FAV COUNTRY: Spain. PEOPLE DON’T KNOW: I’ll think you’re my best friend if you let me geek out about my favorite buildings and classical symphonies. FAV QUOTE: “If I were to wish for anything, I should not wish for wealth and power, but for the passionate sense of the potential, for the eye which, ever young and ardent, sees the possible. Pleasure disappoints, possibility never. And what wine is so sparkling, what so fragrant, what so intoxicating, as possibility!” –Søren Kierkegaard
José “JJ” Martín Quesada
Rethinking private equity with an AI co-pilot
POSITIVE CHANGE THROUGH AI. From a young age, José “JJ” Martín Quesada was inspired by a conversation with his missionary uncle, a dialogue that would shape his mindset as a founder. This pivotal moment ingrained in him a desire to make people’s lives better as his main legacy. “I decided early on that accumulating possessions or experiences wouldn’t define my life,” José reflects. “What truly matters is making other people’s lives better because I existed.” This philosophy has been José’s guiding star, driving him to ensure that his impact is both immediate and enduring.
José’s company, Krew, was conceived from his vision to harness the power of AI to transform the private equity sector, a very traditional industry that employs 11 million people in the US alone with huge room for impact. Krew offers a deal co-pilot, leveraging both generative and deterministic AI techniques to quickly process vast amounts of data in order to make sense of complex and unstructured information across various verticals.
José’s journey to founding Krew started after finding traditional rote learning and mindless number crunching unfulfilling as a result of his ADHD. As he grew older, José discovered a talent for organizing and simplifying complex information – a skill born from necessity. This ability became José’s passion and eventually his profession. Working at McKinsey, he experienced how widespread the use of ‘brute force’ was when needing to deal with complex data sets in a time crunch, and how it led to burnout for many people. After a couple of years leading the strategy division of a large data and AI consultancy he decided to make it his mission to use AI to make people’s lives better, turning his personal triumph over adversity into a solution for an entire industry.
Prior to Krew, José helped large corporations solve their biggest issues with data as a director at AI consultancy Altius (now Avanade). He was also a McKinsey consultant where he worked on digital transformation and machine learning, and an intern at Google, where he led the emergency response to the tragic terrorist attacks in Barcelona. Before that, José’s educational journey took him across multiple disciplines and continents, pursuing degrees in law, business, economics, and cello, studying in Spain, France, the UK, and China. His passion for impactful, intellectually stimulating work and his early bet that AI was about to become an era-defining revolution led him to data science and artificial intelligence.
LEADING THE WAY FOR FUTURE FOUNDERS. José’s journey as an LGBTQIA+ founder has been transformative, turning what initially felt like a hindrance into a superpower. “We all strive to belong, and as a minority, you are by default, an ‘other’. This often helps look at old problems with a fresh perspective,” José reflects. Despite suffering discrimination based on his sexuality during his teenage years, José found strength in his identity. Overcoming impostor syndrome and embracing his unique perspective allowed him to harness his differences as a powerful tool in his founder journey.
In the AI sector, José’s LGBTQIA+ identity plays a crucial role in addressing biases. “Having a different sensibility allows you to be more open to the concept of biases,” he explains. José emphasizes the importance of diverse perspectives in developing AI models, which can otherwise perpetuate existing societal stereotypes. “We have constant discussions about mitigation and guardrails. We’ve seen biases perpetuated by past technologies”
Reflecting on his founder journey so far, José encourages new queer founders to seek help generously, knowing the community is inclined to pay it forward, just as he received help when helping organize LGBTQIA+ conference EurOUT or Google’s presence at World Pride. He advocates for empathy and patience when introducing change to new audiences. “I prefer to assume people have good intentions, and then I extend an arm and try to bring people together in our common journey. I try to speak their language and find common ground to help walk them where they want to be.”
