Hispanic Heritage Month – Felix and Miguel Gonzales, and Jose Vicente Ruiz Cepeda
“Felix and Miguel Gonzales and Jose Vicente Ruiz Cepeda are co-founders of FounderNest, a Ulu Fund II AI company that augments the scouting power of the largest VCs and corporations globally. All three co-founders are passionate about connecting people. It’s that driving passion that drove Felix and Miguel (brothers) to establish the non-profit JuntoSalimos, a social venture that leveraged the power of technology to support entrepreneurs in Spain and Latin America, and later FounderNest. Felix speaks internationally on entrepreneurship and innovation. Miguel worked for the engineering division of Google in Ireland and South America. Jose’s superpower is diving into AI and figuring out how to apply it to improve people’s lives. They all realized how hard it is for startups to connect with both investors (for funding) and corporates (to cooperate) and believe FounderNest will be the solution.” – Ulu Ventures
Felix Gonzales Bio
Felix is a Spanish entrepreneur, co-founder and CEO at FounderNest, a Silicon Valley-based company that leverages Artificial Intelligence to augment the scouting power of the largest VCs and corporations in the world.
Furthermore, Felix has developed other entrepreneurial projects such as JuntoSalimos (platform to support Spanish speaking entrepreneurs) and has 5+ years of experience in innovation and telecoms in more than 20 countries, having worked for Singularity University, the Inter-American
Development Bank (where he was the Technical and Strategic Leader for the Broadband Program and was part of the prestigious Young Professionals Program), the World Bank or France Telecom.
He has an MBA with a Certificate in Social Innovation from Stanford University (where he studied with the prestigious Rafael del Pino scholarship and graduated with honors – “Arjay Miller scholar”) and also has a master’s degree in Management of Science and Engineering from Stanford University where he was a Fulbright scholar. He holds Electrical Engineering and Computer Science BSc & MSc degrees from Universidad Politecnica de Madrid (Spain) and TELECOM ParisTech (France).
He has also received the Young Social Entrepreneur Award in Spain and was selected to collect the Prince of Asturias Award given to the Fulbright Program, among more than 360.000 grantees from all over the world in recognition for his work towards social cooperation.
Furthermore, he teaches and advises on innovation and entrepreneurship at Universidad Politecnica de Madrid; and has participated as speaker at conferences in innovation, entrepreneurship and telecommunications in Latin America, Europe and the United States for institutions such as the United Nations, the Inter-American Development Bank or National Governments. He is also author of multiple articles and has been an active member of social initiatives such as the Youth Council of the US Embassy in Spain or the Program to support Spanish unemployed people by the NGO Helsinki Spain.
Felix loves the countryside and sports; and is proficient in Spanish, English, French, and Portuguese.
Miguel Gonzales Bio
Miguel is a Spanish entrepreneur, co-Founder and COO/CPO at FounderNest, a Silicon Valley-based company that leverages Artificial Intelligence to augment the scouting power of the largest VCs and corporations in the world.
Before FounderNest, Miguel started his career as the third employee of Telefónica in Paris (France) within its operations division. Then, he joined Google in Dublin (Ireland) as a Product Specialist and later as a Technical Strategist. Three years later, after being appointed Chief of Staff of Google’s Director of Customer Success in Mountain View (California), Miguel moved to Bogotá (Colombia) to lead Google’s Engineering division as their Regional Lead of Program Management for Colombia, Chile, Peru, Ecuador, Central America, and the Caribbean. In 2014, Miguel joined BBVA in Colombia as their Head of Digital Innovation and second employee in their Digital Banking division. In parallel, Miguel launched JuntoSalimos, a social venture that leveraged the power of technology and the collective intelligence to support entrepreneurs in Spain and Latin America .
Miguel holds a double BSc & MSc in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from the Technical University of Madrid (Spain) and grande école TELECOM ParisTech (France), graduating Magna Cum Laude from both schools. As a McKinsey Emerging Scholar, Miguel completed simultaneously his MBA from the Wharton School, where he graduated with Honors; and his MA in International Studies from the University of Pennsylvania, where he graduated in the Director’s List.
Miguel enjoys soccer (he is a Real Madrid fan), cycling, and traveling (he has lived in six countries and visited 50+ countries in 5 continents); and is proficient in Spanish, English, French, and Portuguese.
Jose Vicente Ruiz Cepeda Bio
Jose is a Spanish entrepreneur, co-founder and CTO at FounderNest, a Silicon Valley-based company that leverages Artificial Intelligence to augment the scouting power of the largest VCs and corporations in the world.
Prior to FounderNest, Jose co-founded Relendo, a rental marketplace for peers and businesses, focused on photo and video equipment. During 3.5 years, Jose led the technical vision and along with his team built the technology powering the platform and the apps. Relendo raised two funding rounds and became the largest rental marketplace in Spain.
Jose is also a Fulbright scholar and holds a Master’s Degree in Machine Learning and AI from Columbia University, as well as a BS in Computer Science from Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (Spain).
