Awarepreneurs template - Rudy Parra

Hi, this is Paul Zellizer and welcome to the Awarepreneurs podcast. On this show, we dive deep into wisdom from some of the world's leading social entrepreneurs. Our goal is to help you increase your positive impact, your profitability and your quality of life. Before we get into today's topic, I have one request. If you could hit subscribe and do a review on your favorite podcast app, it helps more people learn how to have positive impact through a values based business. Today, I'm thrilled to introduce you to Rudy Pada, and our title is Bootstraps and Bootcamps, New Mexico's Pathways into Tech. Rudy is a mechatronics and lab technician at GridFlow, where he supports the development of next generation lithium solar flow batteries. He specializes in IoT integration, rapid prototyping, and lab operations, helping bridge the gap between r and d and real world energy solutions.

With a background in robotics and automation, Rudy is passionate about building systems that are efficient, scalable, and safe for the grid of tomorrow. And full disclosure, I get to see Rudy quite often at start up events here in New Mexico. He works for one of my favorite. You're not supposed to say that if you're a leader in the ecosystem, cause you love all your kids, but I love grid flow. I have a special affinity for what's happening at grid flow and Rudy and I are working on atomic sixty six and NM Tech Talks together. So I get to interact with Rudy a lot. And Rudy, welcome to the show.

Hello, Paul. Thank you so much for having me today.

We we've got a few things to talk about. You have a lot of awesomeness in your life these days.

Yeah. Also I'm told so, so I'm told,

oh, no, no, no. It's it's for real. You totally have a lot of things going. So really one of the things I found interesting about your journey, this is not necessarily a path that you thought you were gonna wind up in. Is that fair to say?

I did not. No. No. It kinda completely took me by the side rails, but in the most good way possible.

Tell us a little bit about that.

Yeah. Of course. So, you know, since the beginning, I I've always considered myself a nontraditional student, you know, since the beginning. You know, I always dealt with health problems as a kid. So I was born with leg health Perthes disease. That being said, throughout my childhood, I was very indoors a lot. I was told I couldn't run, I couldn't really jump, Had to limit my physical activity. So that really shortened my my, I guess, skill sets that I could obtain as a kid.

You know? So I I didn't play football. I didn't play baseball. So I I stayed inside. That being said, I got really into tinkering, a lot of a lot of objects that I found in in the house. And, Carrie, you know, as a kid, curiosity kinda takes over when you're a kid. And I would take apart toys as a kid, and my parents would get mad at me. You know? They would, you know, why are you taking apart all your toys?

I bought you that toy. Right?

Exactly. Exactly. And, you know, of course, at the time, during my that era, it was transformers. You know, and it was, like, something that was, like, mechanical, and it had lights, and it had motors, and it had sound. And I wanted to see how it worked. And so that was the curiosity as a kid growing up. But what's weird is I was never, like, the straight a student in school, but I was very active in school. I was very active in the community.

I was always doing clubs, but I was never the, like, four point o val valedictorian. I was never that straight shot student. I was I consider myself a c average student. And when I once I left high school and it was time for me to go to an education, I realized that, like, I need to work more in my my education, and I felt like I wasn't ready enough for for UNM. And so I I went to CNM, and I was like, well, let me just start there.

And if somebody doesn't know what CNM was, let's say they're not in New Mexico. Help us out there.

That's right. Yeah. So, CNM is the Central New Mexico Community College in Albuquerque, New Mexico. And so I figured that was a great start to kinda, like, dip my toes into school because I knew I wanted to deal with technology my whole life and some sort of tinkering aspect, and I just didn't know what those outlets were. I mean, as a first gen student and, you know, I really was just kinda, like, not really aware of all the things that I could do. You know? And I just knew, well, computer science. It sounds like I wanna do science, and I wanna do computers. Let's do that.

And I found out that, like, that although that was a great outlet, but I wanted tinkering. I wanted to mess with boards and computer boards and wires and soldering and get the creativeness sparking. And I was seeking that in the computer science major, and I wasn't and that wasn't fulfilling that for me. And throughout my experience at CNM, my adviser at the time, I was taking a a program called STEM core. It's backed by a national program called Growth Sector, and they help unrepresented students kinda lead their pathways into the STEM industry. Because of that program, I relied heavily on the advisor, and she was like, hey. There's this program called the IoT boot camp at CNM Ingenuity. CNM Ingenuity is another branch of the institution of the community college, and there was some funding, you know, but the catch is you spend four hundred hours for the next four months, five days out of the week, eight hours out of the day, and you're just learning robotics, coding, IoT.

