Latest / Behind the Founders / He Left Engineering. Moved To Colombia. Started Over.
Transcript
- Carmen: Hi everyone, this is Carmen Dova from Behind the Founders, and joining me here today is Kavian Spells. Kavian, welcome. Can you introduce yourself? Absolutely. So I'm Kavian Spells, from the United States, from Atlanta, Georgia, but now here living in Barranquilla, Colombia, and I'm the founder of Kaveman Digital. Nice. Very to have you here as well. So first and foremost, how long have you been living in Colombia for? I've been living in Colombia only for about six months now. Okay. Yeah, it's been a a dream of mine and something I wanted to do for a long time. Mm-hmm. And there's a lot of different reasons for the move. One of them was to actually found the company ⁓ know, make sure I was in the right environments and personal challenges and things like that. Okay, great. Well, could you tell the listeners out there what inspired you to first of all move to Colombia and also start Kaveman Digital? Absolutely. So before ⁓ I started working with Kaveman Digital, before I moved to Colombia, my background before that, I have an engineering background. Okay. was loving what I was doing. That's been a huge part of career for the last decade or so. ⁓ I started off as a process engineer in a manufacturing facility working on efficiency metrics, doing things like that, found my way into tech because a lot of the people who were in the manufacturing facility were were older and we had a new piece of software that we had to implement ⁓ for our efficiency metrics. So they were like, Hey, you're the young guy, you just got out of college, take care of that. Okay. ⁓ So ⁓ worked with that for a few years and then from then I moved back home to Atlanta, Georgia. Okay. still working with the same software, but in an implementation role, going to different manufacturing sites. From there, ⁓ started working in financial technology. and was a product manager working with different features from the banking side of things. And this was dream job at some point in time. ⁓ But after doing for about four years, it was like, you know. I think everybody kind of has that feeling after doing something for a while. It's like, okay, what's the new thing? What's the new challenge? Yeah. So I was looking for that. I had been to ⁓ years before that, and I always knew that I wanted to move there for a lot of different reasons. one of the main reasons was just ⁓ personal challenge, ⁓ like we're talking about, new challenges, new things, ⁓ new obstacles to tackle and things like that. So Colombia was, I've always traveled around and always had an international mindset, but I never lived outside of the country. So that was one aspect of it. The other aspect of it is obviously there's a language barrier. And it's like, well, this is a chance for me to learn a new language ⁓ to tackle things from that aspect. And so ⁓ all personal challenges. And I feel like you need to get out of your comfort zone. in order to really grow as a person, you know, whether that be in business or personally or whatever. So that lined up with also the my career and kind of wanting a change and wanting something different. I had done, built some websites on the side I was doing my nine to five. And that I thought I liked it. It gave me a sense of a different sense of purpose. And it was also a large learning curve because now I have to learn. Marketing. Now I have to do sales, you know, now I have to do discovery calls and things like that. So I was like, this is something I really want to do. And then this was, you know, six months ago. now we're at the advent of like AI technology. ⁓ I feel like at my job we weren't really using it well. We were using it, but we weren't using it well. And I don't feel like people really knew what were doing or how we use it in our jobs. Yeah. it was still very early and I was like, Well, if I do something on my own, I think I can figure out how this technology fits within I can clearly see how it fits within web design ⁓ within entrepreneurship. I can't see how it fits here. And I feel like I'm gonna get left behind if I don't try and use it and learn things. Yeah, and upskill everything as well. Exactly, exactly. So that's a very long way to answer. Okay. But Colombia happened, personal challenges, wanting to grow as a person and then my career, you know, same thing. Wanting to grow, wanting a different challenge. Those two married each other. Yeah. ⁓ and then I made the move in December of 2025. Yeah. Beautiful. Well, Kavian, thank you so much for sharing your really interesting journey because I can see that there's so many parallels happening at the same time on a personal aspect, career aspect and everything like that. So before we jump into learning more about what Kaveman Digital does, I'd love to learn a little bit about your journey transitioning here. What kind of challenges or things have you learned about yourself along the way? ⁓ yeah, there's a a million things