# Salomon Muriel

> Serial entrepreneur, tech leader, and consultant based in Bogota, Colombia. Founder of 5 companies, speaker on AI, data science, and entrepreneurship. This site is his personal website and bilingual (English/Spanish) blog.

## About

Salomon Muriel is a 35-year-old serial entrepreneur and tech leader based in Bogota, Colombia. He has founded 5 companies — 2 were acquired, 2 failed, and the 5th (Ignia) is currently active. He has 10+ years of experience in tech, leading AI, Data Science, and engineering teams at scale. He combines deep technical skills with hands-on business experience across fundraising, hiring, scaling, and product development.

He is married (since 2018, together since 2010) and father to twin boys Franco and Luca (born 2022). He is a self-described proud geek who learned English through online gaming. Entrepreneurship runs in his family — his father and grandfather are also entrepreneurs.

Beyond tech, he is a maker at heart: he tinkers with tools, a 3D printer (Bambu Lab P1S), a Raspberry Pi, and builds everything from furniture to prototypes. He runs Linux Mint as his daily OS and codes primarily in Python, TypeScript, and SQL.

## Current Company

**Ignia** (2025 - Present)
- Website: https://www.ignia.lat
- Reinventing higher education in Latin America through project-based, experiential learning
- A "no-university" model for 500-1000 students from diverse backgrounds
- Free core program, 2-year duration
- Profitable from day one
- Currently ~30 fellows in the Action Lab program with a team of 5

## Previous Companies

**Finco** (2019-2022) — Acquired by RED Atlas
- Big Data and AI-powered real estate valuation for Latin America
- Generated 100,000+ automated valuation reports

**PrestaGente** (2017-2019) — Acquired by Taurus Capital
- P2P payroll loan platform for Colombia using blockchain technology
- Still operating at www.prestagente.com

**Beriblock** (2018-2019) — Failed
- Blockchain-based promissory note authentication and tracking

**El Palomo** (2016-2017) — Failed
- Subscription-based online flower delivery service in Colombia

## Expertise & Skills

### Technical
- Languages: Python, TypeScript, SQL
- Backend: FastAPI, Django, Node.js
- Frontend: React, Next.js, Astro
- Databases: PostgreSQL (preferred), Redshift
- Data Science: Pandas, Polars, PySpark, Airflow, Metabase, NLP, DVC, TensorFlow, PyTorch, scikit-learn, XGBoost, LightGBM, Pycaret, Optuna
- Cloud: AWS (preferred), GCP
- Tools: VSCode, DBeaver, ZSH, Brave, Insomnia
- AI: Practical AI adoption strategy, LLM integration, Claude Code workflows

### Business
- Company building: fundraising, hiring, scaling, and team leadership
- 2 successful acquisitions and 2 failures across 4 companies
- Data-driven decision making and analytics culture
- EdTech and higher education innovation
- Real estate technology and fintech
- Latin American market expertise

## Consulting Services

Salomon partners with founders, CTOs, and growing companies. His consulting areas include:

- **Tech & AI Consulting**: AI adoption strategy, technical roadmaps, implementation decisions
- **Data Science**: Turning data into actionable insights, building analytics capabilities
- **Company-Building Advisory**: Fundraising, hiring, scaling — lessons from 4 companies
- **Mentorship**: Ongoing guidance for founders, data scientists, and tech leaders

Free 15-minute intro calls available via his website.

## Speaking Topics

Salomon speaks at conferences, universities, and corporate events. His main topics:

- **AI & Tech**: Practical applications for business impact, Claude Code for non-technical workflows
- **Data-Driven Decisions**: Building analytics culture in growing companies, data science for EdTechs
- **The Maker's Mindset**: From idea to product — lessons from building 4 companies
- **Entrepreneurship**: Practical strategies for founders and scale-ups, boring businesses and innovation
- **Education**: Reinventing higher education, experiential learning models

### Notable Speaking Engagements
- Claude Code for Product Management (2025)
- Data Science for EdTechs — Colombia EdTech Association (2025)
- Maker Mindset — Universidad Catolica, Bogota (2024)
- Full Stack Data Science — Polygon Research Podcast (2022)
- Boring Businesses and Innovation — Ventaja Podcast (2023)
- My Way Through Data and Analytics — EAFIT University (2023, 3rd consecutive year)
- Tech Entrepreneurship — EIA, EAFIT, Externado universities (2022)

## Writing Topics

Salomon writes primarily on LinkedIn and cross-posts to his blog. His 229+ posts cover:

- Entrepreneurship (135+ posts)
- Personal reflections (82+ posts)
- Colombia and Latin America (81+ posts)
- Education and higher education (73+ posts)
- Startups (68+ posts)
- Innovation (48+ posts)
- Technology (45+ posts)
- Productivity (44+ posts)
- AI and artificial intelligence (33+ posts)
- Business strategy (33+ posts)
- Culture (27+ posts)
- Leadership (23+ posts)
- Work-life balance (20+ posts)
- Parenting (12+ posts)
- Consulting (11+ posts)
- Books and reading (11+ posts)
- Hiring (10+ posts)
- Data Science and analytics

All blog content is available in both English and Spanish.

## Links

- Website: https://www.salomonmuriel.com/
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/smuriel/
- GitHub: https://github.com/salomonMuriel
- Email: salomon.muriel@gmail.com
- WhatsApp: https://wa.me/573132465100
- Ignia: https://www.ignia.lat
- Blog (English): https://www.salomonmuriel.com/posts/
- Blog (Spanish): https://www.salomonmuriel.com/es/posts/
- Talks: https://www.salomonmuriel.com/talks/
- Ideas: https://www.salomonmuriel.com/ideas/
- Now: https://www.salomonmuriel.com/now/
- About: https://www.salomonmuriel.com/about/
- Uses/Stack: https://www.salomonmuriel.com/uses/
- Resources: https://www.salomonmuriel.com/resources/
- RSS (English): https://www.salomonmuriel.com/rss.xml
- RSS (Spanish): https://www.salomonmuriel.com/es/rss.xml

## Site Details

- Built with Astro 6 + Tailwind CSS 4
- Bilingual: English (default at /) and Spanish (at /es/)
- Blog posts synced daily from LinkedIn via automated workflow with LLM translation
- Features: blog, conference talks, business ideas, "now" updates, companies portfolio, curated resources, search
- Open source on GitHub