My story

Long story short

3 years ago, I made a decision

I was fed up with my situation back then,

Managing a traditional local architecture studio,

In an apparently successful situation

employing 7 people and making quite a good business

Customers were fluent, with increasing work, money was flowing

I was only 29 years old

But I was a prisoner of my own trap

Working 6-7 days a week to keep on track every single detail

I couldn’t enjoy my job because I lost my passion to do local or traditional architecture

So many inefficiencies on the system

So much loss on the process, not just about money, but especially Energy!

I was suffering

I needed a change

And that change was called Stoor.

Let’s go to the long story, 

Back to the origins

I was born in 1987 in a rural area of the Basque Country,

In a small village called Gatika, 

My family was all born and raised in the area, 

For several generations.

The family economy was based on the activity of the farmhouse

We used to have animals like cows, chicken, pigs, sheep, dogs, and cats

The typical farm I guess 

We all have been very basic, 

educated on a scarcity economy model

You might know what that it means

Low resources, low communication, low energy

So I developed some Lean skill since I was young

Anecdote 1: 

We all talked in Basque (Euskera), our local language in the Basque Country

I didn’t speak Spanish until I was 3 when I went to school and mixed with other classmates

They showed me the first words in Spanish, not my family.

That was not normal.

That’s how close and traditional we were at home! 😅

Early days

The school has never been easy for me,

Well, I was a very good student, 

one of the top 5 in class,

But I was the stranger, 

the local shy and introvert kid, 

The one from the farm that used to play with the animals more than with other kids.

Not the usual urban and friends-making kid

So I sometimes spend my time alone.

Not alone, but with myself.

I spend hundreds of hours talking with myself

Trying to understand this world

Why good and bad things happen to the people

How could I change those things

And of course, who I was, and why I was doing what I was supposed to do.

Those conversations with myself consolidated the foundations of the person I am today

Years went on, and time passed very slowly in our village and life

I used to play football and go cycling with my local rural friends

No GameBoy, no PlayStation, no phones, no internet.

Just a ball, tennis racquet or a bicycle. 

I miss the peace from those days.

Anecdote 2: 

when the crisis arrived, my mother lost her job 

and she decided to open a local business in the main square of our small village

It was a great opportunity to help our community and try to make some earnings

It was a local small newspaper and a basic food shop.

I was 13 when she opened the business. 

Helping my mom on her business became my first job.

I continued studying, of course, but on afternoons and weekends I used to help her

Packing and counting newspapers, 

checking receipts and documenting everything on the computer, 

sometimes also managed the business the whole weekend to give a rest to my mother.

Customer attention was the fun part for me.

I learned a lot from talking to customers that used to come to the shop.

Unfortunately, we closed the business 7 years later, in 2007.

With a bigger crisis about to come…

Exploration phase

So, talking with myself for thousands of hours and talking to several customers 

developed my curiosity to explore outer territories.

I used to read a lot of books about kids solving mysterious cases, like Tintin, or “Los 5”

I loved documentaries as well. 

I used to devour different series about space, the universe, dinosaurs, or history. 

I was a very avid student and drawing skills were my best.

And architecture seemed to be the best option to continue my studies

But the Architecture University was 100 km away from where I lived, 

in Donostia – San Sebastian,

That was super far for me back then…

So 2005 was the first time I was living abroad, and I was 18

Donostia become my home for the following 5 years

Where I enjoyed most, as much as I could, while I continued studying and working.

I used to have 3-4-5 jobs at the same time

Small jobs, but that gave me enough resources to go on. 

Delivery boy, waiter, cleaner, judge, barman, DJ, and many others 

Work ethic has always been a pillar in my life.

I also went to Trieste (Italy), on a student exchange program / Erasmus

That was awesome! 

I met so many people out there!

Trieste is located on the border with Slovenia and Croatia

So I traveled a lot that year

Ia pritzem malo hrvastky

I also learned some few new words in Croatian 🙂

That was a really crazy year and had a lot of fun.

But not for the rest of the family back at home.

My parents were divorced while I was in Italy

And things were about to change when I was coming back

Anecdote 3: 

When I returned from Italy, 

I had some few lessons left to finish Architecture

So I needed to go back to Donostia.

But my two bank accounts those days were telling me a bad joke

One account was 0,02€ (literally) and the other one was 10,30€

My happy year in Italy had been so intense that I wasn’t aware of how I was spending my money

I spent it all. 

I was bankrupt. 

The first time, but not last.

Because I did not learn the lesson, 

I and went bankrupt two more times in the near future 🙂

Post-Crisis

So I started again the cycle of 3-4-5 jobs while studying, and trying to have some fun

Finished my last year in Donostia happily,

I recovered from bankruptcy and was doing some good money while working hard on weekends as a waiter.