And I was like, where has this been all my whole life? You know? And I it was a fairly new program, so I was like, yeah. Let's do it. And I did that and, you know, I I met the instructor. We worked together in a cohort. I come from the STEM core background program from CNM. So in that program, we did a lot of engineering aspects of, like, courses of, you know, we learned MATLAB, AutoCAD, you know, we did all of those basic engineering things. So I kind of went in a little knowing a little bit of something. And then the IoT boot camp, it was just I just skyrocketed.

I mean, I actually wanted to learn what I wanted to this whole time, and I was just, you know, tinkering and getting the the opportunity to just play and build. During that opportune during that time frame of CNM and the IoT boot camp, I had obtained a few internships. My first ever internship was at the National Solar Observatory where I I interned for during COVID, actually. It happened during COVID. We were supposed to move there. We did everything remote. And so there, that kinda taught me a little bit of data analytics, you know, downloading large sets large data sets, trying to, you know, dig through them. And that was a whole other learning skill.

Then after that, I did another internship at Lockheed Martin. So I I dealt with a team, that dealt with the the operating system imaging. So that was really fun. A whole pivot again, completely different industry, a whole different, like, realm and different ways of working and coding styles and, you know, and I felt like, what am I doing? You know, I'm I keep jumping from this thing to another thing, and then I got another internship at the at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and that brought me more of the material science, the in person lab. We dealt with making different compositions of glasses. And, again, didn't know that was a thing either. You know? Like, every single thing was just like, I don't know anything, but I'm going to learn it, and we'll see how we how we pivot. And a lot of YouTube videos.

A lot of YouTube videos at the end of the day, a lot of self teaching and self learning, you know, through these internships. And I felt like, what am I doing? I'm not a typical four year student. I'm prolonging this two year community college so I could do all these internships. Like, I get to work, they pay me, and they pay for my housing. You know? And I was like, I'm gonna do as much of these as I can. And so that's how I obtained my experiences within data analytics, material science, learning how to operate in instrumentations. You know? And so I've I've obtained all those experiences. And then it was, you know, it came towards the end of my education, and I finished the IoT boot camp.

And I was like, hey. Well, you know, I'm not done with school, but I did a lot of this schooling thing. And I was seeking a job temporarily so I could continue my education at a four year. And that's when I fell into the whole tech startup industry world. And I reached out to one of my instructors at the IoT boot camp, and I was like, listen. I really need a a job. You know? I really need something. Do you know anything? You know? I want something that's more tailored to what we did.

And he introduced me to a a couple tech start ups, and Gridflow was was one of them. I started with telemetry insights first, and I was a contractor for them for six months. And then once I ended my contract with them, I moved over to to Gridflow. Because at that time, they were just they had just received funding. They had just received a lab. And so I was like, yeah. Why not? You know? Like, this is another internship, but, like, real life now. Like, it's not backed up by an an institution.

And I I just saw it as another internship in my eyes, like another project. And I was like, yeah. Let's let's do this. You know? Like, I I know the programming. I built IoT stuff. You know? I just came from Iowa from the lab, and we made tons of we would pump tons of samples a day. You know? And what's different about this one? And so, you know, I I said yes, you know, to Chuck, and, you know, it's we started in I signed on full time in September with him. So it's been, what, eight months now, maybe more?

There's a maybe maybe nine. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. And so we I signed on full time with him officially in September, I believe. I'm not too sure on the dates, but I started to kinda show up around the lab in July. And in July, we had nothing. You know? No AC. No we had one glove box, and now, you know, we're, you know, pumping in batteries. You know? We've we're already on our move.

We're we're already in, like, the double digits of of the battery manufacturing process. And with each one that we come out, we change something little by little, and we have a routine now. You know? And we actually have have a procedure. We we establish an SOP. You know, and we're learning every day. You know? And, of course, at the end of the day, it is a laboratory. So every day is a new day. We come in and there's gas leaking or, you know, there's something.

And so it's the the problem solving and quickness from the internships that I've learned from, it it's not anything different. You know? It's just this time, it's just a little more real, and this is an actual real company and not, you know, a lab at a institution. So that was kind of my my journey from CNM at a community college and finding out all of these programs from STEM core to the IoT boot camp to, you know, growth sector and, you know, and all of these different entities. And they're, like, they're they're pretty much, you know, there. And I thought these were only accessible for people who went to a four year. You know? I didn't think I had these opportunities available at a community college. You know? And I was like, listen. I you know? And through all these, you know, internships and events and meetings that have kinda gone, I I realized, like, networking is so essential because, you know, because of that, I was able to get, you know, these internships.

And along the way, I've I've obtained these connections. And still to this day, if I have a question at the lab, I still call the the doctor up in Iowa saying, hey. Listen. This glove box is acting strange. You know? Like, how how do I fix it? And yeah. So that's kinda like my my journey from, you know, education wise at least, where I started into kinda how I landed in the tech start up. And my goal now is from the tech start up is once, you know, we finish with GridFlow, my goal is to go back to engineering school, you know, and and continue that forward. I feel like now it's almost like, why not? I've I've already been doing all of I'm already working in the industry.

