We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Miguel Calles. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Miguel below.

Miguel, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

I have lived in a homeowner association (HOA) for several years. I found there was a lack of transparency between the board of directors and the members. When I spoke with other homeowners living in HOAs, I noticed some common themes. Owners were concerned about how elections were run, how board decisions were made, and how requests to the community management company were tracked.

As an engineer, I look for solutions to problems. I believe that building an web application and mobile app designed specifically for HOAs could be the solution. I approached the Open Collective Foundation (OCF) asking them to fiscally host a non-profit mission to improve transparency in HOAs. I believe that having good tools that improve transparency would make homeowners happier and improve communities. OCF shared in the vision and HOA Hero was born in 2022.

I was originally going to build a transparent elections process but there was an event that caused me to choose a different first feature.

I was at a town hall meeting. There was a homeowner who was extremely upset. She had been asking for a repair for six years. Yup, six years!

The property manager said it was waiting board approval. The board said it was the first time they had heard about it. This lady was mad because she claimed she had emails going back six years of her repeatedly asking for a fix. The board was unaware of it. Maybe the property manager dropped the ball.

Regardless of the cause, there was a lack of transparency. I wanted HOA Hero to solve issues in transparency with technology solutions. I hope to prevent situations like the one in this story with a transparent ticketing system that the board can audit and community managers can use as a tool.

Miguel, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I have been an engineer for almost 20 years and have worked on military systems, mobile apps and websites during my career. I have also been a board member on the board of directors for a homeowner association (HOA). After two years, I noticed that HOAs could be run more effectively and with higher transparency with technology solutions. I worked with the Open Collective Foundation to launch a non-profit project to provide HOAs with a web application and mobile app. The HOA Hero app is strictly funded by donations and it offered at no costs. I wanted to make sure there were no financial barriers that prevent an HOA from using tools to improve its operations and transparency with its members.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

With the help of the Open Collective Foundation (OCF), I was able to create the HOA Hero non-profit organizations within a couple of weeks. OCF is a fiscal host who accepts donations and makes those funds available to HOA Hero.

I wanted to build a low-cost, efficient and low maintenance web application and mobile app. I applied with Cloudflare to join a startup program. They approved my application and provided me with one year of hosting at no-cost while I build and launch the HOA Hero app.

Lastly, I have been volunteering my time to build the HOA Hero app and several friends have been helping me test the initial version of the app. The test volunteers have given me valuable feedback to improve the app.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

The book “Doing Business by the Good Book” by David Steward taught me great lessons. One big lessons I learned was the concept of servant leadership. When I was a junior engineer, I admired the senior engineers who were willing to roll up their sleeves and help solve problems. When I learned about the servant leadership concept, it became clear to me that true leadership is being able to serve and help others. In the decade since first reading the book, I have worked to be a servant leader regardless of my role.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://hoahero.org
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/miguel-a-calles-mba/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ServerlessCISO
• Other: https://miguelacallesmba.com https://miguelacallesmba.bio.link/

Image Credits
The illustration of the house with the magnifying glass was obtained from undraw.co using their open source license. The screen captures of the My HOA Hero app was provided courtesy of HOA Hero.