Leveraging post-literate tools like YouTube and emojis to create a website and mobile app that allows people to review the books they’re reading while they’re..
Leveraging post-literate tools like YouTube and emojis to create a website and mobile app that allows people to review the books they’re reading while they’re reading them, Beek is a startup that embraces the amazing contradictions of the internet age.
The Mexico City-based company, graduating from the most recent batch of YCombinator, began as a hackathon project in Austin, Texas, where co-founder Pamela Valdes was studying at the University of Texas.
It was at the AngelHack hackathon that Valdes met her partner, Max Holzeu, a Guatemalan immigrant and coder who was working at a web studio in the city.
“Austin is like San Francisco in terms of its culture, but it’s much cheaper,” said Holzeu.
As the only person at the hackathon who didn’t know how to code, Val des said that she was shunned by most of the developers, but Holzeu was intrigued (and maybe a little piteous) of the brave woman who came with an idea but no technical chops, and agreed to work with her on the project.
The initial idea for the company actually pre-dated the hackathon, where Valdes had gone to rustle up some talent to help her build a minimum viable product.