Like, let's just finish it. You know?

What do you wish you could pass on to somebody who was in a similar situation? Like, tech was kind of interesting to them, but they didn't understand the nuances, and there's all these different there's two year programs and boot camps and four year programs and PhD programs, and it all seems overwhelming. And I don't know what to do and how to make sense of it. And what do you what what would you pass on now that you're have been through what you've been through and you've landed in a great place? What what wisdom would you share to somebody who's looking at the tech industry and just feeling a little bit either uncertain, maybe even a little intimidated?

Mhmm. Well, I mean, what I would say to them is intimidation will always be there. You know? I mean, that famous word, two words, imposter syndrome. I hate that word, but, you know, it's it's never gonna go away. Even if you do learn something, if from where you know nothing to I know something, but I still don't know nothing, that's not gonna go away. Getting over that is what I had to overcome a lot. Again, first gen, not having any ties to the tech industry. I didn't even get Internet in my house till I was a senior in high school, let alone learn how to use it and code on the computer.

And so I had no knowledge, but I I what I had was ambition and the and, like, the wanting to learn it. You know? As long as you have that, you have everything. Because, you know, another advice that I I wanna give them is, okay. Well, great. I have that now. Where do I go next? Organizations, clubs, you know, get yourself involved. And I think that's what helped me as CNN provided me not only the education to obtain my CIS degree, but it provided me outlets because I knew that, yes, I was working for that degree, but I knew what was important. And that is building myself within the community to find more things to do, you know? And that is that's what ultimately got me here to this day is because I didn't just sit in that classroom.

You know? Absolutely. I I I went to those those really, like, school events that nobody really goes to. You know? The ones where they have sandwiches laid out and all the sandwiches, nobody's eating them, but I was. You know? And so go to those things. You know? Go to those career events. Go to those, like you know, Intel has came to CNN, and they they call it Hintel day. Those ladies, they knew me by the third interview because I was just there over and over and over again because I wanted to get into Intel. You know? How how was I gonna get into Intel through an online application? It was gonna be tough.

You know? But I knew that Intel went to CNM and had Intel day. You know? Why? Because I left the classroom, and I actually looked at the board on on the on the bathroom board, you know, where they put up all the flyers and Yeah. Everyone ignored those things, and that's what kinda got me in. Or, also, just joining clubs, you know, ultimately, what started this whole snowball effect at CNN was because, you know, I got an email from CNM saying that there's a robotics class we wanna set up as an elective that did not go towards my education. But, you know, hey. Why not? I wanted to learn about robots. Because of that, I met another instructor, and I would do after hour things with him. You know? So they would have hackerspace club, and we would build robots.

And, you know, it was just open lab hours and STEM core. I wouldn't have met STEM core. I wouldn't have met STEM core. I wouldn't have met IoT boot camp, and it's just a snowball effect. You know? And and it was just simply leaving the classroom or leaving that even if you're not in a classroom, even if you're just have you know, I I I work a nine to five, but I wanna get into tech, you know, leave that repetitiveness and join a third party. Find that third place, and that third place will find you your fourth place and your fifth place. You know? Absolutely, Rudy.

One of the ways I've come to know you is through different kinds of networking groups like Techarilla. The Exactly. New Mexico has a very robust, I'm told the largest in the country of a national network of Latinx folks in technology called Techeria. Right? You're there very often. We've seen each other at a whole bunch of NM climate events. Right?

Right.

So those kinds of sector specific like, people sometimes say to me, because of what I do, they say, Paul, I want a job at climate or cleantech. And I'm like, great. Is there a climate or a cleantech meetup in your city or state? Yes. Do you go? No. And the first thing I say is, go. Right? Exactly. And people say, but I'm busy, or I'm an introvert. I'm like, I know.

I'm an introvert too. It's awkward. You don't know anyone in the room. But if you go three times, you're gonna know everybody in the room. Right? And those things are so incredibly important. So I'm so glad you brought that up, Rudy, and I Yeah. I've come to know you through those kind of things. And I see you all over and over again being willing to help out, lend a hand, not just show up, but, you know, you're doing social media things for some of these groups that we both care about.

And, you know, we both are volunteering, and it's not a surprise to me that you got hired at GripFlow, both because you're really smart, but also you started showing up in ways that you weren't waiting. You proactively sought those opportunities. Does that feel fair to say?

