I Went to Europe and Saw How Companies Operate There. I Came Back to Colombia and Nothing Was the Same.
I didn't go to Europe for tourism. I came back understanding something that changed how I think about ProjectApp: Colombia isn't the limit of what we can build. It's just the starting point.
Project App
Engineering Team
There are experiences that change you without you looking for it. The trip to Europe was one of those. I didn't go with the explicit intention of rethinking ProjectApp or making strategic decisions. I went. I saw how companies operate there. I saw the rhythm. I saw how they make decisions, how they invest in technology, how they understand software as part of their business infrastructure. And I came back to Colombia with something I didn't have before: the certainty that what we build at ProjectApp has international-level quality. That Colombia is a geographic limitation, not a limitation of what we're capable of building.
What Impacted Me Most About the European Rhythm
The biggest difference wasn't technological. It was cultural. Companies in Europe — even mid-sized ones, even non-tech ones — operate with a systems integration that in Colombia is still aspirational for most. There's no Excel coordinated with WhatsApp coordinated with a Google Sheet. There's a system. One place where information lives, where decisions are made, where what happens gets recorded.
"The difference between the European companies I saw and the Colombian ones I know isn't size or budget. It's maturity in the relationship with software as part of operations."
— What I saw and brought back
Key Takeaways
Key Takeaways
- 1Seeing how companies operate in developed markets doesn't generate envy — it generates perspective on what's possible to build from Colombia.
- 2Colombia doesn't limit the ability to build world-class software — it limits the local market if that's the only direction you look.
- 3Talent, costs, and time zone are real structural advantages that generate differentiation in international markets.
- 4The maturity in treating software as an investment I saw in Europe is the same I'm finding in the most qualified Mexican clients.
I came back from Europe different. Not radically — but in the way you see things when you put them in a bigger context. ProjectApp is still the same company. The team is the same. The methodology is the same. What changed is the screen from which I look at what we're building. And that screen is now bigger.
If you're building a software company in Colombia and want to talk about how to expand toward international markets, write to me. We're in that process right now.