Then, was time to come back to my hometown, 

where I have been scaping from the last 6 years

Where things were scarce and sad.

I, fortunately, found a job as a Junior Architect in a prestigious firm, 

they just had designed a 3 Michelin Star Restaurant!

But kept working on weekends as a waiter to survive

Then, I had an idea (one of many that I didn’t start working)

I read so much about the internet, and digital companies, startups…

I wanted to create my own startup, about local events and personalization

I wanted to create a platform where I was going to cross your social media and interest with the local events.

And everyone was going to have a personalized social agenda.

It was a brilliant idea, but I had no idea of how to build that thing

Neither how or where to start.

I was (am) a super active guy

And used to scout and find all the free workshops, events, and courses that were held in 50 km around

I drove my shitty old Ford Mondeo everywhere,

my cousin gave it to me, for free. 

I used to find courses on the internet, banners, newsletters, ads in the newspaper…

And suddenly, an ad from a banner seemed to read my mind:

“Innovation and Entrepreneurship master”.

That was what I was looking for!

Lessons were on Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings. 

I could continue with the architecture firm on weekdays, 

and working as a waiter on Friday nights and weekends. 

Perfect.

Anecdote 4: 

I love to travel. Since I came from Italy my heart was asking me to travel

At the same time I was looking for something to learn about entrepreneurship

I found a course also to be a flight attendant.

The conditions were great:

Travel to many places while working, 

free-flying tickets with the company, 

fewer working days thanks to a special calendar they have, 

meet a lot of new people & girls…

And the job was guaranteed the next day you finished the course

It sounded great!

It was the same price as the Innovation and Entrepreneurship master,

But you already know what I finally chose…

Don’t you?

What would have happened if I had chosen the other way?

Who knows…?

Jump… without parachute

So, my 2012 was quite busy.

Working in the architecture firm on weekdays, and studying the master and working on weekends.

I also had time to spend with my friends

I learned time management the old hard way. Practicing.

I worked so hard that year…

The following year I had the ambition to start my own business

So I left the prestigious firm and started my studio, called Bamboo.

The brand symbolizes the Bamboo plant,

Nothing really happens with the seed for the first seven years, 

to such an extent that an inexperienced grower would be convinced to have bought infertile seeds.

However, during the seventh year, 

in a period of only six weeks … 

the bamboo plant grows more than 30 meters!

That’s my philosophy:

Work hard for some years

Find your nutrients and motivation

And grow fast once you find your place.

I also designed my first business cards

They were square, not rectangular, had my face and a QR code on it, and were purple

They were very strange, so I easily got the attention of the people.

I tried to apply all I learned on the Innovation master 

So I was very confident, even if I had no customers, 

I was going to find them somewhere

I soon started having my first customers

Some drawings, some blueprints, some sketches

I was trying to get into the market, 

so my prices were ridiculously low

Anecdote 5: 

I was still an architecture student.

To be legally an Architect, apart from all the lessons, 

We needed to spend a whole year designing a final project

A fully documented project about a new building

It was so much work, so much dedication on time and money

And for me, the result was only a Pass or Fail. Nothing else.

A whole year of energy, time and money, thrown down the toilet

So I postponed it, one year, and another, and another…

I finally presented the project in 2016, 3 years after I opened my studio.

So for the first 3 years, I was still a student.

And I wasn’t authorized to sign any kind of project

So I talked with a friend from School and University

He was older than me and had the Architecture license to sign the projects

We split 50/50 the earnings and there it started 

Traction and speed

After that, I hired more people to keep up working other projects

And gained traction with Bamboo.

We are now a local architecture firm, in a rural area, 

and our customers are local people, 

We tried to help them as much as possible.

The kind of help nobody usually gives.

Personalized and very detailed works for low profitability customers. 

That’s usually a bad business for everybody else.

Once we learned about the basics of architecture and construction

We decided to also start doing construction works, as a construction company

Always raising the bar.

With new problems and challenges, of course

Hiring more people, facing bigger projects, 

But on the other side, as said before, 

The inefficiencies on the system were killing my passion

There was so much energy wasted 

Even if you gave it all for each client, 

Every time you got a new one, 

you needed to start from 0, again.

It was ending with my patience.

How the idea of Stoor was born

One day, a new customer came to our office

They wanted a new single-family house project

Was an excellent new for us, but we were overflowed

We had not time to attend them and design the projects

Hiring new employees is hard and you need a long onboarding so they get used to our processes

It was not sustainable

Then I thought, maybe on the internet there’s a similar project for sale

We could buy it, download it, adapt it to the customer’s needs, and deliver it

All that in just 2 weeks!

And no need to hire new employees just for that job.

One less headache

But there was nothing like that.

