I'm Manuel Benancio, usually Kembec.

I'm CTO at Guinea Mobile in Peru. We build the platform other companies use to offer mobile service under their own brand.

I started as a developer in 2008 and still read the code my teams write.

Now

The platform activates lines, prices what they use, and bills it. Other businesses sell mobile service on top of it under their own brand, so every interface we expose is a contract somebody has already built against.

We are moving it off a monolith and onto services, and replacing what rates and bills usage without stopping either.

Spanish is my working language, and I read and write English every day. I work from Peru, with teams and partners across Latin America.

Before

I started with small sites in 2008, then backend work, then the infrastructure under it. In 2018 I co-founded Syma, which sold point-of-sale and electronic invoicing software to Peruvian retailers under SUNAT's rules. I was CTO there until 2023, and it was the first time I had to care about payroll, support and sales as well as the code.

Between 2020 and 2024 I consulted for Grupo Anta on digital strategy and e-commerce for businesses around Latin America. I joined Guinea Mobile in August 2024.

In both CTO roles I have run product and engineering together, in organisations from roughly ten to a few hundred people.

Where that happened

  1. 2024 — CTO, Guinea Mobile The platform other companies resell mobile service on, and the interfaces they build against.
  2. 2020 — 2024 Technology consultant, Grupo Anta Four years selling online for businesses that were already selling without a system.
  3. 2018 — 2023 Co-founder and CTO, Syma Point-of-sale and electronic invoicing software for the Peruvian market.
  4. 2014 — Software architect and developer, Kembec Whatever a client could not staff for, which for a long time meant the part nobody wanted to own.

Outside the title

I photograph shows and streets, mostly in black and white, and keep the results in snapshots. I also build small tools and leave them running, most of them on their own subdomain.

Elsewhere