"Busy isn't always productive; choose purpose over motion."
Software Engineer with over 15 years of experience. Bootstrapped a software development company from 0 to 50 employees. Passionate about how state of the art technology can improve productivity and people’s lives in general.
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Table of Contents
We are thrilled to have you join us today, welcome to ValiantCEO Magazine’s exclusive interview! Let’s start off with a little introduction. Tell our readers a bit about yourself and your company.
Carlos Martinez: I was born in Venezuela and emigrated to Colombia almost 10 years ago. I obtained my degree in Computer Science in 2011 in my hometown. At that point, I already had a couple of years of experience doing software development.
I kept working until I noticed that staying there would not get me to where I wanted to be from a professional perspective, so we decided to move to Colombia.
There, I worked with multiple roles growing in the path of software development, until I was a Technical Lead for a SaaS product. At that point I decided to quit my job and start Leanware.
Leanware is a software development company that builds apps for startups and businesses worldwide. With an ethics-driven culture and world-class quality standards, we pride ourselves on delivering beautifully designed applications that just work.
In the past year, what is the greatest business achievement you’d like to celebrate with your team? Please share the details of that success.
Carlos Martinez: Getting to our growth target for 2024 in the first quarter of the year.
We were aiming to increase and strengthen our team to 50 people by the end of the year, but we are already there, basically.
What advice do you wish you had received when you started your business journey and what do you intend on improving in the next quarter?
Carlos Martinez: Being busy is not the same as being productive. For the next quarter I intend to improve our processes and customer experience in general.
Here is a two-fold question: What is the book that influenced you the most and how? Please share some life lessons you learned. Now what book have you gifted the most and why?
Carlos Martinez: It was definitely Lean Startup by Eric Ries. It opened my mind to creative ways to bootstrapping a business and validate value propositions with the market.
The book I’ve gifted the most is Atomic Habits by James Clear. It does a pretty good job at conveying the concept of compounding applied to the day to day routines.
Business is all about overcoming obstacles and creating opportunities for growth. What do you see as THE real challenge right now?
Carlos Martinez: The real challenge right now is the continuous adaptation of every single business front (marketing, sales, execution, technologies, etc) to the market needs and circumstances.
In your experience, what tends to be the most underestimated part of running a company? Can you share an example?
Carlos Martinez: There was an interview with Elon that really resonated with me.
As a CEO, you are constantly in the ugly part of the business, solving problems and situations that no one else can/wants to deal with.
That really takes a toll on your emotions and you need to find rituals and habits to make sure that stays in the office and does not get into your skin.
What does “success” in 2024 mean to you? It could be on a personal or business level, please share your vision.
Carlos Martinez: Seeing my baby daughter grow and being there for her, staying healthy, improving my fitness, and keeping our profit target %.
Jerome Knyszewski, VIP Contributor to ValiantCEO and the host of this interview would like to thank Carlos Martinez for taking the time to do this interview and share his knowledge and experience with our readers.
If you would like to get in touch with Carlos Martinez or his company, you can do it through his – Linkedin Page
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