that you learn about yourself. Yeah. I like to call it it's the idea of like burning the ships, because when I was at home, I had a, you know, I had my job, which I I loved and was doing well in at the time. I was living in in my house, which I had purchased a number of years ago. And everything was just comfortable. So I renovated my house, everything that I own, packed whatever I could in the three suitcases, bought plane ticket, a one way plane ⁓ ticket. right. And and that was it. So I landed in in Medellin for a while, for three months. And I went to Medellin first. I always knew I wanted to end up in Barranquilla, even though I never come here. Okay. knew Medellin wasn't for me. I've been there a number of times before, ⁓ it was first because I was already going to a Spanish school there. So I knew people, you know, my professors in Medellin. In Medellin. I had friends that I had met over the years that were there. And it was it was my soft landing point. Right. You know, because I knew nobody in Badanquia. Yeah, yeah. So after that it's like, okay, let me Get my feet wet, reintegrate myself into what Colombia feels like, what the language feels like again, and then I'll be ready to go off on my own to Bananquia. Yeah. ⁓ so yeah, I made the leap and I came here in in March. Okay. And things have been good. There's definitely been obstacles. Of course. there's a difference between having a Spanish conversation with a professor or tutor in a classroom and you're talking about safe topics and you've had conversations with this person. Yeah. Dozens of time. Yeah. And then having to go open a bank account. yeah. Tell me about it. Yeah. Or having to talk to a real estate agent or something. Or to any locals, right? When you go on the streets. Yeah. So ⁓ then Baden Kia has a very different accent than they do in Mendispeak. So that's another aspect of it too. So, you know, this this move has not been without its obstacles at all. Of course. I've taken many lumps, but I appreciate everyone because like I said, my own ethos is, you know, Without uncertainty, there's no growth. Without uncertainty, there's no growth. I knew that these challenges would come up. I didn't know how extensive they would be. You never do. Absolutely. You know, but it was it's been it's been a wonderful journey. Yeah. ⁓ ⁓ and I'm glad, you know, that I'm here right now. Yeah, yeah, of course. And happy to have you here as well. And ⁓ I think there is something really humbling, right, when it comes to moving to a new place, starting from zero, because If it weren't for being exposed to a different environment, you wouldn't have had the opportunity to learn different parts of yourself, right? So I think it is ⁓ definitely a huge learning curve. Of course, I think oftentimes people like to glamorize moving abroad that, you know, it's an adventure, it's exciting, it's gonna be sunshines and rainbows. But at the end of the day, right, there's also some challenges as well. And I think it's all about building the resilience, it's all about navigating and everything like that as well. So onto your business about Kaveman Digital. For the listeners out there who have never heard of Kaveman Digital, could you tell the listeners what is it that Kaveman Digital does and what is it that what is your purpose and mission? Yeah, absolutely. So Kaveman Digital is a business that I created in order to help small businesses generate customer activity in to grow and in order to improve their digital presence and how they're presenting themselves online, whether that be their brand, how they're coming off against their customers and everything. The primary vehicle right now is web design, is websites. Okay. ⁓ and then later on we're gonna get into marketing and strategy and those other things. and people might ask, okay, well, you know, I can go to Claude or Chat GPT and and build a website and that's that's extremely true. Nobody needs to have a website There's four year olds that can build websites nowadays. It's more about is your website really saying who you are to your customers? Is it getting their your message across, your ethos, your mission? Is it built to convert? Is it just a information page like Wikipedia? Or is it actually putting them on a journey to get them where you want to go and telling the story that you want to tell? So that's what I want to do for these small businesses is make sure they're presenting themselves in the right light. Yeah. And that we're getting the goals that they're setting out for themselves, whether that's generating customer activity, whether that's growing and getting their their mission and their their message out there. ⁓ So basically my understanding is that you are supporting different businesses in terms of optimizing designing their web page design and everything like that. Yeah, absolutely. Okay. Absolutely. And you you know, when you're building a website. Yes, you can you can do that anywhere, but are you following good design principles? Yeah. You