So 3 years ago, I made a decision

I am gonna build that place

And Stoor was born.

Preparation for Stoor

I knew about architecture and construction, 

How the different actors of the construction market played their roles

But I knew little about BIM

Building Information Modeling

So I decided to study an 18-month intensive Global BIM Management Master with Zigurat Institute of Technology, from Barcelona.

The master was worth 10.000€

But was not only for the content

For me, the worth was on the people that contained the master

There were around 40 professors and lecturers that were actually the BIM Leaders at that moment

And +90 ambitious students, from +15 countries that were going to be the BIM leaders of the future

The content was great, but greater were the 130 great guys I was going to meet!

How much would cost to meet them one on one?

Much more than 10.000€

Nowadays we still keep in touch on Social Media, Videocalls, 

and some of them created companies together

They’re the greatest asset for me

The first days of Stoor

Okay, so after another 18 months of working & studying simultaneously (again),

I sat down and started figuring out how should Stoor be

That’s where my great cofounder gets in

Taig, a magician of entrepreneurship, 

Anecdote 6: 

I met Taig 7 years ago.

When I was scouting workshops and events to learn how to build my first startup idea,

I used to find them on Linkedin too.

And the lucky algorithm suggested me a strange name:

Taig Mac Carthy, in Bilbao

From my previous experience in Italy and Donostia,

I’ve always been curious about strange people, strange names, 

strange backgrounds, strange stories

And Taig was one of those.

I wrote to him the same way you could write a girl

Shortly: Hey Taig, you seem very interesting, I’d like to meet you. Would you share some beers?

We met each other personally, and we spend 2-3 hours talking.

We both knew we were going to do great things together.

But we needed 7 years for that. 

During those 7 years, we kept the contact and encourage its other to push hard 

and congratulate each victory or success.

And then we joined.

He has the ability to see things from a different viewpoint

And drives me in the right direction

Together we built what we know today as Stoor.pro

Why Stoor

Our mission is to make awesome architecture available for everyone, everywhere 

so that any hero architect can use global architectural knowledge 

to make a huge impact on his local community.

All the incredible frustrations we suffered in Bamboo

fired my goal to help other architects

So they wouldn’t need to suffer what thousands of other architecture studios as mine suffered previously

We are repeating constantly the same mistakes

Without learning anything

It’s completely stupid.

Today is the day where we are in contact with hundreds of new generations of architects

Global minded amazing and motivated professionals 

Even though things are not going well these days…

The world and its circumstances are puttings things harder 

2008 economic crisis slowed down the whole construction and architecture industry

There are so many architects in the marketplace, and competition is really hard

Digitalization is disrupting every single sector, from banking to food

Including architecture

2020 Coronavirus has stopped the whole world, my friend.

THE WHOLE FRIKING WORLD! 

And I see so many people suffering 

Not because of staying at home, or being sick

Their families depend on a single income stream, 

their salary as employee architects in a firm,

Or small architecture entrepreneurs,

Everything is about to crash in a few weeks.

My purpose is to help them surf the huge tsunami is about to come

For some, is building an online reputation and presence,  

So they can create several income streams

and not depend on just one salary.

What would happen if you’d lose that single income stream?

For others, is getting access to the greatest architecture content

In just a few minutes,

at a very very affordable price,

They can download the best architecture projects

If you’d be in a less developed country,

you could build higher quality buildings 

Thanks to accessible and highly detailed projects, 

designed and shared by awesome architects

from all over the world.

Conclusion

We live in a very uncertain moment of the history

But it’s the most vibrant and inspiring moment

Knowledge is not an exclusive asset anymore

Youtube is the greatest university

The entry barriers are super low, nearly to 0

And we are more connected than ever

We can collectively find the solution to the greatest problems of our era

Housing and Construction, Urban Development, Energy Efficiency, Sustainability, Waste Management, Smart Cities…

I fully believe that the greatest moments are yet to come.

Everything is going to change in the following years

And we are the ones that are gonna change the history. 

That’s my story. Part of it. 

I did so many mistakes on the way

Sometimes I learned, others I didn’t

But I lost the fear of making new mistakes

Are part of the learning curve

And I am very conscious many more are waiting for me down the road

They are more than welcome!

I am 32, still a kid in this world,

But my purpose is clear,

Helping other architects becoming free.

And I am willing to fight for it. 

Would you join us?

Tell me about you

I’d love to know your story as well.

Tell me about yourself.

Where do you come from?

Where would you like to be?

What drives you crazy?

What motivates you?

Who would you like to be?

Share it not only with me, 

but with others like you as well.

They and I will really appreciate it!

I hope that someday we will meet each other personally

And we will talk about our stories and dreams

And hopefully, we will build new inspiring and amazing new stories together

Looking forward to that day!

See you soon,

Aitor