«Los más innovadores del país»
Apps.co — Ministry of ICT of Colombia · awarded to GoFruver (Gofru SAS)
Technical leadership • Akili team
Technical leadership and senior culture
Senior software engineering, AWS-native cloud architecture and acceleration with applied artificial intelligence for high-impact companies.
Team and leadership • Akili
Senior experience leading complex projects.
At Akili, every strategy, architecture design and communication is led directly by professionals with a proven track record.
+15 years of experience
Juan Carlos Cadavid
CTO & Founder • Akili
Cali / Bogotá • Operating for Latin America, the US and Europe
Full track record
Akili Certified
Akili CertifiedVision and direction
Juan Carlos Cadavid has more than 15 years of experience designing and shipping high-scale digital platforms, AWS-native cloud architectures and intelligent automation.
He is currently Associate Team Leader of the Innovation and Business Development Unit at the Alliance of Bioversity International & CIAT (CGIAR), where he leads the integration of generative artificial intelligence with global legacy systems.
His LinkedIn headline is AI Transformation Leader, focused on generative artificial intelligence, language models and cloud architecture, and he works from Cali, Valle del Cauca.
Specialty
Fractional CTO and standards
Executive advice for startups as a fractional CTO, and rigorous engineering standards for corporate teams in Latin America and abroad.
Specialty
Creator of AKILI
Designer of the open-source AKILI-SPECS methodology for spec-driven development, with full traceability from the requirement to the code.
Specialty
Roles at the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT
Full-stack developer from July 2021 to April 2022. Technical Lead of the Innovation and Business Development Unit from April 2022 to December 2024. Associate Team Leader since December 2024, leading AI adoption in that unit.
Specialty
Technical leadership at Akili
He covers requirements, architecture, design and development with Node.js, Angular, TypeScript, MySQL, PostgreSQL and MongoDB. CI/CD and DevOps use AWS, Docker, Jenkins and PM2. Delivery follows Scrum and JIRA, with him leading the development team.
Specialty
AKILI, since 2025
Creator and maintainer of AKILI, an open-source spec-driven development methodology for AI agents.
Specialty
Certifications
Generative AI Leader, from Google, in January 2026, and AWS Certified AI Practitioner, in December 2025.
Specialty
Education
Specialist in Software Development Processes, Universidad de San Buenaventura (2018-2020). Systems engineering, Universidad de Ibagué (2013-2018).
+14 years in media
Teffa (Stefanie) Ortiz
Social communicator • Commercial voice and communication
Colombia
Vision and direction
Social communicator with more than 14 years in media. She specializes in reaching audiences through voice, content and close communication, creating authentic messages that people remember and that add value for brands.
Specialty
Commercial voice and brand
Advertising voice-over, radio spots and institutional narration focused on carrying the brand's personality.
Specialty
Production and content
Shaping audio programs and scripts, and advice on close communication for social and digital media.
Public accountant
Luisa Fernanda Alzate Ruiz
Finance & Legal Director • Akili
Cali, Valle del Cauca, Colombia
Vision and direction
Public accountant from the Universidad Autónoma de Occidente and a specialist in tax management from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana Cali (2023). At Akili she leads finance, accounting and tax, and handles the company's legal and administrative work.
From 2009 to 2024 she was accounting manager and led the accounting team at Almacenes La 13 S.A.S., in Cali. Her specialty covers national and local tax compliance, income-tax provision and deferred-tax calculation, tax reconciliations, audits and requests from oversight bodies, and tax planning aimed at profit and cash.
Specialty
Tax compliance
National and local tax obligations, income-tax provision, deferred tax and tax reconciliations.
Specialty
Planning and control
Audits and requests from oversight bodies, and tax planning aimed at profit and cash.
Our history
One company since June 2017.
Akili is the technology company Juan Carlos founded in June 2017 and has led through every change. It moved from agritech to software and to artificial-intelligence solutions. AgroSmart and Melia Tech are trade names of that same company. The legal entity did not change.
June 2017
Founded
Juan Carlos founded the company and still leads it. He covers requirements, architecture, design and software development.
Names
AgroSmart, then Melia Tech, now Akili
Three names, one company. The early work, including agritech, belongs to Akili.
Program
National program El Campo a un Click
The company was selected for that national government program to digitize rural sectors.
Backing
SENA Fondo Emprender and Apps.co
Backing from SENA Fondo Emprender and from Apps.co (MinTIC) sped growth and sharpened the business vision.
Engineering culture
Innovation workshops and technology transfer.
We work alongside technical and leadership teams in intensive sessions to speed up adoption of modern architectures, legacy-software refactoring and effective LLM integration.
Instead of handing over static deliverables, we train your team in spec-driven development and cloud automation, and raise the lasting technical level of your organization.
Architecture and solution-design workshop with engineering teams.
Proven capability and credentials
Technical specialization and academic backing.
A track record in leading companies, official industry certifications and university training in software engineering.
Technology specializations
Depth in modern cloud technology, artificial intelligence and full-stack development:
- AI agents and LLM integration (Anthropic Claude, AWS Bedrock, OpenAI) and RAG.
- AWS serverless (Lambda, API Gateway, S3, DynamoDB, Cognito).
- Full-stack in NestJS, Next.js, TypeScript and Python.
Industry track record
Key experience leading and shipping projects in high-volume organizations:
- CGIAR: Technical lead for digital platforms and AI on legacy systems.
- Akili: the same company since June 2017, under the names AgroSmart and Melia Tech.
- PriceSmart: DevOps and POS systems for 47 retail clubs.
- Earlier experience at Carvajal and Almacenes La 14.
Base training: Specialist in software development processes, Universidad de San Buenaventura (2018-2020), and systems engineering, Universidad de Ibagué (2013-2018).
Verifiable backing
Recognitions and certifications
Official seals and current technical credentials behind the engineering we deliver.
- Recognition
- Certification
AWS Certified AI Practitioner
Amazon Web Services · credential of Juan Carlos Cadavid
- Certification
Generative AI Leader
Google · credential of Juan Carlos Cadavid
- Certification
DevOps diploma
Pontificia Universidad Javeriana Cali · training of Juan Carlos Cadavid
Why choose us
The Akili difference.
Specialized technical partnership, centered on quality and direct execution.
Direct seniority
No junior profiles in between. Every project is analyzed, designed and implemented under the CTO's direct technical supervision.
Spec-driven discipline
Our own methodology, based on rigorous specifications that guarantee zero surprises, predictable budgets and long-term maintainability.
Global and Latin American focus
Based in Colombia, with remote delivery for companies in Latin America, the United States and Europe, to international standards.