Juan Simón Salazar defines himself as a person who is constantly changing. He likes reading science fiction, exercising, playing with his entrepreneurial friends and, for nine months, learning a completely new role: being a dad. He says that he tries not to make everything in his life work and that growing as a person is as important a project as growing with a company.
That curiosity appeared long before founding hackü. At Bancolombia he found the job that, without knowing it, would end up changing his career: helping to create a line of credit for startups when the bank was not yet betting on companies that did not have a long history.
Seeing hundreds of entrepreneurs from the financial side ended up convincing Juan Simón of an idea: one day he wanted to be on the other side of the table.
From the bank to an idea that completely changed
When Juan Simón started hackü, he was convinced that the problem was the university.
The first version of the company sought for people to learn online and get a professional internship without going through a traditional institution. They built a platform, developed courses and waited for users to come. But it didn’t happen.
• What changed between the initial idea and today’s hackü?
“We realized that the initial idea was not what the market needed. People did not take the courses, even if they had a job opportunity at the end”
That failure forced the team to talk to users again.
They discovered that the problem was not learning, but the friction involved in starting to do so.
The answer appeared almost by accident, in a cafe, when the company was close to running out of resources:
“We said: let’s do it on WhatsApp”
That turn completely changed the company. Instead of waiting for people to come to a platform, hackü began bringing learning capsules to the channel that millions of workers already used every day.
The lesson was established forever: fall in love with the problem, not the solution.
Learning is also knowing how to delegate
Before starting a business, Juan Simón observed a pattern that he continues to see in many founders today: brilliant people building products or selling, but with enormous difficulties managing the finances and operation of their companies.
Over the years he understood that this learning also applied to him. One of the most difficult moments came when one of its co-founders left the company.
In addition to being a partner, he was his cousin. Separating the family relationship from the business decision was one of the most complex challenges he has faced as a leader.
Shortly thereafter he also assumed the role of CEO, replacing another of the founders.
• What changed when you started leading the company?
“It didn’t change who I am. It changed the way I solve problems. Today my job is to let other people solve things much better than me.”
For Juan Simón, that is one of the most common mistakes in Latin America. Leaders want to maintain control of everything. And, in doing so, they slow down the growth of the company and its teams.
He also believes there is another risk: turning the company into an extension of the founder’s ego. He mentions that when the entire brand depends on one person, the company loses a huge asset.
“The company’s brand should be so strong that it elevates those who lead it, not the other way around”
The education of the future begins by asking better questions
If there is something that artificial intelligence changed for Juan Simón, it was not education. It was the way to learn.
He believes that AI tools make those skills that previously seemed secondary much more valuable: communicating well, giving context, asking questions and developing critical thinking.
• How does artificial intelligence change the way we learn?
“Artificial intelligence brings out the best or worst in people. If you ask bad questions, you have bad results. If you ask good questions, you have superpowers”
He also insists that education in Latin America needs to get much closer to companies.
For him, there is too great a distance between those who teach and those who know the skills that the labor market demands today.
When asked what he would say to the Juan Simón of 2018, the answer has nothing to do with raising more capital or growing faster. It has to do with mentality.
“Never think that you can’t be better. When you think you’re enough, you start to stagnate”
After eight years building hackü, that idea continues to guide the company. Because for Juan Simón learning has never been about accumulating knowledge. It has been staying willing to change.
