#59 - Building the largest tech school in Latin America: Freddy Vega, Platzi

Over the last few years, Latin America has been seeing more and more people interested in founding a startup. To them, Freddy Vega has one advice: don't do it.

The deterrence may sound strange, especially coming from someone who is a natural born entrepreneur. Freddy started at age 16, when he created what became the largest community of developers in Latin America, Cristalab. He had learned how to program by himself 3 years prior, on a borrowed Casio calculator.

After meeting Christian Van Der Henst, who led an equally successful initiative in education, they decided to merge their communities. Soon after, they started hosting live educational shows every Thursday, which ultimately evolved into Platzi: an online learning platform offering courses in technology, business and several other categories. With millions of students across Latin America, it bets on teaching saleable skills fast and on a huge scale, while also seeding a lifelong-learning attitude.

Fun fact, Platzi was the first company with a Latin American market to ever go to YC, in 2015.

Keep listening to learn:

• What's behind the "don't do it" advice
• His self-development journey
• How to build psychological safety within a company
• His thoughts on culture in Latin America
• And how to unleash the power of community

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