How a female developer broke into tech with no internet access
It might sound crazy but the Internet didn’t exist in Kely’s town when she learned how to program.
Peru’s Marketing & Code-Breaking Woman
Kely Martinez grew up near Ica, in a small rural city in Peru where technology access was limited, and under the rule of a nation where power is centralized in its capital — Lima. For decades, this city has been the center of innovation, power, and opportunities, forcing many to migrate to Lima permanently.
Though Kely never moved to Lima, she sought for new chances to succeed in tech — she rode a 4 hour bus and joined local entrepreneurial and developer groups. “The ecosystem was fantastic and supportive in Lima. I had never felt so inspired to build more products. I wish I didn’t have to take a 4 hour bus to feel this way,” said Kely.
Inspired by these events, Kely was determined to seed the tech community in her city — she didn’t want to be the only person in Ica interested in startups and tech. Kely wanted to eradicate the conformist mentality and prove skeptics wrong.
Who are the skeptics?
Peruvian universities don’t offer Computer Science degrees. Instead, you have to major in Systems Engineering where you learn to code in archaic programming languages. Professors and the deans undervalued the importance of learning how to code at the time. “Programing is easy, everyone can do it. And who cares if you can or not — most of you will be working for me,” Kely was told.
The change: non-stop hustle, passion, and perseverance
Who would have guessed that a 4-hour bus ride and showing up to an event could change your life? In one of the events that Kely attended, she met Lennon, founder of devAcademy. Since then, her life spinned 360 degrees.
“The idea of being part of an entrepreneurial movement was exciting and some ideas just can’t wait. In college, I was told that I would be working for a corporation, following the rules. I didn’t want to follow the status quo, and when Lennon and the tech community in Lima introduced me to startups, my curiosity sparked.”
Lennon and I shared a lot of interests — the main one was creating a real tech community in Ica. “We wanted to influence others to start companies, to discuss about our struggles, and to provide value to each other. This has been empowering and powerful for us. We are creating our own reality and taking charge of the future of Ica’s tech community, instead of complaining about the lack of resources and support,” Kely said.
The results: female role model, web developer, and CMO
When devAcademy was in a startup stage, Kely had to wear multiple hats. Though she didn’t have any experience in sales and marketing, Kely managed to learn everything from scratch. Not only she grew the devAcademy’s Facebook page to more than 18,000 followers, but she has also built a global ed-tech community through devHangout and closed sales deals. But there’s more than those accomplishments. Kely is a strong advocate of women in tech.
“When girls in my school were trying to pick a major, the majority of them would imply that being a developer correlates to being a man. Since an early age, all of them grew with the idea that they weren’t equal to them. The problem starts in education and I want to rebuild the societal norms towards us. Talent has no labels and we need to encourage young girls to pursue STEM educations and future tech jobs to have real opportunities to succeed.”
Kely mentioned that she has attended events from Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In and Girls in Tech, but she claims that these initiatives have been mainly executed in main cities. Kely’s goal is to use technology to break the geographical barriers that she faced a couple years ago, so that people without financial resources can have an opportunity to be the next worldwide leader.
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