Oh, yes. Exactly. And I kinda wanna add on on top of that is, you know, when I left the whole IoT boot camp and I got into the tech industry, I realized that I was active like, I I always wanted to be a part of a tech community, and I never knew that it I never really saw it in my eyes in New Mexico, to be honest with you. I didn't think that there was a big one. When they left IoT boot camp and I got interconnected with the networks, and I started to work at Gridflow, and thanks to to GridFlow, you know, they were doing what once was called before batteries and beers, which is now they merged to New Mexico's climate now. Doing so and going to those events, you know, I realized that there is a solid community in Albuquerque where it's, you know, a tech start up. You know? And there are tech people, and I I was just out of it. You know? And being someone who was always involved from being student body president in high school to doing hackerspace club at CNN, and now I was at Gridflow, I felt like I not not that Gridflow didn't keep me, like, busy.

It keeps me it keeps me pretty on on my toes, but I was so used to having a second entity. You know? And I was like, this is a community, a circle of, you know, tech people and the tech startups, not only just, you know, actually having companies, but they network with other people and, you know, and I I wanted to be more involved in that. And I found out about TechEdia, and I was like, you tell me that there's a Latinos in STEM organization? And I had no idea of this. You know? And it kinda it was like my student council in high school, and it was I saw it as, like, my CNM hackerspace at CNM. You know, this this circle that of people who would just want to expand the tech community in Albuquerque. And I was like, this is my playing field. You know? Like, this is what I want to see. And and and my opportunity to meet more people.

And, you know, because of these networks, I've I've got to meet people that have helped us and given us some advice on on our production, and it's essential. You know? And it's weird because it's like, you do all these clubs and you do all these things at school, and it's like, does it really matter? And it's like, no. But you kinda develop a way how to talk to people, you know, and get around. But yeah.

I'd say more than that, and this is a perfect lead in, Rudy. You and I are both building it. Like, as we speak, we're working on something called NM Tech Talks at Atomic sixty six. Right? Exactly. So I wanna tell people about that, which is an opportunity. I agree with you. There used to be less of a tech at least an innovation tech kind of focus in New Mexico, but it's really been growing. I've been here since '93, and what's on the ground now compared to what's on the ground in the past is very different.

And we're about to pour some gas on that. So let's talk a little bit about that. Yeah. So what what is atomic sixty six overall? And then let's talk about, like, some of the specific parts that you and I are both involved in.

Yeah. Of course. So Atomic sixty six is a multi day event that is being hosted in Nob Hill. It's happening it's I believe it's happening on June 10 through June 13, if I'm correct. And within the atomic sixty six, there are subcategories that are happening. So I believe there is space fiesta. There is a happy hour event that is being held as well, I I believe. And then there's a part where it's called tech talks.

And mainly what we are a a part of from that atomic sixty six event is the New Mexico tech talks portion. That's just, you know, gonna be a whole sub categories of of talks of people within the tech industry, CEOs, VCs, investors, people who work in the government. You know, we have rep some reps coming over as well, I believe. Yeah. I'm just kinda going through my list here, making sure I don't miss anything. But we have at least, like, five categories. So one is dealing with software and AI. Another category is dealing with entrepreneurship, I believe.

The other one's dealing with tech access in in New Mexico. Of course, another topic dealing with climate and advanced energies. And, yeah, and then we're gonna have little, like, sub event as well during tech talk. So we're gonna have a little corner where you have the opportunity to speak to mentors to kinda get interview advice, resume advice, things of that nature. If you wanna do, I believe, they're called mock interviews.

Yeah. If

you wanna do that as well, they're they're doing that as also. But, yeah, it's just a big multi day event of just technology related, technology and art and culture, of that sort. So it's gonna be really fun.

Yes. And each of those track each of those threads you talked about are whole day long tracks. So there's gonna be a a whole day long just on AI and software. If you're passionate about AI and software, come on down, and some of the smartest people in New Mexico and beyond are gonna be sharing what's happening in the space if you're super excited about climate and advanced energy. Literally an entire day of programming with some of the folks doing the most exciting work in New Mexico, all sharing what we're doing. And by the way, did we mention how much does this cost, Rudy?

It costs nothing.

It's all free.

It's all free. Just your time.

It does cost your time. You're right. But pretty low barrier to entry. If you're willing to come, right, you get to come in and

some exciting things happening here. I mean, like, there's big. I mean, we got the in in innovation hub from David Perez. You know? We got people in the climate and advanced energy, you know, tech start ups. Like, it's gonna be fun.

It's gonna be super fun. Gritflo is on a showcase with four other awesome New Mexico based climate and advanced energy startups. We're gonna dig into, like, who's actually been able to move the needle and raise funding and build you know, get beyond their first prototypes and actually start to build something that's headed towards commercialization scale, GridFlow being one of them. So, yeah, the idea here is New Mexico is growing as a start up ecosystem, and we wanted to make it kind of pull people together, make it easy. Like, I wanna know what's going on in tech, but I don't really know where to start or I don't really know who to talk to. So this is a two and a half day free event that anybody can come to whether you live in New Mexico or not. But the idea of, like, trying to get a sense of what's happening in these different sectors, there's also stuff going on in the creative world. It's art and movies.