know, so I think that's very important. Got it. So what would you say is different then because we talked a little bit about AI that you know you can just go into ChatGPT, you can go into cloud and be like, hey, help me to design a web page that aligns with my mission and values. What would you say is unique about what you have to offer to these businesses? Yeah, well I think the most important part is is not the webpage, it's the strategy and there's the consultant behind it. Okay. So if I'm working with somebody, I'm I'm a partner for you. I'm gonna sit here, we're gonna have a discovery call. Okay. I'm going to hear out everything that you're telling me. We're gonna break that down and we're really gonna tease out what your mission is because okay, you can go to Claude and say, Hey, I wanna build one with my mission. Well, what is your mission? Is it a good mission to have? Is it getting your goal across? What's your goal by by saying that mission? those are the questions that we're gonna ask. And then we're gonna talk about your personal brand. Okay. You know, when people think about branding, they think about usually fonts and color palettes, and that stuff is important. But it's also like, are you presenting yourself as how you want to present yourself? ⁓ the customer see you how you want to be seen? ⁓ do we build the website to make sure we get that across to them? Then the conversion principles, okay? You know, I don't want to get too technical and too into detail, but the way the page that is built out will take them on a journey. You know, it's not just the words that you're saying, it's the way that everything is it why is this button here? Why is this button here? How everything's presented clearly. Exactly, exactly. So if you don't if you don't know any of that information, then yeah, you can go to Claude and say, Hey, build me a website and it's gonna be a website and it's gonna work, but it's not gonna get across your goal. Because Whatever you're if let's say you're a roofer in you don't know any of these things when it comes to design principles or maybe when it comes to business and marketing and things like that, you just know that you need a website. Mm-hmm. So if you go to Claude and say, Hey, I need a website and you know, you you're missing all of that strategy. You're missing all of that those business principles and those design design principles. So that's what I'm here to help bring from these small bids. Yeah, yeah. Okay, great. So in terms of the businesses, what kind of businesses have you collaborated with so far? I know it's quite like a new business that you've found. Absolutely. But so far from your experience, what kind of clients or businesses have you worked with or what are your target clients? Yeah, so I've been operating, building websites for about four years now. Okay. But that's been Off and on, that's been as a side thing. Maybe I have a project this year, maybe I don't. Kaveman Digital came to life and became an official thing once I left my nine to five and decided to dive into it full time ⁓ of January of this year, 2026. So it is really, really new. And think as we're sitting here having this discussion, I think it's important that people know that oftentimes when you look at information about Founders or about businesses, people are focused on Elon Musk or Alex Ramosy or Warren Buffett. Yeah, yeah. And and even, you know, for a podcast like this, you know, I've seen a few episodes and people are a little bit further along. So I think it's important for me to talk about my experience at the early stages because you don't you never hear that. Yeah, no one talks about that, right? They only talk about the successes and then when they look back, they're like, Yeah. These are the challenges I face. But I think there's something very organic and raw when you actually really share like the beginning steps because I would say it's really relatable, right? It's something that can connect to people because oftentimes we're like, hey, how is it possible that people are doing so well? They have a high following, high, you know, customers or clients and so on. So I think it's actually great that you know we have you here to be able to share that authentic experience as well. Yeah, absolutely. So I I think that's really important. You know, I'm at the point in time where I'm looking for people who aren't a hundred steps ahead of me, who are only maybe one or two. And it's hard to find that information. It's hard to find people to be mentors who are only so far ahead of you and who understand and can relate like you mentioned before, who know what it's like to be in your shoes and can give you advice from that standpoint. So that none of that answered your question. But that's okay. But see I just thought it was important to to put that out there and then The people that I have worked with so far over the last few years, I can probably count my clients on one hand. They've mostly been in the e-commerce space. So they had a product or a service that they wanted to sell. was Hot T Co, who sells like boutique ⁓ and we built her a webpage. ⁓ the other was she teaches pole dancing classes. It's like a fitness exercise. Yeah. that was another one. And then there was a woman who we helped build a web page ⁓ she has a service where she does makeup for for weddings. Okay, okay. So it's quite diverse I would say. