Okay, great. So why don’t we start at the beginning. Tell me a bit about your early years and where you come from.

Well, my early years… I come a from a city that feels pretty much like a small town in North Mexico called Chihuahua. Historically and geographically, it has been pretty isolated and is a bit of a singularity in the sense that the proximity to the border creates a culture that is similar to the American Southwest, but at the same time has a unique feel of Mexico. There’s a lot of pride about being from that area and that pride manifests itself in the observance of traditions, which include the strict definitions Mexico has about the role women are expected to play in society.

I was born there in the 1980s, and I come from a long line of people that have grown, and lived, and stayed there forever. Compared to previous generations, I’m actually one of the rare stories of “people who left town.” My parents have a very Mexican success story: my dad runs his own business and occupies a very masculine role in the family; my mom went to college and finished her master’s degree, but then chose to be a stay-at-home-mom after she had us.

“I was born there in the 1980s, and I come from a long line of people that have grown, and lived, and stayed there forever. Compared to previous generations, I’m actually one of the rare stories of ‘people who left town.'”

From the beginning, things seemed to point that I was going to be another kid that grew up there and was destined to get absorbed by the grind of the area. Outside of family businesses—and because of the proximity to the U.S.—most people there end up working in factory jobs. It’s either being part of an assembly line of some sort or managing manufacturing process and operations.

I went to school and studied electronic engineering, and throughout my studies, the mindset and the way people thought about their job opportunities in the future were like: “Yeah, I’m going to get this awesome job at this huge company’s maquila (manufacturing site) where I can put my skills to work.” That was just something that never felt quite right for me, just as many other aspects of my environment back then didn’t.

So you pursued electronic engineering. Did you have technical inclinations in childhood? What made you interested in that in the first place?

What made me interested in that is that I’ve always had this—I’m drawn into trying to understand how things work. I’m a very analytical person and a perfectionist; this makes me want to understand the excruciating details of how things work and connect. It’s funny, because it applies also to the perception of the self. I always thought it was the norm, but one of my first distinct memories as a child is about troubleshooting myself: being very aware of the things I perceived, the people I saw, and how they interacted with each other and with me.

For me, going into a STEM degree seemed like just an extension of my deep interest in understanding how the world works. Electronics seemed like such a fascinating field too, it was not something that I just learn by observing, I had to study and play with it. So it always occupied a special space in my mind.

“For me, going into a STEM degree seemed like just an extension of my deep interest in understanding how the world works.”

One of the first tangible events that inclined me pursue that degree was my first experience with Internet. I think I was about 12 when we first got Internet in Chihuahua. I remember going to this summer camp where they had like, I don’t know, 50 or 60 kids, and they were showing us “the Internet”. I was fascinated and wanted to know more about how that magical thing worked. Two things interested me. First, you have a piece of hardware—a computer—that creates this space for people to communicate.  Secondly, you also have a bunch of other things that somehow exist inside that space. Obviously, at the time I couldn’t wrap my head around it or make the differentiation between hardware and software, but being able to participate in something that felt much bigger than me made me realize I needed to learn more about it.

You were, from what I read, the only woman in your graduating college class. Was there any push back to you pursuing this field?

Yes. There was always push back and commentary around pursuing engineering. I think this even started a generation before mine. My mom wanted to be an architect and back then—that was around the seventies—my grandfather completely put his foot down and told her, “no, you can’t study that. That’s a man’s profession.” Women that want to get married—because that’s basically what the role of women in society is in Mexico—did not pursue those careers back then.

I remember growing up and seeing that, while my mom enjoyed her life and loved being with us, she also regretted not pursuing the path that she actually wanted to follow. I think she got a chance later in life to put that passion to work when my parents built their own house, but I feel that she always had this regret.

“There was always push back and commentary around pursuing engineering. I think this even started a generation before mine. My mom wanted to be an architect and back then—that was around the seventies—my grandfather completely put his foot down and told her, ‘No, you can’t study that. That’s a man’s profession.’ Women that want to get married—because that’s basically what the role of women in society is in Mexico—did not pursue those careers back then.”

