys watching anime and playing RPG-style video games.
That’s a perfect match right! We were so happy to have her on board with the team. She’s currently in charge of designing the game mechanics of some gamification experiences we have in our timeline! It’s a surprise so stay tuned, she’s doing some awesome work!
I’m amazed and I can say I’m blessed that I was able to get the support of such a great team. They are all creative, smart, talented, passionate geniuses with different areas of expertise who dedicate their minds, energy and the unique asset you can never get back, time, towards the same goal:
Allowing iUPixel to become an important member of an industry that creates experiences that fulfill the need of entertainment, fun and happiness that all humans cherish on their free time and usually share with their loved ones. We want to be known for bringing smiles, making people laugh and reminding everyone again what it feels like being a kid again, no matter your age.
So stay tuned to our social media channels, our medium and the dynamics we will release! We hope you can be part our Why, and join iUPixel on the important mission of reminding everyone that you can always have fun and share it with your loved ones, no matter your age.
Make sure to get yourself some $PIXEL tokens to participate in our products and join our pool dynamics. You can easily acquire them in our exchange ;) https://get.iupixel.com/
See you on another entry!
