From Zero to Founder: Lessons from 10 Years in Tech and the Music Industry
Looking back, what strikes me most about my path as a founder is not what I achieved — it's how long it took me to understand the rules of the game. I started in front of a computer in Medellín at seven wanting to know how websites were built. Today, after founding an agency, working inside the music industry, and building Sleem, I understand that code and beats follow exactly the same laws: if you don't solve a real problem, you don't have a business.
These are the lessons that have marked me most along the way.
1. The market doesn't pay for what you think you're worth — it pays for the problem you solve
At Qué Código, my first agency, I learned this the hard way. Many times we had the strongest technical product on the project, but the client didn't want the best code: they wanted their business to work better. When we understood that, everything changed. The same applies in music: many artists spend years perfecting their production without realizing the listener doesn't evaluate the mix quality — they evaluate whether the track says something to them. The market pays for perceived value. Always.
2. Systems always beat shortcuts
In my early years I looked for the fast route. With Shennay we had a real moment of success — a million streams, the shows, the recognition — but when there's no system behind it, that moment doesn't become a business. It becomes a good story to tell. At Qué Código, building real projects for real clients over the years, I understood something I've applied in everything since: if you can't sustain growth, growth will crush you. Consistency over shortcuts. Always.
3. Transparency is not a marketing value — it's business architecture
In my time in music distribution I saw firsthand how a lack of clarity in reporting destroys the relationship with artists. Not always from bad faith — often simply because the systems weren't built to handle the data they were managing. I learned that transparency is not something you declare on a website: it's built into the foundations of the product. That's why it's one of Sleem's core pillars — not as a promise, but as architecture.
4. You get what you pay for
I've watched founders pinch pennies on their own technology thinking they're saving money. I've watched artists use cheap distributors and lose royalties they will never recover. Cheap gets expensive in lost time, missed opportunities, and damaged reputation. Investing well in the right tools isn't a cost: it's the entry fee for competing seriously.
The thread connecting everything
Reaching 2026 with Sleem up and running is not luck. It's the result of learning the hard way, of projects that didn't go as expected, and of gradually understanding that building something that lasts requires being as rigorous about systems as you are about vision. I don't define myself as a musician or a developer: I define myself as someone who enjoys building solutions to real problems. That's what I keep doing.