I think that’s one of the reasons why my mom and my dad were pretty supportive of my choices, but I remember being asked, even by people at the university, questions like: “Is this what you really want to do? This is such a rigid and cerebral major. It doesn’t seem to match what you would want out of your life. You have a good track record, why don’t you go to a field that would put your skills to a better use?” Of course the definitions of “my life” and “my skills” were generally constrained by the narrow view of what a woman should want and be capable of.   

I even remember having a very good friend in my class tell me things like, “Well, we’re going to have to name you an honorary man because otherwise we can’t get things done.” Or being told by a male colleague “Well, see this is the thing; I’m not going to be able to treat you like a woman because you’re smarter than what a woman should be. So I will need to make an exception about how we treat each other.”  At the time it seemed oddly flattering, but it was always me, and the rest of women, and then my colleagues.

“I had to deal with others not only discouraging me with best intentions, but also questioning my ability to get things done, and making me feel really alienated.”

My time in college had these interesting factors: I had to deal with others not only discouraging me with best intentions, but also questioning my ability to get things done, and making me feel really alienated. I had the luck that my brother actually pursued the same degree—we’re just one year apart—and he was relentlessly supportive of me and a great help. We took several classes together, and having him there to tell me “I know you, and I know you can do this. You’re great, and nothing else matters. Keep going at it,” was really, really helpful. Him, and having my parents supporting my inclination for pursuing things that were out of the norm, were the two things that fueled me to keep going.

Also, as the only woman in an engineering class, people think that you have to leave behind your femininity. There’s this attitude of, “You can’t be an engineer and dress like a girl. You can’t be an engineer and expect to be taken seriously, if you’re wearing something that’s this color, or if you’re doing your hair in a certain way.”

Dating in college was funny: I would tell people what my degree was, most of them were like, “Why are you studying that? Women don’t study that.”  Or even have guys abruptly end conversations under the basis of “you’re not the type of woman I’m looking for” after finding out what I studied—standing 5’9” didn’t help either :).

“Dating in college was funny: I would tell people what my degree was, most of them were like, ‘Why are you studying that? Women don’t study that.’  Or even have guys abruptly end conversations under the basis of ‘You’re not the type of woman I’m looking for’ after finding out what I studied.”

My goodness. Then you ended up going to grad school in the United States. What was the motivation for moving to the States?

That comes way later. Moving to another country was never in my initial plan, it was something that just became possible as I advanced in my engineering career.

I first interned for a car manufacturer subsidiary, where we designed car cluster systems and quality tests. These systems are basically the panel in your dashboard that tells you whether your engine is okay, you have enough gas, and things like that. Part of it required coding in different languages, and gave me enough experience to then apply for a developer position in a Fortune 500 auto parts retailer as part of their IT operations in Mexico. I was fortunate enough to get a developer role there. It was not really aligned with what I thought I would end up doing with an electronic engineering degree, but it seemed like the right choice to make at the time, since most of my other EE prospects were back in some stage of manufacturing and I wanted to create and understand.

The closest I could get to building stuff was software. It was engineering work and I felt passionate about learning, so I grew into the role regardless of the usual “you’re one of the few women” challenges.

I eventually moved into a leadership position because I had a really good mentor that believed in me and gave me the shot, even if I was still pretty much fresh out of school. When I became a team lead, I started noticing that I wanted to learn more about how to be more effective at both managing projects and people—these were skills I never had developed with my original degree. It took me a long time to crystallize an awareness that there was a gap in my knowledge in those areas; then to actually get to the point where I could execute on it.

So there I was, leading a team of developers about two years and a half before I could even start acting on my pursuit and when I found out that Harvard had online courses that could be used to apply for a full program.

They don’t accept you right away. They require you first take three courses relevant to the program and have certain grades—B+ I think. One of the programs was really aligned with the things I wanted to learn and do.

I was working full time at that moment and you had to pay upfront, so I could not stop working if I wanted to study and I didn’t want to be tied up the terms of a scholarship. I didn’t have a great plan, but I ended up throwing myself into it, like “Well, let’s take this on.”

Completing the first courses at Harvard while working full-time was rough. I had a demanding position that would have me at work at 7 am, back at home around 6 pm—but often still on-call—to watch class and then figure out how to stay awake to work on my assignments.

“Completing the first courses at Harvard while working full-time was rough. I had a demanding position that would have me at work at 7 am, back at home around 6 pm—but often still on-call—to watch class and then figure out how to stay awake to work on my assignments.”

