hackü pivots to WhatsApp: how Colombia's edtech founder embraced market feedback
When Juan Simón Salazar launched hackü, he believed Colombia's workforce problem lay in the university system itself. His initial vision offered online courses paired with professional internships, bypassing traditional institutions entirely. The company built a platform, developed curriculum, and waited for users. They never came.
According to Salazar, the market rejected the concept outright. Workers ignored the courses even when guaranteed employment opportunities awaited at completion. Facing near-depletion of resources, the founding team returned to user interviews and discovered the real problem was not learning content but the friction required to begin.
The solution emerged during a café conversation as the startup approached insolvency. The team decided to deliver training through WhatsApp rather than require workers to access a separate platform. That decision fundamentally transformed the business. Instead of expecting users to adopt new technology, hackü began delivering learning capsules through the messaging app millions of Colombian workers already use daily.
Salazar spent years at Bancolombia creating credit lines for startups before the bank routinely financed early-stage companies. That experience observing hundreds of entrepreneurs convinced him he eventually wanted to sit on the other side of the table. He distilled his lesson into a principle: fall in love with the problem, not the solution.
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Why AI-ready critical thinking skills are reshaping Colombia's labor market expectations
Salazar argues that artificial intelligence has not transformed education itself but rather how people must approach learning. AI tools elevate skills previously considered secondary: clear communication, contextual framing, question formulation, and critical thinking. In his assessment, AI amplifies both competence and incompetence depending on user capability.
The founder's perspective carries implications for Colombia's growing talent pipeline and workforce development strategies. As AI adoption accelerates across Latin American enterprises, the ability to frame effective prompts and evaluate machine-generated outputs becomes a differentiating skill rather than a technical novelty. Salazar describes this dynamic bluntly: poor questions yield poor results, while well-constructed queries unlock capabilities he characterizes as superpowers.
This shift places pressure on both education providers and employers to recalibrate skill priorities. Technical knowledge remains necessary but insufficient when workers cannot apply critical thinking to leverage AI tools effectively. For companies hiring in Colombia, screening for communication clarity and analytical reasoning may predict job performance more accurately than traditional technical assessments alone.
Salazar also insists that Latin American education systems must close the distance between educators and businesses. A substantial gap exists between those who teach and those who understand current labor market skill requirements. This disconnect creates friction for employers seeking candidates who can immediately contribute, and for workers who complete training programs that fail to match actual workplace demands.
The gap between education and employer demand: what hackü's model signals for LATAM talent
The hackü pivot from platform-based learning to WhatsApp delivery reflects broader structural challenges in Latin America's talent development ecosystem. Traditional education models assume learners will navigate to content, complete structured curricula, and translate abstract knowledge into workplace application. hackü's initial failure demonstrates that assumption breaks down when friction exceeds motivation, even when employment outcomes are guaranteed.
The WhatsApp-first approach acknowledges that effective workforce training must meet workers in their existing digital environments rather than demand adoption of new tools. Bite-sized learning capsules delivered asynchronously through messaging apps accommodate the realities of working adults who cannot dedicate extended blocks of time to formal coursework.
For employers evaluating talent strategies across Latin America, hackü's experience suggests that proximity to daily workflows matters more than curriculum comprehensiveness. Training initiatives that integrate into existing communication patterns show higher completion rates than those requiring separate platform access, regardless of content quality. This insight applies equally to onboarding programs, upskilling initiatives, and continuous professional development.
Salazar assumed the CEO role after another founder departed, and separately navigated the departure of a co-founder who was also his cousin. He describes the challenge of separating family relationships from business decisions as among the most difficult leadership tests he has faced. His current management philosophy centers on delegation. His role, he argues, is to enable others to solve problems better than he could himself.
He identifies a common Latin American leadership mistake: founders who maintain control over all decisions, thereby constraining both company growth and team development. He also warns against building company brands around individual founders, arguing that strong institutional brands should elevate leaders rather than depend on them. [When asked what advice he would give his earlier self, Salazar's answer focused not on capital or growth velocity but on mindset. After eight years building hackü, he maintains that stagnation begins when people believe they have reached sufficiency.]()
For organizations seeking to explore how Colombian edtech is reshaping workforce readiness, hackü's trajectory illustrates how market feedback can force productive pivots. The company's willingness to abandon its original thesis when users rejected it, then rebuild around actual behavior patterns, demonstrates adaptability that remains scarce in education technology. Whether this model scales beyond Colombia or influences how employers approach internal training remains an open question. The underlying principle holds: effective learning happens where workers already are, not where educators wish they would go.