Captura tu mundo (My Startup)

This was my first experience as a founder. I started Captura tu Mundo from zero during quarantine in 2020 and grew it into a globally recognized photography community. No funding, no team at the start, just a problem worth solving and an obsession with shipping fast and iterating based on what users actually needed.

Impact:

-226,000 Instagram followers grown organically from 0

-25+ contests hosted with 15,000+ photographs collected

-390 participants in the first contest alone

-40+ countries reached

-Brand partnerships secured with Adobe and Wacom

-Platform built mobile-first based on direct user behavior insights

The Beginning:

In 2020, during global lockdowns, I launched a photography contest called "The View From My Window." The idea was simple: use photography as a way to escape quarantine. 390 people entered. That response told me there was something real here worth building.

Finding the Real Problem:

As the community grew, a pattern emerged. People didn't just want to compete. They wanted to learn. I started posting photography tips and tricks on social media, and the response was immediate. That insight reshaped the entire direction of the project, from contest platform to full education and community hub.

Building the Platform:

I designed and built the contest platform mobile-first, because our users were coming from Instagram and opening everything on their phones. Desktop came second. That decision alone reduced friction significantly and reflected something I now apply to every product: let user behavior tell you where to build, not assumptions.

I iterated constantly based on what the community showed me. New contest formats, new educational content, new features, all shipped fast and refined based on real feedback from real users.

Growth and Partnerships:

Growing to 226,000 followers organically meant earning attention through genuine value, not paid distribution. That growth eventually opened doors to brand partnerships with Adobe and Wacom, two of the most recognized names in the creative industry. Those partnerships validated that what we built had real credibility in the market.

What I learned:

Captura tu Mundo taught me what it actually means to build something people want. I learned to ship fast and iterate, to listen to users obsessively, and to make decisive calls with limited information. It also showed me that taste matters in every layer of a product, from how a contest is designed to how a photo is framed. That founder mindset is something I bring into every design project I take on.