Certain classes would also require me to “be there,” and with the time difference this meant waking up even earlier and VCing into a class, only to cram a full day of work afterwards. I had very little spare time and most of my paycheck was actually either funding current classes or going into a savings account for whatever I had to do next. I knew I really wanted to do this, but I had no clue how I was going to make it happen. I could only keep going.

So I finished the courses I needed to get accepted into the program and had saved enough money to move over to Cambridge and find a job over there. I could not afford to just be a full time student and the student visa process could take another year or more. I was already running low on an empty tank after two years of the numerous personal, professional, and health tradeoffs I had to make to get to this point. Waiting more wasn’t in the realm of possibilities if I wanted to finish.

I quit my good paying job and moved in time for summer school and looked for work for a few months. I finally found a contractor job as a developer that left me in an interesting immigration and financial situation.  I could only take projects the staffing company approved, but unfortunately the region hit a bad economic time, and most of the jobs that we were expecting to find were not there anymore.

The situation was pretty precarious, without projects I didn’t have an income, but I still had to figure out my school and living expenses. I couldn’t take any other jobs under the risk of deportation, and I also spent a good chunk of my non-school time looking for projects and taking dead-end interviews that didn’t pan out and turn into real opportunities. My family helped, but they could only do so much with the distance and the currency exchange. It was a really interesting time in my life. I not only got to experience the challenges of being alone in a completely new place and working on my degree, but I also became very sensitive and aware of what it means to be an immigrant in this country; the adversities people need to overcome even if they have the best intentions and all the qualifications to pitch into a community.

“I not only got to experience the challenges of being alone in a completely new place and working on my degree, but I also became very sensitive and aware of what it means to be an immigrant in this country; the adversities people need to overcome even if they have the best intentions and all the qualifications to pitch into a community.”

Yeah. Tell me more about what it was like—being at Harvard, working full time, being an immigrant in a new country—did you know anyone else like you at all?

Not too many people. And that was actually really hard on me. While in Mexico, I could rely on my family and had constant and reliable support from them. This proximity evaporated the moment I moved to the U.S. This change, combined with all the job and immigration challenges, caused me to gradually lose my self-confidence and my belief that I could get things done.

People in privileged situations tend to optimize for the things that will give them the highest returns, including the relationships they engage in. At the time, I was not looking very hot in those people’s book, so it was hard to both make connections and friends who were truly interested in being part of my life. It also didn’t help that everyone was incredibly busy; people had jobs, many goals, and tended to be in networking-all-the-time mode.

There were a couple of organizations that I reached out to, and that started incorporating myself with more, but it still felt kind of forced. Maybe I had the wrong expectations about it, but it felt like you had to script your interactions and wear a mask to look appealing—to motivate people enough to start a relationship. That was really tolling and very different to what I was used to in Mexico.

“People in privileged situations tend to optimize for the things that will give them the highest returns, including the relationships they engage in. At the time, I was not looking very hot in those people’s book, so it was hard to both make connections and friends who were truly interested in being part of my life.”

There were a handful of people who became my support network, my boyfriend included. Having them was incredibly important for my sanity, but there was very little they could do to help with the job and immigration woes. For example, during a dry season of contracting projects, one of my professors offered me the opportunity to TA a class. It didn’t pay a lot, but it was a chance to get some money in and I felt really excited. I brought this offer back as a potential project to the company sponsoring my visa, but they declined since it was more expensive for them to have me make a little money than none at all.  Looking back at this makes me wonder what could I have done differently to take on opportunities like this.

So interesting. What happened after your graduated?

I actually ended up not completing my degree in Cambridge. We had a computer science fair in winter. I was showing off a project and had the luck to run into a Dropbox recruiter. We started chatting and he set me up for an interview. I started the interview cycle knowing my savings were pretty much dried up, the project situation hadn’t picked up, and my staying in the country would be difficult—if not impossible—if I couldn’t find a new project or an alternative soon. A few months without projects meant no visa sponsorship, which would result in dropping my studies and going back home to scramble. I was facing a harsh reality: I had a narrow chance of finishing my degree, after about a year of doing everything in my power to try to make things work.

