Built By: Ramses Alcaide of Neurable
Ramses Alcaide’s immigration story began long before he ever set foot on American soil. Striving for a better opportunity to provide for his family, his father moved to the U.S from Mexico when he was just four, with the rest of the family joining a year later.
Growing up in a suburb of Seattle, Ramses does not have a strong recollection of Mexico. However, he is acutely aware of the sacrifices his parents made in order to ensure a better future for him and his sister — both of them gave up their careers as college professors and worked as school custodians before attempting to go back to teaching. The two of them tried their best to arrange their schedules in a way that would allow at least one of them to be at home with the kids.
Having received a formal education, his parents instilled in Ramses a love for learning, and he credits them with steering him towards a higher academic route. They read to him every day, introducing him to highly intellectual and complex works like The Iliad.
Ramses’ intellectual curiosity and entrepreneurial spirit began to manifest quite early — when he was six, he would buy and fix broken video games before selling them for profit, and a few years later, he’d begin to earn an income by repairing computers.
Ultimately, this desire to solve problems is at the core of his entrepreneurship, and it is what led him to start Neurable- a software company that gives users the ability to move virtual objects with their minds. Neurable is the culmination of his lifelong passion- channeling technology to help people with impairments.
Ramses’ enthusiasm for the field is largely personal. When he was just eight, his uncle suffered a trucking accident and lost both of his legs. Observing the challenges that people with limited mobility face, Ramses set out to create a technology that would help them work through their physical differences. He began working on the core technology as an undergraduate at the University of Washington, and he continued developing the product while pursuing a PhD in Neuroscience at the University of Michigan. He believes that BCIs (brain-computer interfaces) are a logical next step in technology, which began with point and click systems before evolving to touchpads, and now AR and VR systems.
While Ramses identifies with the American mindset and culture, he understands that the opportunities he’s had have resulted from his parents’ decision to immigrate, and thinks it’s crucial to support immigrants and underrepresented groups. He volunteers for STEM-related programs, including the Science Club for Girls. He believes that immigration is vital to the economy, and notes that according to statistics, immigrants are more likely to start their own companies. He adds that immigrants often have a higher propensity to take risks and accept failure, which could explain the success of foreign-born entrepreneurs.
Ramses credits his international background for enabling him to “be more open-minded about taking risks”, and feels very fortunate to have grown up in the US, where opportunities abound. Still, he attributes most of his success so far to perseverance and coachability. “Passion by itself is not enough,” he says, explaining that as an entrepreneur, one faces a lot of uncertainty, and it is easy to think that every decision one makes is the wrong one. On his current role, Ramses believes “The job of a CEO is to find the lightest shade of grey to choose from”.
Written by: Leia Ruseva of The Ellis Project
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