I think this is awesome. Really, one of the fun things I saw that I didn't even know was happening is dive in movies. They're gonna literally show movies on tubes in a pool. That'll be exciting. Right? That'll be hilarious. Right? Yeah.

That'll be fun.

Yeah. So from your perspective, Rudy, on this topic of, like, finding your way into tech, like, when where are you sitting now? And now, like, you're a leader. We'll get into your role and and then tech talks, but you're, like, doing things like social media, and you're in on the leadership conversations. We're in on meetings. Like, how are we doing on confirming various speakers or what's going on with which venue, and did we get the signage or not? Like, you and I are sitting in on those meetings. Right? So Mhmm. As somebody who not that long ago was like, I wanna find my way in, and now you're somebody who's, like, got an awesome job with a great start up, and you're, like, literally on the leadership meeting of how to make it more accessible, more available for the next generation. What kind of things are you thinking about as you're sitting in on those conversations about how do we scale up the tech industry in New Mexico and make it more accessible?

Well, you know, it's sort of a challenge. Right? Because, you know, with every tech industry, there's always different industries, different likings, different interests. You know? You know? A mechanical engineer is not have gonna have the same opinions as a chemical engineer. You know? And thinking of of those things and

You get the accounts in the room and they're gonna have

And they're they're

not legal in the room and they always Yeah. Right. Their hands. Right? And

so, you know, it's kinda hard to kinda grow larger within this space. But you you you see that, like, okay. Well, what do people want, and what do people wanna see? And what do we have, and what do we don't have? You know? And we do have a community, and we do have some movements, a large of, you know, tech start ups. But what we don't have is a hub for us to kinda get together and share all of these things in the state of New Mexico. And I think a good circle way back is Atomic sixty six. And and I think that's one of the ways how we're trying to do that is creating more events like these where it's saying, hey. You know, you don't have to just be in a tech startup just in the tech world. You know? Like, we're having film and art and culture.

And, yeah, we do have all these tech startups backed by Sandia Labs or people who are just, you know, entrepreneurs and they're smaller. And, you know, this should just be an outlet of this is what I have and this is what I wanna show. And I think we need more of that in New Mexico and, you know, not just in Albuquerque. You know, we we we've also talked about this with New Mexico climate is where we we also wanna take it outside. You know? Because, again, there's different sectors of the state. We have oil and gas down there, so we can deal with, you know, climate, energy, and things of that nature. But we need more, I I call them hubs, you know, in a way to kinda gather us to together for that because, you know, it's very easy for one to think, oh, wow. This state is quiet.

You know? And and and that allows us to kinda, you know, meet more people because I'm gonna be biased. The reason why I joined, you know, Taqueria and New and New Mexico Climate and all this was for the benefit of the company as well because I knew that if I'm intertwined with the community, not only I am, but so is GridFlow. You know? And so I guess coming up with different outlets for us to kinda share that, that's my goal.

Awesome. So in a minute, I wanna come back and hear a little bit more about what you're working on in Atomic 66 and how that hub model you're describing works, Rudy, and, also, where you want us to go beyond the next two weeks. Right? As we record this, we're recording it, you know, two weeks to the day before atomic sixty six launches. Right? I'm gonna go live a little next week. But, also, like, you're somebody who has vision and and has a fingers on the pulse, and I wanna get your sense of where would you like to see this develop into. Before we do that, I just wanna take a quick break and hear a word from our sponsor. If you got the chance to interview over 300 of the world's top social entrepreneurs and impact investors, you'd have to be pretty clueless not to learn something. Fortunately, I've been paying attention.

Over the years, some clear patterns have emerged. Balancing profit and purpose isn't optional. It's a strategic advantage. Impact driven business models often break the mold, and that's a good thing. Raising funds for climate and social ventures can be harder or easier. It just depends on which investors you target. Marketing can be trickier in this space, but when it works, it builds deep trust. In my eighteen plus years of work, I've supported more than 30,000 leaders and team members who are committed to creating change through values based business.

If you're looking to grow your impact venture or raise funding more strategically, I offer a ninety minute strategy session. It includes a customized intake process, a focused ninety minute call, three to seven clear action steps, and two weeks of follow-up email support to help you implement those steps in your context. Use the link below to reach out about scheduling your strategy session. So welcome back, everybody. I am thrilled to be here with Rudy Parra, and we are talking about bootstraps and boot camps, New Mexico's pathway into tech. And beyond any one tech company, we were talking right before the break, Rudy, about kind of the tech ecosystem here is a word I've thrown heard thrown around a lot. I've thrown it around a lot too. So now that you've been on both side well, first of all, how long was that journey? When you think back to the Rudy who was, like, on the outside of the tech world, like, maybe there's one here, but I don't really know how to get into it or who's in it Two, like, now you're literally sitting on leadership meetings and being invited into stuff.