I went through the interview cycle with Dropbox knowing I liked the company and I HAD to figure things out. The team was great and I knew I wanted to be part of it. Fortunately they liked me too and made me an offer, right after my other contract and visa fell through and I had a few days left to pack my stuff and go back home.

This offer allowed me to stay, but I still had to finish school. Dropbox agreed to give me a few months to wrap up most of the coursework back in Cambridge, while I negotiated with my career adviser to take the remaining classes from California.

I came to the point where I grabbed the few things I had and asked my boyfriend—who is German and had his own immigration woes—if he wanted to come with me to the other side of the country. He said yes, and we moved to California to start what would be my first year working full-time at Dropbox, finishing the remaining coursework, and finding time for a project I had started in the fall with some summer school folks.

“I would often wake up at 5 am to have meetings with my partners in Europe, go to work, come back, code for an hour, and then work on my assignments until I couldn’t keep my eyes open. Six months of trying to do these three things was enough to put me in my place: I fainted at work, ended up having pneumonia, and was completely immobile for three weeks.”

That’s a little bit of a parenthesis worth going into. That same year, I started working on a small tech venture with a few people I met in summer school. Most were part of an international program and were back in Europe when we started working on this knowledge management social network. At a high level, this project was looking to solve issues around reputable and peer-reviewed sources for academic research and how you get specialists to connect with the industry. It’s a hard problem to solve and I worked on this in between failed interviews and class assignments, because it was motivating and interesting.

When all other things started to go south, the project had kept me from feeling like a complete failure, so it was only natural that I decided to continue to work on it while I ramped up at Dropbox and worked on my few last courses remotely.  

This wasn’t cheap: I would often wake up at 5 am to have meetings with my partners in Europe, go to work, come back, code for an hour, and then work on my assignments until I couldn’t keep my eyes open. Six months of trying to do these three things was enough to put me in my place: I fainted at work, ended up having pneumonia, and was completely immobile for three weeks.

I felt really frustrated and angry because I knew that I had put myself in that situation and jeopardized my well-being; at the same time it was really hard to decide between this moonshot I had contributed to create from scratch and the ability to build a stable future with my partner in this country. I wanted to be and belong somewhere again, so I chose the latter.

Having to let go of that project will forever linger as a “what-if” that I may come to regret. However, I had to do what was right for getting my health and my work situation normalized, to finish my degree, and to get to the point that I could actually stay in the U.S.

After I moved here it became really apparent was that the opportunities and the things that I could achieve here were eons away from the stuff I imagined in Mexico.  A woman’s place in the US is not as narrow and constrained as it is in the Mexican society and there is a lot of space for creation.  I just had to figure out how to stay.

“After I moved here it became really apparent was that the opportunities and the things that I could achieve here were eons away from the stuff I imagined in Mexico.  A woman’s place in the US is not as narrow and constrained as it is in the Mexican society and there is a lot of space for creation.  I just had to figure out how to stay.”

Walk me through your experience working in Silicon Valley. How has it been for you?

It’s been, for the most part, a great learning experience. I feel very privileged and fortunate to have arrived to a point in my career where I’m finally doing something that I’m really passionate about full-time. I’m currently a Product Manager for the Dropbox desktop platform and the role has the right combination of technical challenge—for my analytical mind—and collaborative work to give me the space to be a positive agent of change. However, I was not immediately hired into this position. I started almost three years ago as a support engineer; getting to where I am today has been journey of its own.

I have to recognize that, while I set the milestones and direction for this adventure, Dropbox has been an incomparable development platform. The organization attracts incredibly talented people who are also really open, which generates a lot of opportunities for mentoring and learning. All the teams I’ve been a part of have demonstrated willingness to support and enable professional growth, overall if you have an idea of where you want to go or have concrete skills you want to obtain.

Tech can be a bit disconcerting for folks coming from other industries, overall when you look at really young companies that are the process of finding their values and character. When I joined I definitely went through an initial cultural shock. Between the famed Whiskey Fridays, where the whole company would party together, and the sometimes hilarious first world problems people would bring up, I felt like an alien in a parallel universe.  

