Stiven Martinez

Bet, let me tell you something about Stiven Martinez, this guy’s the real deal in Latin American tech and startups. He’s a Colombian product designer turned entrepreneur who’s crushed it across multiple fronts.

So, he jumped into the scene with over 15 years of vibe in UI/UX, branding, and frontend dev. Dude wasn’t just doing some side gigs, he was working with big names like Grupo MContigo, handling media sites that pull in over 10 million folks a month. That shows he’s got serious skills in making digital stuff work at scale.

But here’s where it gets wild. In 2020, he jumps into Y Combinator’s winter batch, W20, which is basically the top-tier of startup accelerators. That’s no joke. It means he’s got that grit, vision, and hustle to get recognized by the big leagues.

Before YC, he co-founded GuruHotel, a platform that helps hotels manage bookings and stuff, and he didn’t just join as a regular guy. The founders, Josue Gio and Jorge Flores, invited him in because they saw his talent. Stiven took the reins on product design and led the creation of GuruHotel’s first version. The guy’s a builder, he helped them scale from nothing to $60K in sales in just months, then crushed it further to hit over a million bucks in sales by Q1 2024. Now, over 300 hotels are using the platform. That’s not just growth, that’s explosive.

What’s his story saying? It’s about hustle, skill, and the drive to build shit that actually works. He’s not here to make things look pretty, he’s all about making a real impact. His background in graphic design, plus studies in entrepreneurship, shows he’s got the perfect mix of creativity and business smarts.

And honestly, what I get from his process is that he’s super motivated by solving problems, making things expandable, and pushing Latin America into the global tech scene. He’s proof that with the right skills and grit, you can jump from local gigs to global YC-stage startups.

Bottom line, Stiven is one of those guys who’s just getting started. He’s got the experience, the network, and the vision to keep crushing it in the startup world. No cap, he’s the kind of founder to watch, the real deal.