Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Gerardo Escudero Samara. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Gerardo, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about your team building process? How did you recruit and train your team and knowing what you know now would you have done anything differently?

I have never built a company completely alone. I believe in building with collaborators and strategic allies. Even when a company is small, the vision is bigger than one person. And as we grow, that belief only becomes stronger.

Recruiting is not something that happened at the beginning. It is an ongoing process. Growth demands new talent, new energy, and new perspectives. I am always looking for the right people to join the mission.

There are three fundamental principles I use when bringing someone in:

First, attitude and enthusiasm. I look for people who show up with positive energy. Startups are intense environments. Things change fast. Challenges appear without warning. If someone brings resilience and optimism into the room, that creates momentum for the entire team.

Second, integrity and values. Skills can be developed. Experience can be gained. But values are foundational. The way someone behaves when no one is watching defines who they truly are. Trust is non negotiable for me. I prefer someone with less experience but strong character over someone highly skilled but misaligned in principles.

Third, drive. I look for people who are hungry to learn. In a growing company, roles evolve constantly. Responsibilities shift. Markets change. If someone has the desire to grow, adapt, and improve every day, they will always find a way to add value.

My recruiting process is intentionally conversational. I want to understand how someone thinks, how they respond under pressure, what motivates them beyond a paycheck. I am not searching for perfect answers. I am searching for alignment with the mission and the culture we are building.

You can teach skills.
You cannot teach character.

And in the long run, character is what sustains a company.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My life’s mission is to pursue my dreams relentlessly and help others achieve theirs.

I have been an entrepreneur since I was seventeen. Business has never been just a career path for me. It is how I express creativity, solve problems, and build impact.

Over the years, I owned and operated bars and restaurants for more than a decade.
Those experiences taught me resilience, leadership, and how to understand people at a very human level.

Today, my focus is on innovation, technology, storytelling, and brand building.

I am the co-founder & President of Universum, a location based virtual reality startup that creates immersive experiences blending education and entertainment. We design environments where families, students, and older adults can step into history, nature, and adventure through cutting edge VR. We do not just offer entertainment. We offer storyliving experiences that expand imagination and create meaningful memories.

I also run Crystal Apple Media, a marketing agency that works with bars and restaurants, combining branding strategy with technology to help them grow in a competitive market.

In addition, I co-founded Angels & Demons Store, a clothing brand focused on the USA, Canada, and UK markets. The brand represents duality, ambition, identity, and the internal battles that shape who we become. It is more than apparel. It is a statement about growth and self awareness.

Beyond business, I founded Empower Natives, a social venture dedicated to supporting and educating indigenous communities, helping create pathways for professional growth and long term opportunity.

Soon, we will expand into the gaming industry by launching the first location based VR Gaming center in Central America. This project represents the next step in making immersive technology more accessible and culturally relevant in our region.

I do not consider myself an expert in anything. I am still a student of life. I am simply someone who gives his best every single day, who keeps dreaming bigger, and who understands that I am not even five percent of the person I aspire to become.

Everything we build is connected by purpose. Innovation, creativity, impact, and opportunity.

What I am most proud of is not just the companies themselves, but the communities around them. The teams, the families who experience our work, the people who see that dreaming and achieving is possible.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

One of the biggest lessons I had to unlearn was putting deadlines on my dreams.

For a long time, I believed that success had to happen within a specific timeline. I would tell myself, by this age I need to achieve this. By this year I must reach that milestone. I treated my vision like a strict calendar instead of a living process.

But entrepreneurship does not work that way.
In business, you can have the vision and execute with intensity, yet the path rarely unfolds in a linear or predictable sequence.

You try something. It fails. You adjust. You pivot. You learn. You test again. You refine the formula. Success is not a straight line. It is iteration.

I had to unlearn the idea that creativity follows a logical step by step order. It does not. Innovation is messy. Growth is unpredictable. There is an odyssey between the dream and the result.

What I have learned instead is flexibility. Resilience. Emotional and mental agility. The ability to move quickly, make the necessary tweaks, and not attach your self worth to a timeline.

I also learned to celebrate small victories along the way. Every adjustment, every improvement, every lesson gained is progress. If you do not quit, if you stay adaptable, if you keep refining your approach, eventually you build your own version of success.

Dreams do not expire.
They evolve.

And if you stay committed to growth rather than rigid deadlines, you give yourself the space to actually achieve them.

Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?

One of my favorite marketing stories is not about a single ad or a dramatic closing moment. It is about a room.

At Universum, we operate in an industry that is still emerging. Location based virtual reality is not traditional retail. It is not cinema. It is not gaming in the conventional sense. It is something in between. That means there is no clear blueprint. No step by step manual.

So we created something we call “The Lab.”

The Lab is what we call our marketing brainstorming sessions. On paper, they are supposed to be five minute sync calls. In reality, they turn into two hour, sometimes four hour creative marathons.

Each of us comes from different backgrounds. Different experiences. Different types of intelligence. That diversity creates friction in the best possible way. No ego. No attachment. Just raw creativity.

We know something important going in: none of us has the absolute truth.

So we take risks.

We launch ideas quickly. We test campaigns. We try unconventional messaging. Sometimes we pivot an entire angle in a single week. Some ideas fail. Some surprise us. The key is speed. Execute. Measure. Learn. Adjust.

I remember feeling this mix of excitement and uncertainty. You are building something new. There is no guarantee it will work. But there is energy in that uncertainty. It feels like being on the edge of something unexplored.

What makes it special is that marketing, for us, is not a rigid strategy document. It is a living laboratory. We discard what does not work without drama. We keep what generates traction. We gather data. We refine. We experiment again.

It is creative, chaotic, disciplined, and fun all at the same time.

That is the risk. Not betting on one perfect idea. But embracing continuous experimentation in an industry where the rules are still being written.

And honestly, those long Lab sessions, when five minutes turn into hours, are some of my favorite moments as an entrepreneur. That is where innovation feels alive.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.gerardoescuderosamara.com/
• Instagram: @gescude9
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gerardo.e.samara/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gerardo-escudero-samara-0a0860124/