The day my sister and I won Apps.co following the Vuelta a Colombia
Some stories aren’t planned; they simply align. This is one of them.
When the Apps.co call appeared —the Colombian government’s program to encourage and promote startups— my sister and I felt it was the right moment. Not because we had a brilliant idea fresh out of the oven, but because we carried an old obsession: capturing field information and turning it into something useful.
That obsession went back a long way. Since 2001, at our family business CM Distribuciones, we were already reporting deliveries in near real time. Back then we used WAP technology, with those “snake” Nokias that today look like museum pieces. Our assistants were among the first to have data plans, and we ourselves used them to consume the information. It wasn’t a fad: it was an operational necessity.
We sold CM Distribuciones years later, but something stayed planted. The methodology, the taste for field data, the intuition that there was still huge, untapped value there.
With that legacy we applied to Apps.co. We were disciplined, methodical, almost academic. We followed the Canvas model step by step, understood the problem, the customer, the value proposition. And it was precisely that exercise that led us to an uncomfortable but key conclusion: the original model wasn’t viable. A B2B delivery-reporting business couldn’t be built well in eight weeks.
So we did what today sounds obvious, but at the time hurt: we changed the idea.
We went from wanting to solve “the business” to solving “the problem”: capturing field information. And in that pivot an unexpected opportunity appeared. An agency that did the logistics tracking of the Vuelta a Colombia needed to report, in real time, what was happening stage after stage.
In less than three weeks we achieved a minimum viable product. We weren’t a big team or a sophisticated development studio. We were methodology, obsession and many hours. The application worked. It captured real information, in the field, under pressure. It was our trial by fire.
We won the Apps.co iteration for Bogotá.
And without fully knowing it, that’s where Atiemppo was born.
Today, more than 13 years later, the company is still alive. It builds technology, creates solutions, thinks about data, user experience and now artificial intelligence. But the root is the same: understanding what happens in the field and making sense of it.
Some lessons, seen from today and from AI
Over time, and now in a world crossed by artificial intelligence, that early experience leaves lessons that are still relevant:
- Adapting isn’t giving up. Changing your mind in time is a strength, not a defeat. Today, with AI, iterating fast is even more critical.
- Believing in methodology matters. The Canvas didn’t give us the answer, but it led us to the right question. In complex environments, method is still an anchor.
- Listening to the customer is irreplaceable. Neither then nor now does technology replace understanding a real need.
- Innovation isn’t a moment, it’s an attitude. Yesterday it was WAP and field capture. Today it’s AI. Tomorrow it will be something else.
In the end, good stories don’t start with technology. They start with real problems, curious people and the courage to change course when it’s time.