Thursday, November 12, 2026 · Boulder, Colorado
About Juan
From early curiosity to building systems at scale: how I ended up consulting with Fortune 500 companies and founding multiple ventures.
The Beginning
I grew up in Colombia, taking things apart to figure out how they worked. That curiosity became a career: I have designed and built enterprise information systems for companies in more than 15 countries, over three decades.
Learning the Craft
I learned the craft by building. Across more than 300 software projects, more than 150 of them led, in roles from developer to architect, I worked for public and private organizations including IARC, the UNDP, DANE, the Instituto Nacional de Cancerología, and Baker Hughes. That is where the fundamentals of distributed systems stopped being theory: software that has to scale, run by people who have to maintain it.
The Leap
In 2000 I founded Virtual Business. Running it meant much more than writing code: as operations manager I was responsible for the company's operations in four countries, including development methodology, the engineering group, and cost control. Building software turned out to be an operational discipline as much as a technical one. Gattaca later acquired Virtual Business, and that is how I joined Gattaca as CTO, where I led product development as the company grew past 150 employees and entered European markets through a Madrid office.
Building at Scale
At StudioCom I led the .NET group on worldwide projects for clients such as Dunkin' Donuts and Baskin-Robbins. Since 2006 I have worked with Microsoft's platform and development group in the Andean region as a speaker, and in 2008 I joined Microsoft Colombia as a Developer Evangelist. After Microsoft, I launched 3Metas, and in 2020 I co-founded 23blocks.
The AI Transformation
Machine learning had been around for decades. What changed is that practical AI and LLMs became accessible and immediately useful, and that changed everything.
Through 3Metas and 23blocks, AI became the product itself: we build AI-powered software, including AI Maestro, a platform for orchestrating AI agents. That work now sits at the center of my consulting, helping enterprises move AI from demos into real life.
Present Day
Today, I split my time between consulting with enterprises on AI strategy and distributed systems, building my own ventures, and mentoring the next generation of technical founders.
Through 3Metas and 23blocks, I'm focused on putting AI to work inside real companies: agents doing real work, distributed systems that scale, and the teams that run them. I also served on the board of Intercambio Uniting Communities, a Boulder nonprofit that teaches English to immigrants, from 2019 to 2021, and as chair from 2021 to 2022. That work continues today, most recently with an AI integration for the organization.
Selected clients
A compact list. Tap a name for what I did there.
For JM Family Enterprises, a $24.7 billion company ranked No. 13 among America's private companies by Forbes, I spent ten years as a Sitecore subject-matter expert, software architect, and hands-on developer. I was responsible for all seven corporate and division websites, and carried them through successive Sitecore migrations to the latest version, and helped build the Southeast Toyota Finance portal and its integrations with the company's core financial systems. I also worked on multiple application and service modernizations: moving services to AWS and Azure, automating pipelines, and optimizing services, to the point where every payment coming into the company passed through software I built, whether online payments or integrations with Bank of America and other payment systems. I was a member of the company's initial AI practice, which brought AI-assisted solutions to the call center to improve customer service.
Credit Suisse was one of Switzerland's global banks, with about 50,000 employees and CHF 1.3 trillion under management before UBS acquired it in 2023. Built advanced Windows Communication Foundation services for its trade-core applications (2015, via Globant).
Autodesk, the design-software company behind AutoCAD, reports about $6 billion in annual revenue with around 15,000 employees. Built clients and services for its CloudStack virtual-machine deployment and management work (2014, via Globant).
Designed and delivered Vivanto, Colombia's national system for attention and reparation to victims of violence, integrating multiple data sources through APIs, serving more than 10 million people (via Globant).
Santander is one of the world's largest banks, with about 180 million customers and €1.8 trillion in assets; Colpatria is one of Colombia's largest banking groups; BANCOLDEX is Colombia's state-owned development bank. Built transactional web banking systems for them, integrating distributed databases, AS400 systems, and message queues (via Intercom, 2000–2002).
Petrobras is Brazil's state oil giant, with about $91 billion in annual revenue; Roche is the Swiss pharmaceutical giant, with CHF 60 billion in sales and over 100,000 employees; Proexport is Colombia's government agency for exports, tourism, and investment (now ProColombia). Directed technical work across BPM, CMS, e-commerce, and project-management products for clients including them and Colombia's health ministry (via Gattaca, 2003–2007).
Baker Hughes is one of the world's largest oilfield-services companies, with $27.8 billion in revenue and about 57,000 employees. Work for Baker Hughes and its Centrilift artificial-lift division in Venezuela.
The Project Management Institute is the world's largest project-management association, with 700,000+ members in 200+ countries; Valvoline is the motor-oil brand sold in 140+ countries. Built the Project Management Institute website in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, and the Valvoline website (both via Studiocom).
Duff & Phelps, the global financial-advisory firm now known as Kroll, with nearly 5,000 professionals in 30 countries. Built their first website for Colombia and implemented their first email system.
IARC is the World Health Organization's specialized cancer research agency. Built information systems that helped develop a vaccine against HPV, the virus that causes cervical cancer.
Core Beliefs
Credentials
When I'm not building systems or advising companies, you'll find me climbing in the mountains of South America or training outdoors. I believe balance isn't about equal time, it's about being fully present wherever you are.
I live in Colorado, on the Front Range, and work with clients across the US and Latin America. I work in Spanish and English.