aPriori Nearshore
A custom software development company. HQ is in keep Austin weird, TX. Our development center is in Bogotá, Colombia; the strategic hub for international business in Latin America. Located 8600 feet above sea level, Bogotá sits on a beautiful plateau in the Andes. Colombia’s time zone is the same as the US CDT in the summer and Eastern time in the winter. We are working when you are working! Our clients love to visit us in Bogotá; after business is done, we head to nearby chic Zona Rosa or Zona T and experience the cosmopolitan culture of the largest city in the world at this elevation. We look forward to you joining us soon!
Our team
We currently work with over 25 software developers. Each developer is unique but has extensive experience developing software (between 6 and 23 years of time in the industry). The expertise of our team includes full-stack, front-end, back-end, web, mobile, AI integration, data engineering, and more. They are well-educated with graduate and postgraduate degrees in computer science or related fields.
We love our team and try to have fun too (as you can see from our Halloween party)! The average tenure with our company is over 7 years.
Cary Peele
CEO & Founder
In the 80s while checking out at a C store, Cary became intrigued with the electronic cash register. How does that work?, he wondered. To find out, he studied Management Information Systems (MIS) at the University of Texas, McCombs School of Business. He graduated with high honors with a BBA in MIS. For what it’s worth, out of his class of 700+ students, he received the highest $ offer. He rose through the ranks, becoming a CIO in 2003.
As is still the case today, Cary was having a difficult time filling all his open reqs for programmers. He had already worked with teams in India and despised the time difference and the inability to talk directly to the programmers. He did some research and found a company in Costa Rica providing programmers.
The rest you could say, is history. Cary knew the need for programmers would continue to surpass the demand. So, he did more research and realized that Costa Rica with a population of 4 million people would not be able to keep up with the demand. He looked to Colombia. There he found what he was looking for. Colombia graduates 22,000+ computer science/IT majors every year from highly reputable public and private universities.
In 2013 Cary started aPriori. With introductions from ProColombia, the foreign investment branch of the government, Cary met with many nearshoring companies. He chose to partner with professionals with similar skill sets as his. Excellent technologists with exceptional business acumen and a genuine desire to provide high-quality programming solutions to businesses.
Ask Cary what he loves most about this job and his answer will be all the bosses he has. That’s right, instead of one boss, Cary has many bosses. He considers each of his clients a boss. His goal is ensuring that he meets or exceeds the expectations of each boss. So far, so good.
Julian Montaña
Partner
In addition to keeping aPriori business operations humming and advancing the company culture and vision internally, Julian continues to keep tech current by leading a large team developing software for one of our clients in the Real Estate/ Marketing/Advertising industry.
He received his undergraduate degree in Systems Engineering from the highly regarded Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá. He has an advanced degree in Software Engineering from the prestigious La Pontifica Universidad Católica Argentina (UCA).
With fifteen plus years in the business, his technical expertise includes diverse industries such as banking, healthcare, construction and online retail among others.
Julian is a master at mentoring and developing staff. His supportive and collaborative approach results in a culture of company-wide high performance. Julian, Andres and Cary all value continuous learning and improvement for everyone at aPriori. The effect is accountability throughout the company making it fun to set objectives, establish priorities and see teams and individuals achieve their goals.
Saara Crespo
PM & QA Manager
Before Saara moved into management, she was a QA engineer, so of course every application that crosses her screen gets a thorough Saara test.
Saara says starting her career in QA made her keenly aware of the importance of writing good requirements and she likes helping clients create fantastic ones. She is currently studying Requirements Engineering and will soon get a certification in the field.
Saara has great knowledge about industrial internet of things; she has brought many IIOT applications to life. “I really enjoy working closely with the development teams, being part of the process and seeing the products become great solutions for our clients.”
When she’s not working or studying, Saara plays the guitar and ukulele. She’s learning how to play the bass guitar. She enjoys playing her favorite video games and she’s a Catan gamer. (You can blame Charlye for that!)
Saara loves to travel and go to concerts. So, she’s quite happy that the pandemic is no longer keeping us all inside. San Andres, a coral island in the Caribbean Sea, was her first travel adventure post pandemic.
Saara has a degree in Systems Engineering from the Universidad Central; a well-known private university in Bogotá.
Dylan Peele
VP of Product
As our teams of talented developers produce, maintain, and upgrade the software that runs our clients’ businesses, I ensure that all the needs of the clients and the engineers are being met. I specialize in mobile and web application development; planning and executing new projects as well as taking over or augmenting existing ones. The specifics of my role are determined by the needs of the client. I function in many capacities; Sales, Customer Success, Product Management, Project Management, Systems Integration. Whatever is required to ensure the success of the client.
My entrepreneurial and scientific background provide the problem solving and data analysis skills necessary to be successful in this position. Having worked with the aPriori technical team to build a web app that I designed gives me the firsthand knowledge of the intricacies involved in designing, developing, and implementing software.
Dylan has a BS in Psychology and a minor in Biology from the University of Texas at Austin.
Carlos Navarro
Project Manager
Charlye, as he is known around the office, leads a team of programmers creating web, Android and iOS applications for an online real estate company on steroids. They created and are now enhancing awesome data-driven tools and features that enable people in real-estate and beyond to grow their businesses in all 50 states.
Needless to say, Charlye is very busy. However, on weekends you can find him in the mountains north of Bogotá building a family-size cabin. So, if you can hold your own with a hammer, when you come down to visit your tech team in Bogotá, plan on spending the weekend in the mountains helping build this awesome cabin. And, Charlye is an avid Catan player too; so if you are a Catan gamer, plan on playing!
Charlye studied Systems Engineering at the Escuela Colombiana de Ingeniería Julio Garavito; a highly regarded private University in Bogotá.
Taylor Peele, Ph.D.
Chief Strategy Officer
Taylor works closely with the team to develop aPriori’s near- and long-term strategies. She leads our sales and marketing efforts, builds relationships with current and prospective clients, and identifies future opportunities for business growth.
Taylor joined aPriori after working as a researcher at tech giants, including Google, Facebook, and Slack. Before joining the tech industry, she earned her Ph.D. in human development and family sciences with specialization in relationship research. This background provides her a unique perspective in understanding the ins and outs of a user’s relationship with a product. Armed with this experience, she is particularly skilled at creating fulfilling relationships with our clients and ensuring their overall satisfaction with aPriori.
Headquarters
Austin, TX
Development Center
Bogotá, Colombia
