About me
I started building my first commercial projects as a web developer back in 2017, although I’ve been passionate about technology for as long as I can remember. I discovered the internet at 6, and around the same time I learned to use Paint 🎨 and to play Pinball on a Windows XP computer my cousins had. Years went by and I found out there was an internet café near my house, so together with my older brother I spent a lot of time there watching other people play Age of Empires ⚔️. Whenever I could, I played on those computers too and poked around to figure out how those games worked. But above all I remember sitting there watching the owner, Alfredo — good old Fred — programming and modelling game maps, or at least that’s how I remember it. It made me want to try the same thing. I found it amazing how so much was happening on his screen: I couldn’t understand any of it, but it looked brilliant. He was without a doubt my first influence for getting into programming.
When we got our first computer at home, around 2011, I spent all my time on it building my own texture packs for one of the games I played the most: GTA SA. To do that I learned GIMP and later Photoshop. I wanted to go further and started creating maps for the game, which is how I got into 3D modelling. By then I was 12, and I remember planning to make video games for a living 🎮. A couple of years later, knowing that making games requires programming, I did some research and built my first website with HTML 4 and CSS3. It was a static page, clearly not responsive, and both its design and content were poor — but I felt very proud seeing my page live and working.
How I got into programming 🖥️
In 2014 I started high school and chose the Programming Technician track. For the first-semester capstone project I knew I wanted to make a video game, so I committed to it. I learned Unity, went deeper into Blender and picked up a bit of C#. It was hard going, since nobody on my team knew how to code, but with their help we all learned a little more and got the project over the line. We delivered a working demo of a character in a level of our 3D survival game. That’s when I discovered that making a video game is anything but easy, and understood just how much knowledge, time and dedication it takes.
I felt good about pulling off that small project, but little by little I fell more in love with web design and development. So I started learning more about HTML, CSS and JavaScript. I spent all my free time watching courses and practising on fictional sites I designed myself.
The world of robotics 🤖
In high school, a teacher and good friend, Esteban Ángeles, recruited me for the school’s robotics team, which competed in the VEX Robotics tournaments. He spotted me designing a “3D spider robot” in Autodesk Inventor, and I was able to bring more friends onto the team. One of them was Erik Alejandro Estrada Sauza, someone with the same drive and curiosity as me. I designed the robot and he programmed it. Together with the rest of the team, we built it. It was a lot of fun and I learned an enormous amount.
In 2015, thanks to Esteban, I was invited to take a week-long Autodesk Inventor course in another city, taught directly by Autodesk. Around then the team needed a 3D printer to improve how our robot worked, so we started researching and trying to build our own. During that process we discovered Kickstarter and decided to try publishing a 3D printing project.
Exploring crowdfunding 💡
We found out that Mexico had Fondeadora, a platform similar to Kickstarter. As it happened, both platforms were about to merge and, since we had a draft project on Kickstarter, we were invited to the Fondeadora–Kickstarter merger event. We also took part in Make/100 Kickstarter Dreams - The Voice of 100 Creators, an e-book collecting 100 creators sharing the experience and knowledge gained from their campaigns. I appeared there representing my team as one of the 100 creators.
My first steps at TEDx events 🎤
I was about 14 when I discovered TED talks. I became a fan instantly and, ever since, I wanted to attend a TED event, give a talk, or even be part of the organising team. In 2018 I met a good friend, Octavio Rojas Xicali, who gave me the chance to take part in my first TEDx event. I helped build the event’s website and pitched in with other organising tasks. It was an incredible experience that cemented my love for TED and my desire to help spread ideas.
Thanks to the people I met through that TEDx experience, I landed some of my first clients — some of whom still work with me today. Since then I’ve worked in web development while running small projects and organising events on the side.
Events we organised 🚀
Between 2018 and 2019 I was lucky enough to sponsor and help organise:
- TEDxPalmitas Transforma Tus Muros | 2018
- Talent Nights Hidalgo, Second Edition | 2018
- Startup Weekend Pachuca Social Innovation | 2018
- Techstars Global Startup Weekend Sustainable Revolution Pachuca | 2019
- TEDxPalmitas Vientos de Cambio | 2019
Making an impact with technology 🌍
In 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, I saw the need at some local medical centres and decided, along with a group of friends including Mayra Diaz, to do our bit by 3D printing and donating face shields. The project grew little by little and more people joined in. That’s how Hope Makers México was born.
In 2021, together with another great friend, Guillermo Mora, we created Devs_Tiza, a community for developers, designers and technology enthusiasts. Our goal is to run events, workshops and mentorships that strengthen the local tech ecosystem.
Sharing knowledge 🧠
I’ve always enjoyed sharing what I know. I often run small courses or mentoring sessions for friends, students or companies. Their questions are where I learn the most: sometimes a question looks simple and the answer is something we take for granted, yet we don’t fully understand why it works that way. That pushes us to:
- Dig deeper into the concepts
- Understand them better
- Turn them into something that can be taught clearly and practically
Grounding knowledge is, for me, the bridge between knowing and teaching.
Programming mentorships 💻
From 2021 until today I’ve closely mentored more than 15 high-school students on the programming track. Since they’re just starting out, when they get to the point of understanding how websites are built, they begin with the basics:
- HTML
- CSS
- JavaScript (fundamentals)
I’ve tried to teach them the way I would have liked to learn it back then, with excellent results: concepts that weren’t clicking at school finally made sense and they were able to apply them through this different approach.
Educational content on YouTube 📹
Many of them became especially interested in frontend and wanted to understand and master CSS. So I started making short videos and uploading them privately to my YouTube channel so they could refer back to them whenever they needed.
In 2024 I recorded some FrontEndMentor challenges with better production quality and published them on my channel. These days I share those resources with people I know who are interested in the topic and want to learn by watching it put into practice.
There aren’t many videos, but I really enjoyed the process. Time constraints have kept me from recording more, since they take a lot of dedication, but I’m sure I’ll be publishing new content again soon.
Some of my videos 🎬
Here are a few of the videos I’ve made to help others learn web development. Each one covers different challenges and techniques that can be useful to anyone starting out in frontend.
What comes next… 🚀
In 2023 Proyecto Tizayocan was born, an initiative that applies technology to improve education, urban management and connectivity across the municipality. The project is still in progress and we’re bringing in more collaborators to keep it moving.
In late 2024, after years working at the city council as Software Development Coordinator and seeing the technology gaps in some municipalities, StellarGov came about: a web component framework built with Tailwind that helps developers in small governments build fast, quality websites.
A little more about me ☕
Today, in 2025, I’m still working as Software Development Coordinator for my municipality, working with my long-standing clients and shipping projects. I love making things, experimenting with new ideas and organising events. I live by the maker spirit: learn, experiment and, sometimes, cause a bit of chaos. But all is forgiven when there’s music and coffee involved. ☕🎶
Oh! And I’m an expert at making coffee. Seriously — whether it’s to start the day or to fuel a creative session, I have the perfect recipe. I’m also pretty good at board games, so if you ever need a partner for game night, I’m your person! 🎲
I’m Fernando Aldair López Ponce and thank you for reading this.