Álvaro González Nieto

Tell us a little bit about yourself and your background?

I was born in the lovely town of León, in the northwest of Spain, very famous because we have free tapas included in your drink. There I lived and studied for most of my life, until I moved to Madrid, and later in 2019 I moved to Sweden. Since then I have worked for several companies, traveled around, met a lot of people, learned Swedish (ish), and now I joined Deploy!

Some of my hobbies include playing football, coding, traveling, eating tacos, and learning new stuff.

Why did you decide to join the founding team at Deploy?

Some years ago, I watched this sitcom called Silicon Valley where they try to create a start-up. I loved the show and became interested in entrepreneurship, to the point where I tried to start something with friends, but in the end we never had time for it. But my interest never went away, and when I got the chance to combine that with my passion for Salesforce, together with some of the most talented people I have ever met, it became a perfect match!

Less than six months in on your journey with Deploy, what has been the most rewarding and exciting so far? 

At first we had a lot of ideas and plans, but I knew it would take time until they became true. Seeing these ideas turn into reality was very exciting. For example, when we managed to integrate three systems for Deploy so we now have an overall perspective of our business. That was challenging, fun and very rewarding.

Here is a funny one for you; What is the strangest gift you have ever received? 

I actually don’t like to receive gifts, unless it is a Tesla or a house next to the beach. So I do not have so many memories of strange gifts. Maybe one I can mention was a gift from a former manager, who gave me a tie. Like why would a developer need a tie at all if we just sit behind our screen and code?

What is your favourite meal? 

Pasta with ketchup carbonara. I learned the right recipe years ago, and even my Italian friends would approve it.

How did you end up working within the Salesforce ecosystem? 

This is an interesting question. I do not have any formal education in computer science, since I hold a bachelor and a masters degree in both Energy and Mining Engineering. And that’s what I did for some time, starting with an internship at the environmental department of a petroleum company.

We all pretty much agree that the environment is important, but it was extremely boring to the point that I sneaked out from time to time to take a little nap here and there. I started to look for something new and I found something called Salesforce where they would hire me on the spot after a 3 months course, and I said, well why not, I can always get back to engineering.

I was supposed to start as a Business Consultant, but I ended up doing code which I had zero experience with. So I spent several nights learning code online and after a year I moved to Sweden to enjoy the beautiful weather here and the rest is history!

What is the main reason why you are still within the Salesforce ecosystem six years later? 

I think working with Salesforce is fun! It is not extremely complicated, but it could be challenging sometimes. It has a strong market and I have met a lot of nice colleagues and friends with whom I can share knowledge and learn from. And Salesforce also has nice stickers and events.

What is your most used app on your phone?

WhatsApp probably, most of my communication with family and friends is through it. 

Before we leave you we will need to know the answer to probably one of the most classic interview questions: What is your go-to movie and why?

I do not watch movies, so I will go with a show. The Simpsons! I love working and having it in the background!

Thank you very much Álvaro for joining us here at Spesso today for a very nice chat and the biggest good luck to you and the team at Deploy moving forward!