Anton Diego’s Vision: Pioneering Real-Time Airline Marketing Technology
When Anton Diego founded EveryMundo, his goal was to make the company the leader in airline marketing technology. EveryMundo would provide solutions to scale an airline’s digital presence and attract travelers with the best real-time fares. Meet the Engineer behind EveryMundo!
Drawing from his background in airline consulting, he recognized the dilemma airlines encountered when promoting the most competitive prices, given the swift fluctuations in fares. This underscored the need for a real-time digital marketing solution. To transform his vision into reality, he started searching for an expert engineer with the required skills to construct this technology from scratch.
From Cuban Post Office to EveryMundo’s Pioneering Engineer
Marilyn Rodriguez comes from a small family in Cuba, where women typically worked as teachers if they pursued employment outside the home. At the age of 15, her school introduced a programming class, sparking her immediate enthusiasm for coding due to its limitless potential. Her father encouraged her, calling computer engineering the “career of the future,” and she made the decision to pursue a college education in Computer Science. Marilyn explains that she was drawn to engineering because she “enjoyed constructing things that are practical and simplify people’s lives. I also thrive on challenges, tackling problems and finding solutions.” Upon completing her degree, Marilyn joined the Cuban Post Office, where she worked on a two-person team tasked with developing automation processes for the mail system.
In 2011, Marilyn immigrated to the United States and initiated her job search to apply her skills. She learned about EveryMundo through a friend of Anton’s and realized they were seeking someone skilled in PHP, her area of expertise since graduation. During the interview process for the role, she found herself impressed by Anton’s enthusiasm for developing his concept of a product that could facilitate online ticket sales, eventually evolving into “airTRFX.” She was confident that she was the ideal engineer for this ambitious project.
After Marilyn joined the company, she became one of two engineers and had to take on multiple roles, including BE developer, FE developer, designer, DevOps specialist, and architect. She encountered new challenges as she had to acquire the skills to manage servers online, considering her prior experience had primarily been in Cuba with limited internet access. With assistance from another engineer, they successfully launched the first version of airTRFX in just three months.
EveryMundo’s Growth and Marilyn’s Vision for Women in STEM
Today EveryMundo products provide real-time marketing capabilities to more than 90 brands, covering 35 languages and operating globally. As Principal Engineer, Marilyn continues to build and improve EveryMundo’s products. In December of 2021, PROS acquired EveryMundo for $90 Million and the company now has set its sights on expansion into new industries, including hospitality and events, and will create new products to meet the needs of these customers.
When she thinks about women’s participation in STEM fields, Marilyn believes that “women’s minds are designed to multi-task because we are constantly thinking. To create valuable solutions, we have to think about all scenarios as much as possible.” She has seen in her own career more and more women take up careers in computer science, and is excited to see how women will shape the future of technology.