I have to say, getting to spend time with my colleagues in a relaxed setting, allowed me to get to know them better and see there was a ton of substance behind that initial “elite party people” impression. It still took me some time to get over how disconnected from reality one can grow in this dreamlike environment. This is not Dropbox-specific, but probably more of a Bay Area thing. I’d hear people upset about having to deal with scheduling their Exec—a chore & task-doer service—when all I could think was that three months ago, I was making budgeting-fu just to buy groceries and eat more than lentils every day.

“It still took me some time to get over how disconnected from reality one can grow in this dreamlike environment. This is not Dropbox-specific, but probably more of a Bay Area thing. I’d hear people upset about having to deal with scheduling their Exec—a chore & task-doer service—when all I could think was that three months ago, I was making budgeting-fu just to buy groceries and eat more than lentils every day.”

It took me a while to learn to shake off the sense of strangeness. I could never articulate this in a conversation, but on occasions it seemed as if everyone I met had just been incredibly privileged and had never seen any hardships or experienced any setbacks in their life. It was of course a wrong first impression, which was mostly catalyzed by the competitive environment and the way it pushed people in general to be more vocal about their success than their failures.

Overtime, I was able to see all the humanity and the individuals behind those pristine and seemingly homogenous fronts. I believe Dropbox also realized that individuality and diversity is a key success factor, and little by little started dedicating cycles and very conscious efforts to attract and develop people from different backgrounds and mindsets.

“On occasions it seemed as if everyone I met had just been incredibly privileged and had never seen any hardships or experienced any setbacks in their life. It was of course a wrong first impression, which was mostly catalyzed by the competitive environment and the way it pushed people in general to be more vocal about their success than their failures.”

It was not only a “let’s change our interview and hiring strategies” kind of thing, it has been process where existing employees get involved in improving all aspects of the company and are asked to bring in ideas for the collective benefit. To me this is a huge leap and goes beyond the amount of change certain industries would be willing to challenge themselves to execute. I guess you can say that while tech can come across as immature, it is also pretty quick to identify issues, think through solutions, implement them (as imperfect as they might be), observe, and self-correct.

Yeah. Where have you found your support networks since you moved here?

My boyfriend has been my everlasting partner in crime, advisor, and even the driver of some healthy competition.  I’ve also kept close ties with my family, despite the distance. However, this time around I made it a point to find meaningful friendships and forge fulfilling professional relationships. Luckily, Dropbox is a great place to meet amazing people.

In a way, I think a lot of my friends ended up choosing me first, before I even knew we could be friends.  Some of us gravitated together because we were expats or were completely overwhelmed by the stark differences between where we came from and San Francisco. This immediate empathy and understanding that comes from knowing you don’t have to explain all your thoughts, instead you can go through an experience together, and give each other the courage to keep moving and making your voice be heard in this enormous jungle.  

Knowing other people cared, even if they were not close friends, also helped a lot. It’s funny how you don’t have to even know a person to show that you care and make a difference in their life. If I have to be honest, soon after I moved, I still had this insecurity that held me back from reaching out or forging relationships with people because of past experiences. I was a very introverted and withdrawn person for about a year before I could get over myself and open to people again. I have to thank those few folks that cared, and those who didn’t give up on me and became my friends. Those people who opened their houses and just asked me random questions about who I was and didn’t realize they were helping me get back on my feet again.

I’ve also had great mentors and teammates. My previous manager was a big influence and a great professional support. A lot of things didn’t immediately work to get where I wanted to go, but she was incredibly encouraging and didn’t let me cave in, even if this pursuit meant leaving her team.  Similarly, my current manager, went beyond anything our previous work relationship required, and was the architect for some of the opportunities that allowed me to prove myself and build the skills needed for my current role.

“Soon after I moved, I still had this insecurity that held me back from reaching out or forging relationships with people because of past experiences. I was a very introverted and withdrawn person for about a year before I could get over myself and open to people again. I have to thank those few folks that cared, and those who didn’t give up on me and became my friends. Those people who opened their houses and just asked me random questions about who I was and didn’t realize they were helping me get back on my feet again.”

That’s great. I would love to hear your thoughts on Silicon Valley versus the tech scene in Latin America. What is similar and what is different?

