Maca Baigorria

RESILIENCE FUELS RESOURCEFULNESS. Maca Baigorria’s journey as a founder is rooted in her early experiences of resourcefulness and problem-solving. Born in Argentina, Maca moved to the United States with her family aged eight, settling in Miami. Her parents, who had to navigate the challenges of starting over in a new country instilled in her a sense of resilience and ingenuity. “My dad would take us to garage sales so we could buy things, fix them, and resell them,” Maca recalls. This entrepreneurial spirit was a constant in her upbringing, shaping her approach to life and business.

This mindset guided Maca through her academic and early professional years. Fascinated by airplanes, she pursued a degree in mechanical engineering with the goal of designing aircraft. Straight out of university, she landed a job at Boeing, fulfilling what she thought was her dream. But reality didn’t match her expectations. “I have a deep love for challenges and problem solving,” she explains. “Working in a corporate job, in such a restricted industry like aerospace, was not fulfilling enough for me. I needed to be more hands-on.” It was during this time that she realized her true passion lay not in engineering, but rather in design.

Maca’s decision to leave Boeing and return home for grad school marked a pivotal shift in her career. She taught herself how to design apps and websites, pivoting from mechanical engineering to UX/UI design. Her talents soon landed her roles at IBM and PwC, where she worked on cutting-edge projects, including designing voice bots and apps long before they became mainstream. However, as a queer woman in tech, Maca often found herself frustrated by the lack of diversity in her field. “I was in a room trying to explain why we couldn’t assume someone’s pronouns based on their HR profile,” she recalls. This frustration, coupled with the difficulty in hiring diverse candidates, planted the seed for what would become Avocademy.

Avocademy was born out of Maca’s desire to solve a real problem in the workforce: the lack of diversity in design. She began researching why people from underrepresented backgrounds were not transitioning into design careers and discovered that the high cost and time commitment of traditional education were major barriers. Determined to make a difference, Maca quit her consulting job and launched Avocademy, an affordable, personalized UX/UI design program aimed at helping people break into tech. “I thought maybe I can help two to six people per month and make the same amount of money while doing something I love,” she says. What started as a small side project quickly snowballed into a thriving business.

EMPOWERING DIVERSITY IN DESIGN. Avocademy’s growth has been remarkable. By the end of 2020, the program was enrolling dozens of students each month, many of whom went on to land life-changing jobs in tech. One of Maca’s favorite success stories is of a single mother who, after completing the program, went from living with her child in her mother’s house to buying her own home and earning a six-figure salary as a designer.

Despite her success, Maca’s journey has not been without challenges. Lacking a formal business education, she struggled initially with the technical aspects of running a company. However, with the help of accelerators like Growth Lab and Y Combinator, she gained the knowledge and confidence to scale Avocademy. Still, she often wrestled with imposter syndrome, a feeling compounded by her experiences as a queer, Hispanic woman in a predominantly white, male-dominated industry. “A lot of people have doors opened for them—I’ve been pushing doors down my whole life.”

Looking ahead, Maca is committed to staying true to Avocademy’s mission, even as the tech landscape evolves. As AI and new design tools emerge, she is focused on ensuring that Avocademy’s students are equipped with the skills they need to thrive in a rapidly changing industry. Reflecting on her journey, she advises aspiring founders to “make sure you’re solving a problem you’re passionate about and that people actually have. Success isn’t guaranteed, so your passion has to go beyond money or fame.”