Right now Héctor is
doing something.
Héctor Cánovas
Head of Tech · Builder · Dad · Lifter · Writer · Forever learning
Fail fast.
Don't hide problems.
Ship small, ship often.
The path
Seventeen years building.
From a two-person agency in Sabadell to leading tech at a travel company in Barcelona. Four chapters, one thread: ship things that matter.
Head of Technology
Directia Travel · Barcelona
Promoted to lead the entire tech department. Migrated legacy PHP to Laravel + AWS. Designed the budget engine and microservices architecture. Built the team, hired engineers, and own every technical decision — but I still write code every day.
Full-Stack Developer
Directia Travel · Barcelona
Joined a travel tech company to work on bigger, harder problems. Built internal tools, designed database schemas for 30M+ records, and developed API integrations with booking engines, flight search, and international payment providers.
CEO & Founder
Alzatis · Sabadell
Co-founded a web development company with my brother at 19. Eight years building applications for clients across Catalonia — WordPress, Prestashop, custom PHP frameworks on CodeIgniter. Managed everything: code, clients, invoices, hiring. I learned what it means to own every decision.
Still here. Still shipping. Still learning.
What I bring
The bridge between tech and business.
I don't just write code or manage a team. I connect what the company needs with what technology can deliver — and I make sure it actually ships.
Tech Vision & Strategy
Evaluating technologies, defining architecture, and making long-term decisions that align with business goals. Not chasing trends — choosing boring tech that works at scale.
IT ↔ Business Bridge
Translating business requirements into technical specs and technical constraints into business language. I sit in both rooms and make sure they understand each other.
Project Management
Scoping, prioritizing, and delivering on time. From internal tools to full ERP integrations with external vendors. OKRs, roadmaps, and realistic deadlines — not wishful thinking.
Team Leadership
Hiring, onboarding, mentoring. Running daily standups, sprint plannings, retros. Creating an environment where people grow, deliver, and stay. 9+ direct reports, cross-functional coordination.
Agile & Delivery
Scrum ceremonies, sprint cycles, daily tasking, backlog grooming. Not agile theater — actual velocity tracking and continuous delivery. Certified Scrum Master with years of practice.
Still Hands-on
I review PRs. I write migrations. I debug production at 11pm when needed. Leadership without technical credibility is just management. I keep my hands on the keyboard.
01
Fail fast.
You can't iterate on what you haven't shipped. Ship the ugly version. Learn from the reaction. Fix it next week. Perfection is the enemy of delivery, and delivery is the only thing that compounds.
02
Don't hide problems.
Problems grow in the dark. Say the hard thing in the meeting. Write the honest postmortem. Tell the client you missed the date. Trust compounds when people see you're willing to own the mess.
03
Ship small,
ship often.
Small decisions are reversible. Big ones almost never are. Every release should be a bet you can afford to lose, and a learning opportunity — not a leap of faith.
A typical day
Twenty-four hours, eight shapes.
This is what a weekday looks like. The marker shows where I probably am right now.
Sleep
00–07
Morning
07–08
Meetings
08–13:30
Lunch
13:30–14:30
Shipping
14:30–17
CrossFit · Family
17–20:30
Dinner
20:30–22
Side projects
22–00
Building now
What's on my screen this week.
The main project takes most of my time. The rest are things I build at night, on weekends, or between sprints — because I can't stop shipping.
MCTMS (Directia Travel)
ERP + Odoo Integration
Designing, leading and developing an end-to-end ERP for Directia Travel. Integrating with Odoo, coordinating in-house engineers and subcontracted partners, and owning the full delivery. This is the biggest system I've shipped since taking the Head of Tech role.
Laravel · Odoo · Redis · MySQL · Leadership
Pragme.co
AI-powered content creation platform that transforms audio, video and text into optimized social media posts for B2B professionals. Extracts viral hooks, supports multi-language and publishes directly to LinkedIn, Instagram, Medium and X.
AI · NLP · Laravel · API Integrations · Content Strategy
→ visitArcanhold
Free-to-play dark fantasy MMORTS playable in the browser. Build cities, recruit heroes, research technologies, form alliances and engage in tactical combat in a persistent shared world.
Laravel · Livewire · Game Design · Real-time Strategy · WebSockets
→ visitKids & Money
Educational platform that teaches children aged 6-16 about personal finance through gamified learning. Interactive galaxies, games and adaptive quizzes covering saving, budgeting, investing and entrepreneurship.
Laravel · Gamification · EdTech · Financial Education
→ visitEl Inversor Liberal
Financial education platform focused on investing, personal finance and liberal economics. Multi-channel content across web, YouTube and social media.
WordPress · YouTube · SEO · Content Strategy · Social Media
→ visitLocavaca
Bold athletic socks brand with unique drops for runners and CrossFit athletes. Originally a general dropshipping store inspired by Flamingueo.
Shopify · E-commerce · Dropshipping
→ visitWords
Reading. Writing. Learning.
I write on Medium about architecture, teams, and the craft of building software. I read to stay sharp.
→ medium.com/@hcanovasReading
Books that shaped how I think.
Not a complete list. Just the ones I keep coming back to.
People who shaped me
No one builds alone.
Some I've worked with. Some I've only read about. All of them have changed how I think about building, leading, or both.
CLOSE
Cristina Trigueros
My wife
Carlos Cánovas
My brother · Alzatis co-founder
David Parejo
Partner, friend & motivator
Eric Rojas
Friend, listener of struggles, projects & doubts
Pablo López
Owner, Directia Travel
INTERMEDIATE
Jordi Romero
Co-founder, Factorial
Bernat Farrero
Co-founder, Factorial · Itnig
Miguel Ángel Durán
midudev
Juan Carlos Cavero
Inspiration
Carlos Blanco
Serial entrepreneur tech Barcelona
DISTANT
Elon Musk
First principles at scale
Steve Jobs
Focus and craft
Roger Federer
Grace, longevity, reinvention
Kobe Bryant
Mamba mentality
Warren Buffett
Patience and long-term value
Talk to me
The channel is open.
Looking for a tech leader, need a technical sounding board, or just want to talk about Laravel, teams, or raising kids while shipping? Write me.
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