Oh god! First of all, I think that something that Latin America is constantly limiting itself to what other countries are doing in terms of innovation. Mexico in particular, is also very constrained by outdated regulations and ancient cultural paradigms. As a country, Mexico operates in an extremely hierarchical fashion, and in my experience, this is contrary to what you want in an environment when you want fast innovation like a start-up.

Innovation requires a collective and targeted effort, a group people pushing forward new ideas and solving problems to achieve a common goal. It doesn’t matter who comes up with the solution as long as there’s movement and breakthroughs that either move you closer to your objective or prove that it’s not worth pursuing. In Mexico this is mostly inconceivable, company culture stems from the concept of El Jefe, the boss, who is this almost epic figure who is both the CEO and looks at the big picture, but also needs to make all the calls and solve every other problem.  This is not only problematic because El Jefe rarely ends up being so epic, but it also disempower individuals and very few people get to experience a truly collaborative and semi-democratic environment. Mexican companies have a lot of problems to move forward if they don’t find a way to properly manage this.

Funding is also a huge issue. There is not that much capital laying around, and most people who have it not want to risk in technology bets, they prefer going for re-appropriating concepts proven elsewhere, or flat out projects that would further a political or social position. Mexico favors homogeneous and understood situations, being an exception or different can be a stigma more than a competitive advantage. This is a huge deterrent for innovators.

It’s a really interesting situation, because Mexico is in a privileged position to solve and understand problems that affect markets that Silicon Valley can’t wrap its head around, because they don’t exist here. If we, Mexicans, could self-analyze more and emulate less, the country would be in a much better spot.

Being an entrepreneur at scale is not common in Mexico. In general, this is reserved for people who come from money or have political connections.  Most of the new business are mom and pop shops, and even then, people who want to start their own, often need to do it as a side job first to build some capital.

“Mexico favors homogeneous and understood situations, being an exception or different can be a stigma more than a competitive advantage. This is a huge deterrent for innovators. It’s a really interesting situation, because Mexico is in a privileged position to solve and understand problems that affect markets that Silicon Valley can’t wrap its head around, because they don’t exist here. If we, Mexicans, could self-analyze more and emulate less, the country would be in a much better spot.”

How do you feel about the state of Silicon Valley tech in 2016? What is exciting to you? What is frustrating to you?

This will come across as very odd, but I’m intrigued to see how the tech scene matures and deals with economic de-acceleration. The possibility of economic troubles is never exciting, but I think there is a lot of great development and ideation takes place in less plentiful times.  Ideas and societies need to stand the proof of time, so I’m very curious about how things will fare after a bit of healthy natural selection.

Speaking about more positive things, I’m also really interested in seeing the momentum and impact around initiatives to make tech more diverse and to tighten its relationship with communities.  There still are a lot of opportunities to drive positive change.  It sometimes frustrates me to be faced with the sweeping assumption and perception that tech is an evil and selfish industry.  It’s imperfect—as any human endeavor—but there is definitely a lot of willingness and talent that is being used towards the common good.

“I’m intrigued to see how the tech scene matures and deals with economic de-acceleration. The possibility of economic troubles is never exciting, but I think there is a lot of great development and ideation takes place in less plentiful times.  Ideas and societies need to stand the proof of time, so I’m very curious about how things will fare after a bit of healthy natural selection.”

Yeah. How do you think the combination of your background and life experiences impact the way that you approach your work?

My life experiences have definitely made me overly aware other people’s feelings. I ended up developing a keen sense of empathy that I sometimes have to manage. It’s funny because, it can be overwhelming at times and I end up burying myself in technical or analytical tasks to balance it out. I rarely externalize this though!

My background is a obviously helpful and aligned with the things I want to accomplish nowadays. Having seen so many worse case scenarios, allows me to see things others tend to overlook and play devil’s advocate. You know that one important thing you forgot to do in that really important project? It’s most likely one of the things I’m thinking about right now. In a way I tend to take the posture of the forgotten because I have experienced it first hand many times. I think that’s one of the biggest values that I bring in both my role, and my daily interactions with people. My ability to understand, not only how people do something, but also their motivations, and to analyze a given situation and break it into smaller digestible chunks that can be looked at from various perspectives.

How do you think tech could do a better job of integrating different backgrounds and viewpoints into their product?

