Ricardo “Ricky” Mora was born in El Paso, Texas and raised in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico. He is an entrepreneurship evangelist, pioneer and has launched over 10 startups, ranging from telecomm, investment funds, IT services, FabLabs, and restaurants. 

Ricky transformed the former U.S. Consulate in Juarez into the a Silicon Valley styled innovation park spread across a 1.8 acres.  It has tailor-made programs for the manufacturing industry, entrepreneurs and companies. It is a certified incubator by Mexico’s National Institute for the Entrepreneurship (INADEM) and includes an early investment venture capital fund as well as a Fab Lab. 

The Technology Hub is also part of TechSpark’s signature project in El Paso and Juarez as the lead partner in The Bridge Accelerator.  

The Bridge Accelerator Program was launched in the summer of 2019 with the goal of expanding connections between local supplier companies and manufacturers/maquiladoras in the Paso del Norte region. The Juarez – El Paso region has one of the largest concentrations of manufacturing output in North America. However, according to data from SIDE and COPARMEX, only 2% of current suppliers contributing to the region’s $39 billion USD manufacturing supply chain are locally based.

To date, The Bridge has graduated 33 companies through 3 cohorts, and help secure $8,370,000 in new purchase orders, generate $780,000 in equity investment opportunities, and create over 150 jobs.

Ricky also serves as the Fund Manager for Saba Investments.

Technology Hub: https://t-hub.mx/en

The Bridge Accelerator: https://tb-xl.com

Natalie Littlefield is the Vice-President of Strategy for the Borderplex Alliance, a 501c3 organization that is responsible for economic development in the El Paso, Juarez, and Las Cruces Communities.  Since 2013 they’ve helped bring over 15,000 new jobs and over $1.2 Billion of investment to the region.  Beyond the work of sourcing and landing company expansion or relocation efforts, the Borderplex Alliance plays a key role in crafting policy and strategy to support business and quality of life improvements in the region.

The Borderplex alliance just recently released their strategic plan, Ascend 2025, that was the result of a year long collaboration with several stakeholders in the public sector, private industry, and with a broad range of educators to identify actionable items for the community to pursue.  Natalie was the primary author and project supervisor.

The report does mention some policy recommendations around supporting digital transformation in the region, highlights some of our talent assets, and outlines some next steps the community can take to support tech enablement, entrepreneurship, and the unique assets of a binational and tristate area.  

 Natalie’s journey from the arena of international conflict resolution to workforce development to an economic development strategist is also super interesting. 

Startups are a great place to get experience and optimize for learning with higher levels of responsibilities as opposed to established businesses. But finding and landing an opportunity to work at a startup can be a bit challenging.

In this episode,  Erik and JJ share their experiences as hiring managers and founders and outlines the pros and cons of working at a startup.

Ernesto Holguin is the CEO and founder of OTEN Medical, a registered nurse, nurse educator, and clinical coordinator for dialysis patients.  He has invented four innovative medical devices and currently has a patent on three of them. 

In this episode, we get Ernesto's journey from a nurse maker to a CEO with several medical devices in the marketplace.  He also sheds light on his experience as a frontline worker, how COVID is creating new innovations in patient care, and what he expects the next wave of products from nurse innovators to be.

In this episode Erik and JJ connect with Cathy Chen, Executive Director of Fab Lab El Paso. We learn about her and her husband's journey founding a STEM focused nonprofit in a community that was significantly underserved with the number of digital skilling opportunities available prior to Fab Lab's  launch.  Cathy also shares her experience as a first generation immigrant and touches on the gender and cultural gaps that persist in the STEM fields.

Cathy Chen is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Fab Lab El Paso: a digital design, fabrication, and education space. Driven by her passion in advocating for the socialization and democratization of technology, she aspires to combine community-led, user-driven, and service-based model with creative innovation. Cathy champions the Maker Movement and works closely with designers, engineers, developers, and educators to execute high impact programs for the border community. In 2016, she was named STEM Educator of the Year by Chevron. In 2019, she received Innovation Award from Pioneer 21. In 2020, she received funding from Tribeca Film Institute IF/Then to produce a documentary short on a student DIY prosthesis story in El Paso, Texas. She studied Literature at Duke University and KMD Masters at Keio University in Tokyo. She also completed a Certificate of Readiness from Harvard Business School. Cathy is a native of New York City, currently residing in El Paso, Texas.”

You can learn more about Fab Lab El Paso at https://fablabelpaso.org/ or follow them on Instagram: @fablabep

The Social Dilemma, directed by Jeff Orlowski, explores the dangerous human impact of social networking, with tech experts sounding the alarm on their own creations.

 Erik and JJ provide an overview of the film and share their perspectives on some of the conclusions that the film draws.  Erik shares his experience as a student of BJ Fogg’s class,  which is heavily referenced in the film,  and how behavior design and behavior change is programmed into new products.  JJ provides Microsoft’s perspective on using AI in a responsible way, protecting user privacy, and how the tech industry should work with policy makers to ensure innovation is protected, but not at the cost of fundamental human rights.

 The hosts also discuss what users can do to protect their data, habits users should develop to better control who has access to their information, and discuss whether the techniques that can be destructive when used in the mode of optimizing for surveillance capitalism can be used to improve technology user’s lives. 

 The Social Dilemma is streaming on Netflix.

In this episode we get to learn more about Ivan Huerta and Parabeac.

We discuss Ivan's decision to drop out of college, failing forward through several product concepts, becoming a dev shop, and achieving founder-product fit.

Ivan is the CEO & Co-founder at Parabeac, an El Paso software startup working on automating design to code for Flutter app development teams. Ivan also runs a local Startup Grind chapter in El Paso where he hosts entrepreneurs and investors locally and abroad.

TECHQUILA IS A NEW SHOW DISCUSSING TECHNOLOGY FROM THE BORDER.

GUESTS INCLUDE INNOVATORS USING TECHNOLOGY TO DRIVE CHANGE ON THE BORDER, LATINX AND HISPANIC PIONEERS IN TECH, AND TECH VETERANS FROM BORDER REGIONS.

TECHQUILLA IS HOSTED BY JJ CHILDRESS AND ERIK PAVIA IN EL PASO, TEXAS.

In this preview episode, we learn a little about the show and what's in store for future episodes.