F2F #57: What I'm up to now (October 2025)

One year after the launch of Founder to Founder, it's time to re-introduce myself. About a thousand new people have signed up in the last weeks and, to be frank, I don't even know who they (you) are anymore. I remember seeing the first hundreds coming in, and I'd be like "oh, I know that person", but that barely happens any longer.

One year ago, I wrote the last update to the /now page. Things have changed significantly, so here we go, with a brief re-introduction of yours truly.

I am Àlex, born and raised in Barcelona. I've lived, studied and worked a few years in Germany (Berlin and Munich) but came back to Barcelona to pursue a career in tech. I studied Computer Science before it was cool, and have been working since I was barely a teenager, having helped for many years in family businesses.

I learnt how to code at around 12 years old, following a passion for computers that led me to explore adjacent areas like videogame programming, web development, cybersecurity and telecommunications. I started building websites on PHP, learnt Java during university, and then learnt a bunch of other languages and technologies working as a freelancer and at Deloitte and VASS, the two companies I worked for before creating MarsBased in 2014.

Before that, I volunteered for many years at ESN, which kind of defined me as a person. I co-founded ESN UPF in my home uni, in Barcelona. In my volunteering years, I learnt business level Italian and German, and to communicate in basic French and Portuguese, and also to become entrepreneurial and resourceful.

Fast forward to today, my company, MarsBased, a development consultancy, employs 30 people. We have no office and clients all over the globe. Lately, we've been working for FC Barcelona, Moody's, Citadel Securities, Vueling and other leading brands. We're working in something very exciting, but it'll remain secret for a few more weeks, I'm afraid. Reply to this email if you want to find out earlier than anyone else ✨

I don't get involved in the projects because I do sales and marketing, but I do spearhead certain consulting projects like the one for Talent Arena, due diligences or other business-related stuff, but not coding. Right now, I focus on managing our marketing team, managing the key accounts of the company and open new business lines. These are the services we offer. Lately, we've opened cybersecurity.

One year ago, I shut down Startup Grind Barcelona to focus more on MarsBased and other professional projects. One of them is my love for podcasting. The Life on Mars podcast is growing strong (finally) after five years thanks to doing in-person episodes, right now, and focusing on stuff for CTOs.

Besides that podcast, I also co-host Foc a Terra, a business talk show, in Catalan, with my good friend Marc Collado. After 200 episodes, we rake in thousands of downloads per episode and we've started bringing guests and doing video, lately. It's skyrocketing because we're very niche. I'm learning how to run a whatsapp community and a Patreon, there. One day, we will run the biggest business show in Catalan and we'll be on national TV.

2025 has been the year that marks my 10 year landmark as an angel investor. Even though I've only had two minor exits and a decent return as an LP of a small fund, I have learnt a lot. I'm sitting at around 40 angel investments, mostly in B2B. The latest ones have been Ealyx, Celebreak, Circles.house and Holo.

Actually, I should write about the ten years and my learnings. Maybe next week? 🤔

On the personal front, I've recently become a first-time dad and took two months off work, which, as the CEO of the company, sounds surprising. It's not, if you've built a lifestyle business as solid as MarsBased, with the two best business partners one can dream of. I have stopped several of my hobbies, like playing in a punk rock band or geeking out on stuff, but I do have still time for playing Pokémon on a daily basis or getting back to coding.

I am geeking out A LOT on generative AI related to music creation to see if I can revive my punk rock band using AI, but also I am building sites for friends and relatives for free because it's literally no work for me, and I am having a lot of fun in the process. I am learning about the science of sleep and how exercise and the right diet can extend your life significantly.

Last, but not least, there's this project. I shared my learnings two weeks ago F2F #55: One year of Founder to Founder, but I have yet to define where I want to take this. Since you all seem to love it, seeing the open rates and the answers I get to my articles, I will keep doing this for a good run, still.

Thanks for reading! If you know that I don't know you, why don't you reply to this email and introduce yourself? I'd love to meet you. Also, here's my calendar to chat and let me know how can I help you.