To begin, I think it’s really important for tech companies to validate their products outside Silicon Valley. Doing user studies people from different regions and occupations to figure out if what we’re building is actually valuable across the board. Getting users in the Bay Area can be pretty much of a self-fulfilling prophecy. The time designing a product has a good understanding of technology, and they validate products with people who live in an area where technology is prevalent and have expectations that are quite aligned with the ideas companies are producing. If it’s not done carefully, these exercises can be the equivalent of asking yourself if you like what you just did. A diverse set of users and opinions can immediately and positively impact the way we develop and think about products.

You can take that a step further by bringing people from different backgrounds into companies, which is a really hard problem to solve.  There are some historical and cultural components to the current makeup of the tech workforce. You can think about this situation in two time dimensions: today, we need to make sure people from different backgrounds and with the right skills have the opportunity to join tech; longer term, we need to make sure we increase the pool of people with skills and make these more attainable and accessible.

I’m personally particularly interested in the future investments we can do to improve this situation. How tech companies can partner with academia, government, and other institutions to make sure STEM education and critical thinking skills become part of the norm for future generations.  This is key, not only to make tech more diverse, but also to prepare for what humankind will face in the next 30 years in terms of AI developments.  

It is entirely possible that the job market as we have it today will cease to exist due to increased automation and technification. It is crucial that we think how we can empower future generations to thrive in this abysmally different context. Think about the impact a very specific type of technology will have, self-driving cars, for example, can turn around the enormous transportation industry and displace a number of direct and indirect jobs.  

Tech is in this privileged position to both further products and experiences, but also to see these type of potential social and human crisis before they happen.  We should think about products, yes, but also about how we can contribute to create a sustainable future and human development opportunities for the coming generations. How can we help schools to create curriculums that prepare people not for the jobs we had 30 years ago but for the jobs that will exist in 30 years?

Where do you see yourself in five or ten years?

I couldn’t well you where in the world I’ll be.  Hopefully around here, the weather is really nice!

Professionally, I would love to take the curiosity I had to put on hold, and start my own company. That little worm is still in the back of my mind. I would love to work in a project that challenges on my ability to look at problems from a fresh perspective, and also allows me to do something that’s humanly impactful.

My daily work is pretty satisfying, but creating something that can result in a perceivable improvement to human problems I care deeply about, would be beyond amazing. I feel really proud about the technical and design feats behind the experiences a product like Dropbox delivers; how seemingly small changes can make people more productive and happy. However, the learning and knowledge space is still something that profoundly resonates with me, and I would love to explore ideas in the boundary where information becomes actionable-knowledge.  I honestly don’t spend a lot of time thinking about specifics, because I know that once I start something my brain gets in this override mode and other things become secondary. It’s not time yet, but it’s definitely in the horizon. 

My last question for you would be based on all the things that you’ve learned, what advice would you give folks from similar backgrounds to you that are hoping to get into tech?

Don’t let anyone define or put a limit to what you can do. Not even yourself.  A lot of the times the issues that hold us back, are only the manifestation of our own insecurities and how much weight we give to people’s opinions in our lives.  My 20 year old self had no way of knowing I could come to where I am. That reality didn’t exist, I had no precedents or role models. All I had was a world of questions, some incomplete notion of self-worth, and a lot of tenacity. I let the questions and the curiosity lead me, instead of letting what I or others thought I could do, define me.

Many of those questions led to dead-ends and failures, but also taught me something. My questions grew bigger and my answers started coming faster. The only costs were to keep trying and not giving up.

If you want to get in tech, just do that, try. As painful—as bad as it can be, you will learn from doing. You will not accomplish anything by staying static waiting for your shot to come. Always be doing and always be open to changing the way you think about yourself and the problems around you. Most skills are a matter of time and patience, but the ability to analyze, self-correct, and motivate yourself will always be crucial to grow, regardless of the end goal.

“Don’t let anyone define or put a limit to what you can do. Not even yourself.  A lot of the times the issues that hold us back, are only the manifestation of our own insecurities and how much weight we give to people’s opinions in our lives.  My 20 year old self had no way of knowing I could come to where I am. That reality didn’t exist, I had no precedents or role models. All I had was a world of questions, some incomplete notion of self-worth, and a lot of tenacity. I let the questions and the curiosity lead me, instead of letting what I or others thought I could do, define me.”