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So that that was all of my experience so far has been on the e-commerce side. So I definitely want to help small businesses who have either a product or a service that they want to to sell. So yeah. So explain your process a little bit from how you the strategies used to reach potential clients and then you mentioned about a discovery call. what are the other stages in the process to bring ⁓ web pages to life? Yeah, absolutely. Do we are we starting from like getting the client first or yeah from the beginning all the way to the end. Okay for sure. End to end. For sure, for sure. So initially how I got those clients was completely word of mouth. I didn't have Anything out there, web page on the internet. I wasn't, I was only telling friends and family. that was just a side conversation. Just like, ⁓ what are you, you know, what are you doing? This well, you I'm building websites. And then from that, ⁓ people would come in and ask me. So I didn't do any marketing at all throughout those times. Yeah. now I'm my focus. Obviously, I'm doing this full time. I need to make money. Of course. So marketing is gonna be very important. Yeah, you see. ⁓ what I found out. Is there's four different ways that you can market. There's paid ads, you can do content, you can do cold with emails, and you know, maybe that includes DMs and messages and things like that. and then you have you know your organic methods. ⁓ So ⁓ there, ⁓ I've to of go the content route, do social media and things like that, ⁓ just posting things online. That's Whenever you're doing content as a marketing, it's gonna take a very long time. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So ⁓ I understand that and I'm okay with that. Mm-hmm. ⁓ so that's the plan from right now. And also doing a little bit of cold outreach. it's hard in Colombia because most of my clients ⁓ are and will be in the US. Right. So, you know, I can't just pop up at a at a meetup somewhere, a business meetup or the Chamber of Commerce or know be at a out at a conference or something like that. So that's going to be a little tougher and that's why I'm focusing more on content and code outreach. Yeah, yeah. ⁓ in the process. Of course. Yeah, go for it. The space is yours. Yeah. Okay. So the Clyde is interested in working with us, we set up a discovery call. During that discovery call, during the hour, you'll lay out your businesses, what your ultimate goals are, whether if that includes income or impact or what your mission is. ⁓ we'll draw out everything that we need to from there. I'll introduce my services and how I think I could help you. Okay. because like I mentioned, you know, this is gonna be a holistic company where we're helping with marketing, with strategy, with sales and things like that, as well as the web page. ⁓ So to to figure out how I can best help you. from there, you'll get a proposal from us. And then if you decide to move forward, we'll do some wireframing. And then build out the home page is just a page if we're doing a website. from there, then we'll build out the entire site. It's a pretty straightforward process once you get into the weeds. Of course, of course. So like when you're talking about like the different proposals you come up with, are there like different, I don't know, subscriptions or tiers or packages that you offer depending on their wants and needs? Yeah, that's a really good question. So ⁓ sounds like there's there's two different ⁓ that you can go about it. ⁓ There's a productized service. It's like I'm providing you a service, and that could be, I don't know, I'm cleaning your house or something like that. if I'm ⁓ that for you, ⁓ the price often depends, can depend on a lot of things. But if my offer is productized, it's like, ⁓ you have three bedrooms. No matter how big or small your house is, this is what the price is. Yeah. So that's a productized service. what I like to do is I like to really understand where my clients are coming from and try customate what I what they need and make it fit them to a T. Yeah. So based on that, that's where our numbers might lie because somebody might want a website in digital marketing, somebody might only want a website, somebody might want a strategy session where we go in and talk about different things and aspects from their business. So it's really hard to pin that down and like you go to McDonald's and you know, order a big man. You know, you know you're what you're gonna get with that. But when you're getting this type of business consulting, it's a lot different. Yeah, okay, great. Yeah. ⁓ well, I have so many follow up questions. I don't even know where to begin. I think the first one is so obviously right now your main focus and what you're gonna solve next is the marketing piece, right? ⁓ really just getting yourself out there, gathering more clients and everything like that. so in terms ⁓ of strategies let's just say operational, the operational side of things. Are you looking to ⁓ grow team? Are you looking for support to work together with you to bring this to life? To bring your business to life? Yeah, absolutely. So when you think about businesses, there's a lot of different goals and levels you can end up at. You can be, you know, in Apple or Microsoft. You can be the next unicorn in Silicon Valley. ⁓ You can have a mom and pop shop. There's a lot of different levels that you that you can end up at. And I don't think enough people decide where they want to end up before they go into business. Everybody doesn't need to be, you know, Tesla. Yeah. You know? Yeah. So for me right now, I'm in the beginning stages and really testing out some ideas and and some proposals and my positioning and messaging and things like that. and then I want to build what I call a scout team. So a scout team is is two people you're going out there and you're scouting, you're talking to people, you're having a bunch of different discovery calls and sales conversations ⁓ figuring out what really works. ⁓ from there you might move to a four person team. So for me that might look like having an assistant, having a developer, and then having somebody that helps with marketing or something like that. Okay. Sort of like outreach, right? Like they do some lead generations and so on. Exactly. Okay, no, that makes sense. That makes sense. And then you might Grow from there. So for me personally, as I sit here with you today, yeah, yeah. I wouldn't want the business to grow beyond 12 people. Of course. ⁓ because I don't know if you've heard of like the magic number 13, and that's when like teams start to break down. Okay, no, feel free to share that. I mean, that's it sounds really interesting. Yeah, for sure. So ⁓ what I'm building is is they call it now they have a cool term, like a lifestyle business. A business where you can support your lifestyle, you know. For me, that would include being location independent supporting a team and ⁓ remote team and making sure that we're able to handle our duties and things like that. Of course. But ⁓ you go past 12 people, for some reason that 13th person always breaks down the communication. ⁓ unlucky number. Yeah, yeah, exactly. So, you know, we might be able to have a Slack channel and we can freely draw out ideas and people can do that. But once you hit 13, you start needing to have departments, and that communication starts to separate. So I've heard business influencers say that if you're gonna go to thirteen, you might as well go to thirty. that's when you start getting into the the startups, Silicon Valley startups and being a unicorn, you know, selling for half a billion dollars and things like that. ⁓ before I get to that point, I wanna s make sure that my goal is to stop at a certain point. Of course. But ⁓ absolutely, I'm looking to build the team. and looking to work with one person as we really define what this business is gonna look like as far as positioning and messaging and then grow from there. Yeah, I think what you mentioned is really interesting, right? Like there is definitely gonna be like a shift and change in the team culture, the dynamics when the team starts to grow more and more and more. I've been there myself as well. I was in a startup a couple of years ago and I think I was it was much bigger, but I was like the 80th person to join. And from the time, the day that I joined till two years later, we grew from 80 to 300. Wow. And it was like the point where, you know, when you're still 80 people, you kind of know everybody. So there's this sort of more intimate dynamic where everybody is supporting one another. And it was a very, it was a very like community like feeling as well. But then once you grow 300, it's like, ⁓ wait, I haven't seen that person before. So even in terms of the way you collaborate, there's also more sub-teams. It could also become a little bit political as well. You know, office politics does happen. We can't ignore that. Once there's more than two people, office politics happens too. Right. Yeah, yeah, definitely for sure. So I think it's really interesting that what you mentioned there is definitely really valuable for anyone listening out there, the people considering to start a business about, you know, what kind of setup that they want as well. Okay. So I did think that we touched a little bit about that topic, but I would still love to ask, because this is a question I asked to every single of my guests here. What are your thoughts on AI? Yeah, absolutely. ⁓ AI is the newest technology we have that is breaking the mold for the way we saw the world before. that