I'm not sure if we're supposed to talk about it or not, but I've heard lots of rumors about who's gonna invite you on to leadership councils and advisory boards really. Like, how long are we talking that that journey has happened for you personally?

I I say since 2022.

So So what happened? Three years ago, you were outside. Like, I want in, I think, maybe. I'm not even sure if there's anything to be in on, and three years later, you're, like, in a leadership role.

Definitely. Yeah. So I I say the ball didn't really start rolling until 2022 when I joined the STEM corp program at CNM. Then ever since then, yeah, it just kinda three years, it seemed crazy.

Right? What a wild three years it's been. Right? Do you sometimes are you like, woah. That was fast?

Yeah. It's it's yeah. It is crazy. You know, there's a lot of ups and downs and then a lot of I a lot of naive. You know? I think the most greatest power is not knowing. You you know? Yeah. Because then you'll just, you know, kinda throw yourself in and you you you learn. You know?

Sure. So three years ago, you were trying to find your way in. Now you're people joke about certain industries. You put your toe in the water, and you're up to your neck. So now you're up to your neck. And do you think that pathway is still available? So you started in 2022. In 2025, if somebody else is like, yeah. I'm kind of where Rudy was three years ago.

Do you think that couple years from now, they could be up to their neck with, like, a job and community and being a part of planning the next generation of programming as setting the course, helping to chart the course of where New Mexico is going. Do you think that's still viable?

I agree in most definitely. I mean, like, this was only three years ago. And, you know, just recently, what are we, in month of May, I believe in April, I just went back to my Hi O T boot camp course, and I got to see their capstones, the new cohort, and and, you know, they're still coming along. And, actually, one of the cohorts that I met, I actually recently met him at another tech start up. And because of that, this was only four, five months ago when I met him, and he was already doing the STEM core program, the IoT boot camp program. He was just finishing up the IoT boot camp. And that was, like, not even six months ago when I met him and I gave him that. You know? So definitely, yes, there is still that outlet.

You know? They're still offering. You know? And not only just I IoT. You know? There's other courses of we even just got a new course of quantum computing. You know? So different trades, different entities, data analytics. Yes. Definitely. That path.

I wanna tell I I agree, and I think it's particularly exciting given where we were ten years ago or twenty years ago. I'll tell a story. There was a young man who my my brother and sister-in-law used to live in Alexandria, Virginia, which is right in the DC area, you know, right down the street from the Pentagon and things like that. This young man, he wanted to get into cybersecurity, but he didn't he he had been hearing about things like boot camps, and he's, like, hearing things that I don't have to go four or six or eight or ten years of school to get into all this. And that's what I want. But he couldn't find it on the East Coast. He literally moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico to do the same deep dive coding except he did the cyber focus instead of the IoT focus from the greater Washington DC area because there was nothing there that even came close to what CNN is offering. I'm like, yes.

New Mexico. Go. Right? And I don't think that's actually that unique. We're hearing more stories than that, and I'm telling that both because I want New Mexicans to know the Rudy of five years ago. I want people who are in your shoes five years ago to hear that story. But I also love this place, and I want people to know New Mexico has programs on the ground. We're not the only ones, but increasingly being recognized that we're doing something here to make tech more accessible for folks for whatever reason, financially, just school's really hard for you. And like you're saying, you can get started, get real world experience, decide you're good with education, and you're gonna learn in the lab and via YouTube, the mentoring, or you wanna go back and now you're ready for a four year or a master's degree, whatever.

Now that you've had some real world experience, you understand kinda what the options are and how it fits in the larger ecosystem because you're on the inside as opposed to the outside looking in. So I love that story. I was like, wow. This is this is different than where we were, you know, ten years ago. I doubt that would have happened. Right?

Oh, yeah. And and that's the thing. I did start what was it? Well, not ten years ago, but I technically started community college in 2017, I believe. And so since from 2017 till 2022, I I didn't, you know, I didn't hear any programs or any of that sort. You know? And so there is that gap where I was just searching something, and I feel like I got so lucky that I finally found it, you know, just in that time frame. You know? But, yeah, it's been amazing. It's fun. It's scary because you never know where you're gonna go next or where you know? Right.

