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Jaime Manteiga and Janse Lazo grew up in Cuba with out a pc, or because the younger entrepreneurs say, “We have been from poor households.” It’s a curious assertion to qualify a social standing in a rustic the place shortage is the norm.
“The primary pc I had belonged to my sister. I used to be about 14 years outdated, and I used to play programming,” Manteiga recalled. “It appeared magical to me that in the event you put a sure programming language in a tool, it might attain a outcome. I used to be excited once I noticed that it was open to creating no matter you wished.”
Many years later, already in the USA, Manteiga and Lazo are proof that when entrepreneurship is a part of your nature, you solely want to note an absence out there to make the most of a chance and create a brand new product.
A tour of the expertise convention circuit was sufficient for the entrepreneurs and programmers to note that when anyone handed them a enterprise card, they typically misplaced it. Additionally producing hundreds of paper playing cards isn’t environmentally pleasant and has turn out to be out of date for many individuals.
“Seven out of 10 playing cards are by no means used. They’re merely thrown away,” mentioned Manteiga in his Kendall workplace, speaking in regards to the beginnings of the startup TapTok, a platform to assist companies join with their viewers he created in Miami just a few months earlier than the pandemic started in March 2020, when avoiding direct contact between individuals turned a necessity.
Thus, TapTok’s flagship product is the digital enterprise card, “which fits to the cellphone of the individual with whom you need to share the contact info,” mentioned Manteiga, utilizing Lazo’s cellphone to indicate how a “faucet” on the cardboard, which seems like a bank card, permits you to switch every part you need that individual to have about you: your web site, social media networks, the Google map of your workplace, in case the individual must get there utilizing the GPS.
All that info accessible in a second, and with out the individual you give your knowledge having to obtain an utility or have particular technological expertise. And better of all, the digital card avoids utilizing tons of paper.
A ardour that was born in Cuba
Manteiga and Lazo are from On line casino Deportivo, a Havana neighborhood. The truth is, they didn’t deal with a pc with a suitable velocity till they met within the Joven Golf equipment, facilities the place younger individuals might work together with computer systems.
“We made the biggest chat room in Cuba,” Manteiga mentioned. “Again then there was no web and connecting individuals was magical.”
Cubans did not have access to the internet on their phones until 2018, so the chats created by the programming fanatics have been the chance to “chat” with a girlfriend, trade concepts with one other lover of knowledge expertise or share sport statistics.
“We started to create sport servers to which individuals might join and there that they had all the sport statistics, and it began to develop,” saidLazo, explaining at first they did it out of “ardour,” however since “they needed to earn a residing” they began constructing computer systems and promoting them.
The primary enterprise Lazo began in Cuba obtained him off the island. His venture won the 10x10KCuba contest, sponsored by the USA, and he was capable of go on a tour that took him to Silicon Valley and Stanford College and to go to the headquarters of Google, Fb and Twitter. On the finish of the tour, he came over his kin in Miami and determined to remain.
“We’ve got all the time had this mentality that now we have to struggle for what we wish. We don’t like that limits are imposed on us,” mentioned Lazo, now TapTok’s chief working officer.
Three years after staying in Miami, Lazo launched his first firm, a digital advertising agency, with the assistance of Manteiga, who had arrived earlier.
Manteiga discovered the opportunity of leaving Cuba on the age of 16, due to his blood relationship with Galicia, the land of his grandfather. After incomes a bachelor’s diploma in economics, in Spain he accomplished a grasp’s diploma in programming, with a specialty in info safety.
“I did very nicely there, and I got here to the USA to make it higher for me,” mentioned Manteiga, who shaped his first firm in Miami eight years in the past to advise companies on safety points.
A brand new enterprise in Miami
Relating to the start of TapTok, Manteiga mentioned he determined to vary the providers he supplied along with his first firm, as a result of it was tough to scale. He then began TapTok with Ana Suárez, now its vp of operations, and gave the corporate its identify earlier than the recognition of the video social media community TikTok exploded.
“I used to be instantly obsessed with it. 4 months later the variety of purchasers was rising, and it was an excessive amount of work,” recalled Manteiga, who then referred to as his buddy Lazo, who contributed his expertise in promoting.
“The secret is to know the viewers, their wishes and goals, and take the message on the market,” mentioned Lazo in regards to the success of TapTok. A number of occasions the corporate has every part in its digital retailer in just a few weeks.
The Cuban entrepreneurs’ firm has seven workers, nevertheless it wants about 50, mentioned CEO Manteiga. That’s why the enterprise is searching for buyers.
Along with electronic business cards, TapTok provides the likelihood to create minipages, an internet site companies or professionals can design from their cellphone.
One other benefit is that, if there’s a change within the firm’s knowledge, it may be edited digitally with out the necessity to discard a whole bunch of bodily merchandise. That is very helpful for companies similar to eating places, which steadily change the menu.
Additionally, entrepreneurs or professionals can have a number of enterprise profiles and hyperlink them on the TapTok platform. Additionally it is doable to generate QR codes individuals can learn with their telephones after which go on to the minipage or web site of the enterprise that’s marketed.
Digital playing cards are additionally protected in opposition to knowledge theft, as a result of if its proprietor loses it, the TapTok platform has a performance permitting knowledge to be blocked.
Lazo mentioned merchandise will be chosen within the TapTok on-line retailer, together with plastic or metallic playing cards, and the cardboard design. You may incorporate the corporate emblem, or create a brand new one, plus details about the enterprise. The digital playing cards are despatched by mail to clients who then arrange the playing cards with their telephones.
“We’ve got been increasing and now now we have a cellular app. In case you are assembly an individual who has a paper card, you are taking a photograph with the TapTok app, which digitizes this paper card and the information, utilizing synthetic intelligence,” Manteiga mentioned.
If you already know somebody whose story of non-public {and professional} progress could possibly be mirrored on this sequence of profiles from el Nuevo Herald, you may contact smoreno@elnuevoherald.com or gguerra@miamiherald.com.
Sarah Moreno cubre temas de negocios, entretenimiento y tendencias en el sur de la Florida. Se graduó de la Universidad de La Habana y de Florida Worldwide College. @SarahMoreno1585
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