Santiago

About

Here I share projects and startups independent from my professional work. Entrepreneurship is challenging and often means balancing a venture with a job or another side hustle. This section focuses on personal projects and businesses I've built. Information about my project management experience can be found in my resume and future blog posts.

I started as a civil engineer who saw a Facebook ad for a 3D printer and realized I could turn ideas into physical products. In 2016, I founded my first company: a bootstrapped 3D printing business that grew to serve factories and construction companies.

Building businesses isn't just about the outcome. It's about the journey of understanding yourself and what energizes you, what you're naturally drawn to, what problems you can't ignore. There's something deeply satisfying about identifying a need in the world and building something that fills it. That satisfaction compounds into happiness.

While building, I taught Math and Entrepreneurship. Teaching clarified my own thinking, and I think it's something everyone should do at least once in their life.

In 2018, earned my Innovation and Entrepreneurship diploma at MIT. Learned systematic frameworks for identifying viable opportunities. Realized abundance thinking beats zero-sum competition.

Moved to Australia in 2023 for my Master's in Engineering Management at QUT. Led operations at the Advanced Robotics Manufacturing Hub—integrated collaborative robots with custom vision systems, automated CRM workflows using AI APIs, guided PhD research teams validating $10M+ commercial opportunities. Built an AI-controlled greenhouse that won a hackathon and secured Cisco funding.

Not every venture needs to become a decade-long company. Some projects teach you what matters by revealing what doesn't. Knowing when to close or pivot is as valuable as knowing when to push forward.

What I've learned: Perseverance compounds. Passion sustained over time beats intensity in the moment. Grit matters more than talent. Small advantages compound into irreversible leads.

What drives me: Using technology to solve the greatest problems. Leverage—building systems that create asymmetric outcomes. Exponential technologies that seem impossible until they're not. Specific knowledge you can't be taught, only earned through genuine curiosity. Long-term compounding in learning, relationships, and systems.

Right now I am looking for new problems around digital manufacturing, AI, and crypto. I use AI automations for social media and print-on-demand products, and I am drawn to systems that remove repetitive work. The more I learn about crypto, blockchain, and DAOs, the more convinced I am that AI-native organizations will open new markets and disrupt old ones.

Get In Touch

For collaborations, project conversations, or questions about my work, email me or connect with me on LinkedIn.