You know, when's your next project gonna be? But, you know, that's that's life, and each project is a new is a new challenge. You know? And so with this one, I'm dealing with battery and lithium sulfur and, you know, I'm you know, I came from glass physics to data analytics, so it's a new challenge. But, again, we learn every day. We solve problems every day. And what what helps me through that is being intertwined with Albuquerque and the tech community because, ultimately, you know, we help each other out. And so that's the overall goal, I I guess, at at least for me.

So a few years of, like, intensive focused attention, but real world, you're getting your hands like, literally, I've seen the box that you put your hands in the club, Rudy. Yep. And you're literally building these, like, when we say getting your hands dirty, I guess they're not you know, you got gloves on. Right? But you're literally getting your hands into the real world of building the next generation of battery that's gonna make our energy usage more sustainable and more affordable. That's that's what you do every day you go to work. Right. Right?

Right. Oh, yeah. And, you know, I mean, it's again, of course, it's not just me. I have a wonderful team of, you know, backing us up with, you know, doctors and technicians and

Yeah.

Mechanical engineers and chemical engineers. So, you know, it's it's we're a good solid team. And, you know, every day, we we try to strive to charge up to be the best. You know?

Cool. Let me let me get your opinion on something, Rudy. So that's that we've been talking mostly from a talent. Right? Somebody who wants to work for a start up. And this is mostly an entrepreneurial focused podcast. Social entrepreneur, Climate Tech founders are the majority of our listeners. So I'd love to get your opinion as somebody who's now in the tech world, like, in the start up world, and your your company has been raising. Right? Other companies another company that you share the lab with recently just announced that they got some additional funding.

Like, you're going to these events, and people are talking about pitch decks, and you've been to pitch competition. You're like the in addition to a kind of fast onboarding into the tech world, you've also got a fast onboarding into the startup world, which is also growing really quickly in New Mexico. And I'd be curious. I recently was talking to a founder, very experienced founder, very a technical person, has graduate degree in a technical area of expertise, but had been struggling to get funding and see traction with a start up idea. And when we started talking about some of the ecosystem opportunities in New Mexico, this was a clean tech company. We talked about NM Climate. We talked about Atomic sixty six. We talked about Techariah.

We talked about blacks in tech. And he just looked at me blankly, and he's like, that's happening in New Mexico? Yeah. And one of the recommendations I had for him is, like, you're you know, you polish the the technical aspects, not just the literal science of your startup, but also things like your pitch deck. You put a lot of attention to polishing pitch decks and working on as best your funding will allow moving the science of the start up forward, but you're not connected into the humans that are making the decisions about investing in New Mexico or telling talent that you need that are gonna help grow your company to the next level. It's like you're isolated from the community that you were just describing so well. One of the things I said to him is like, hey. This is out of balance. You're doing really good on polishing your pitch deck and thinking about your science from a graduate level scientist mindset, but you don't know the humans that get things done in New Mexico and make funding decisions.

And I said, I think it would help you move your company forward funding wise, attracting talent wise, and otherwise if we balance that out a little bit. Do you think I was wrong giving him that suggestion?

No. Because, you know, I mean, you kinda need a balance of both. You know? And you you you can have a good solid team to get you funding, but without a good team to help you make the product, you kinda can't move forward. Right? You have to find that that balance. And and being thrown in I I mean, I I say thrown like it's a bad thing, but, you know, it's

I think you dived in, Rudy. Nobody threw you. I think you threw yourself in.

I think I dived into a whole tech startup. And, you know, again, there's the science aspect of the tech startup, and then there's at the end of the day, it's still a company. So you still have to learn the TRLs. Didn't know that was a thing. I know that some people like to lie on those things as well. You know? And so those little key aspects of I'm not only learning the laboratory, but the aspects of tech start up of how to operate it business wise. Right? And that and that being said, I I I do agree that getting yourself out there is so important, you know, because I came in as a lab role, as a tech tech role. Right? But the the team is so small.

We don't have a team to market the company. You know? We don't have a team to go to networking events.

So Yeah. Rudy, who is doing all those social media posts for NM Tech Talk? I don't know who that is. Right?

Right. And and so, like, you know, I see, like, oh, that's that's fun. Like, that's also important as well to kinda be involved in the community outside of of the lab. You know? And I think that's so important because if I'm just stuck in the lab, I can't get new ideas in the lab. You know? I mean, I can. There's only so much, but I I'll get more if when I meet more people. And and so, you know, it seemed weird because when we first started this company, we're like, hey. Are you going to New Mexico Climate, or are you going to this event? And, you know, after eight hours and, yeah, you're trying to build a battery, you're like, I kinda wanna go home.

Yeah. You know? But you're like, wait. I kinda do. Because this is this is another outlet of, like, you know, I could get a new idea or new you know? And we have that narrative now here at here at Gridflow is we always try to be a part or at least I do. I always try to be a part of a community event because you never know who I may meet that can help me build the next battery. You know?

