Miguel Vázquez is 23 and has already founded two companies. The Mexican immigrant and his family came to Austin from Saltillo, Mexico in 2009 when they received residency visas — after 8 years of working through the immigration system.
Vázquez told Más Wired he became interested in technology when he was in high school in the Austin area. One of his teachers started a computer science class, and that was where Vázquez said his life changed.
“I started creating these small apps for computers, that’s where I got really interested in computer engineering. I graduated valedictorian and that allowed me to go to the [University of Texas at Austin] as an electrical engineer,” he said.
At UT, he met the co-founders of his startup Looksy TV, co-founded last January. It’s a mobile app that allows users to look into different venues via livestream video, to decide whether or not they want to go to that bar or restaurant.
“We became pretty good friends and we always had this idea of trying to start our own startup. We wanted to have original ideas to make a difference in the world,” Vázquez said.
Between leaving his studies at UT to pursue his startup Vázquez worked with Apple, and decided that he wanted to work on his own projects. Aside from Looksy, Vázquez also started Los Quatro Technology, which is a consulting company that builds products for other startups, anything from an app to a website.
Going forward Vázquez is going to work full-time on Looksy and hopes to meet other entrepreneurs and startups, and perhaps eventually work on a startup incubator. He’s interested in finishing his college degree, working on products “from the bottom up,” principally manufacturing.
As far as Vázquez’s advice for entrepreneurs? He had one important piece of advice:
“Find the best team you can possibly find, somebody that is dedicated because that’s what actually makes startups — the team,” he said.
To read more about Vázquez, click here.
Sara Inés Calderón is a journalist and writer who lives between Texas and California. Follow her on Twitter @SaraChicaD.