can mean a lot of different things for different people. There are some people out there that have fear. There's some people out there that are very excited about the future. Yeah, it's really polarized. Yeah, yeah. ⁓ yeah, I mean there's there's different problems with AI when we talk about sustainability and and things in the world. Me, myself, I I look at AI as a tool. You know, it's no different from a hammer and a nail. It's no different from a computer itself when the f a computer first came out. It's no different from when the internet first came out. It's a new tool, it's a new technology to help us as human beings improve our lives and make things easier. from that standpoint, I think that it's a great thing, especially when you're working on an online space, when you're doing web design or even you're building the next software product or something like that. I think it definitely helps make things easier from their standpoint. Yeah, for sure. I mean it is quite interesting, right? This is a I would say AI has become quite a hot topic, right? There are people with very, very different opinions. Some people think AI is great, you know, it increases efficiency. Some people think, ⁓ it's killing creativity, it's replacing jobs. So it's really interesting to see, you know, depending on how you use it, it could be, it could be for the good. But it really depends how you use it. And I always like to see like AI is sort of like an intern that you train and you coach, you know. And they're here to like supplements, support you, not to like take anything out, like kill the creativity and so on like that. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. I do I do think AI can kill creativity at some times if you're using it in the wrong way. Yeah, when you use it in the wrong way. Right. If you use AI to think for you, like before you ever have an original thought, you automatically just go to AI. That's not the way that I think it should be used because that's gonna kill any creativity you had. And we've we've seen the studies on that. There's been studies that people who are writing an essay and who go to AR first always do worse over time than the people who are generating their own thoughts and things like that. So I think there is a a ⁓ certain way to use it. I like to use it as a a co pilot. that's a good way to spread it. Yeah. So if I'm I'm the head pilot, I'm driving the plane. And if I have something that I'm pondering on or that I can't figure out or that I need to strategize about, that's when I go to my co-pilot to help me bring this thing to life. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Sort of like helps you to brainstorm and generate other ideas and then you kind of like make it out of your own as well. Yeah, yeah. Great. Well, one final question, and I think that's a very valuable question for the listeners out there. there is or maybe you have a couple of insights or advice that you would share to someone considering to start a business or maybe they're having some reservations, they don't know where to start, what would it be? Yeah, I think that's an amazing question. and for somebody who's still in the the early stages and starting out, this is still ⁓ really relevant me as well. Mm-hmm. and I think the biggest thing is there's like I said before, there's no growth with the without uncertainty. So if you're on the edge of a and teetering about you should do something or not, just do it. Do it before you're ready. Nothing's ever gonna be perfect. The conditions aren't gonna be one hundred percent the way that you think they are. So always make the jump beforehand. and also after that I think that, you know, reach out to other people as much as you can. Mm-hmm. So if on the edge teetering about whether you should do something Do before you're ready. Nothing's ever gonna be perfect. The conditions aren't gonna be one hundred percent the way that you think they are. So always make the jump beforehand. get advice from people who might have a business, might not may maybe the business isn't in your industry, but they're a business owner, they might have some insight for you. Yeah, for sure. ⁓ or a mentor, or don't be afraid to reach out to to people who you may not know. You know, people love teaching younger people. That's true. ⁓ younger in business age too. Yeah, yeah. ⁓ things. People love teaching things. So and that includes myself. ⁓ I guess we're gonna have a link the LinkedIn and everything down there. So If I could be a resource to anybody, please feel free to reach out. Yeah, for sure. I mean, we're definitely going to include, you know, your contacts, your LinkedIn profile so that people will be able to reach out and know how and where to connect to you as well. So I think that's definitely a very lovely message ⁓ to take that leap of faith. There is never a right time. And also just start networking and it's okay to ask for help as well. So this is behind the founder. Be sure to stay tuned for the next episode.