Absolutely. Right. So now that you're in this sort of leadership circle in the community of folks who are thinking about New Mexico as a hub, and and I agree with you, there's definitely it's it's a passion of mine. I lived in Northern New Mexico for many years to not just be Albuquerque as the hub, but literally grow into. I'd I'd say there's growth that wants to happen, but growing into New Mexico as the hub, not Albuquerque. What are some of your, like here's what I'm advocating for as we're thinking about, you know, Atomic sixty six and this historic gathering, two and a half days, that's gonna come up June 11 through the thirteenth. Link is in the show notes. Go check it out.

But as you're thinking beyond any one event, you know, whether it's Taqueria or NM Climate or Atomic sixty six or Blacks in Tech or apparently, now we have Vets in Tech. How awesome is that? New Mexico got a chapter in Vets in Tech as of two weeks ago. We're so excited. Thank you, Mike Rogers. You're awesome. Now that we have some things moving in these realms, what are some of the things you're thinking about growing past these initial stages of start just starting to get people together? It's like, oh my god. NM Climate. We're all in the same room.

There's 30 of us. This is awesome. Right? And then at a certain point, it's like, yeah. This is what we do, and now we wanna be working towards something as a community. We wanna put that energy and that intelligence and those networks to work. What are some of your priorities that you wanna see us working towards in New Mexico in this emerging hub?

Definitely energy. And I think, I I guess I'm a little biased because I do work for an energy company, GridFlow. But, you know, energy is such a big thing, and it's so important. You know? And it's always been important, and it's only only gonna be more important with the rise of AI and these server forms. We can do all those things, but we just don't have the power to power it. You know? And and it's like, I would like to see more focus and energy and how do we how do we be more resourceful, smart about it, and how are we, you know, going forward and to kind of push that innovation of it. You know? And then also, I would like to see more, you know I mean, I I think I'm excited for the atomic sixty six because I I wanna see demos of it. You know? I wanna see more demos of what everyone's doing.

You know? I think if we can see something of that within within our state, that will be great. You know? But, yeah, I would say those things.

Cool. Well, as a cofounder of NM Climate, I'm not mad that you said energy. So yeah. Yeah. I'll I'll cosign that. I sorta already have. Yes. Absolutely.

Yeah. It's cool. Well, Rudy, I could hang out with you all day. Matter of fact, we're gonna hang out for two and a half days. Come join us listeners at Atomic sixty six. But I know you're busy. I'm busy. Our listeners are busy.

We got lots of links in the show notes. Go check those out listeners to, like, what are they talking about? What are those camps again? You can take a look there or reach out to me via email. Rudy, as we start to wind down of this idea of, like, making more accessibility into tech careers in New Mexico in general, atomic sixty six and the historic gathering that's happening in specific, what do you wanna leave our listeners with as we start to say goodbye?

I say if you want it, you can get it. And, you know, there's tons of resources out there, not just the CNN boot camp out outlets. You know, there's tons of them online. We have, you know, third party events like Atomic sixty six, Techeria, Rubber Ducks New Mexico. That's another one. We we

have women in technology. Yeah.

Exactly. We know we we have all these entities that are just outside of an outside of an institution. So, you know, saying school's not for me. These places are it. And we have a ton of entrepreneurs in this state of New Mexico, and, you know, they're more than happy to help and share their knowledge and to share what they're doing. But, yeah, getting involved into those entities, definitely.

Awesome. Rudy, if somebody wants to get ahold of you, they like what you're saying or they wanna get your opinion on their start up or they just wanna find out where would be a good place to network in New Mexico given their interests, how would somebody best get ahold of you?

You can find me on LinkedIn. My name is Rodolfo Parra, but you can just type in Rudy Parra, and, you know, you will find me there.

Cool. And I'll put a link to Rudy on LinkedIn as well. Rudy, thank you so much for being on the show today.

Yes. Thank you so much again, Paul, for having me.

Cool. So listeners, let's do what we do. Please tell your friends about all the things, especially atomic sixty six. It really is a historic gathering for New Mexico, but also Techarilla, Rubber Ducks, Blacks and Tech, Vets and Tech, and all the other and in climate, all the other great groups that we have here in New Mexico are bringing together people in specific sectors. It's really awesome to see. I wanna remind you that we love listener supported topics and guests. So if you have an idea of a show, please go to the Awarepreneurs website. On our contact page, there's a simple form.

Send in your ideas. About 35% of our shows come because somebody who listens said, we should do a show on fill in the blank. And I'd love that number to get way higher than 35%, so send in your ideas. And lastly, I just wanna say thank you so much for listening. Please take really good care in these intense times. And thank you for all the positive impact that you're working for in our world.

Work.