Jorge Luis Vargas Pichardo tells us how Codemera, an independent software company is made of people passionate about the web, with skills within the realms of development, design, and content.
Tell us about you, your career, and how you founded Codemera.
Jorge Luis Vargas Pichardo: I’m a Software Engineer who graduated from the Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo (INTEC). I have more than 16 years of uninterrupted work on issues of software development, community creation, pre-acceleration, and acceleration projects of ventures, innovation events, strategic planning, evaluation of programs and projects for digital strengthening and institutional innovation of civil society organizations, local governments and public administration in the Dominican Republic, the United States, Canada, Costa Rica, and Europe. I have been a speaker on TED talks Santo Domingo.
I founded my first company, called Codemera, in 2011. For 11 years, I specialized in developing technological solutions made up of people passionate about technology, with skills in the areas of development, design, and implementation of technological products. Also, in 2018 with some friends, I founded Venture Do, a platform for teams of entrepreneurs to quickly validate and present their ideas to the market. In the end, I became CEO of Printhouse, with our slogan rocket fuel for your online art business. We print and ship museum-quality fine art prints to you anywhere in the world.
Do you have small habits that made a meaningful impact on your life and business?
Jorge Luis Vargas Pichardo: Yes, my small habits are always thinking about what we can do better and how we can impact our country and economy to be better and can give others better opportunities.
How does Codemera market its product/services online?
Jorge Luis Vargas Pichardo: Our first client was people who knew about me from my old work and friends who gave me the opportunity to work for them and do the best we know how to do. It became a reality the things they had in their mind, and they were people who knew about us through word of mouth references.
What specific tools, software, and management skills are you using to manage your online marketing?
Jorge Luis Vargas Pichardo: We use Odoo for most of our accounting and financial tracking. We also use ClickUp for our ticketing and pending so all the team knows what they have to do and the day they have to deliver the results. We keep communicating throughout Slack, where we have channels open for chilling out and channels for every project to keep the team updated. Most of our online marketing analysis is done through manual reports and Google Analytics.
How are you funding your growth?
Jorge Luis Vargas Pichardo: When I launched the company, we funded our operations with personal investment from my savings, and then when we started growing, the funding came from our clients and profits.
Who are your competitors? And how do you plan to stay in the game?
Jorge Luis Vargas Pichardo: Our biggest competitor is actually the customer themselves, as it begs the build versus buy question. Our competitors are those who decide to build their own software company instead of using our service.
Otherwise, we compete with standards that make us the right ones to work with. We plan to stay in the game, giving our clients the best of the things they want and the complete experience of our service.
Your final thoughts?
Jorge Luis Vargas Pichardo: In the years to come, I hope Codemera and the other companies become a better version of what we are right now because being better is how we can offer better services for our clients now in the future. I see us offering accessible services for entrepreneurs, the government, and all people.
With sacrifice, you can achieve all the things you dream and aspire to, don’t give up and keep going. Being an entrepreneur it’s a roller coaster, but it’s grateful to see all you have done.
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