Author Profile

Santiago Diaz

Project Author

Cohort Futuro MMXXVI

Location Mexico City, Mexico

Generation Emerging Leader

Selected Sessions

Santiago's voice

BeNeXTMMXXVI

Santiago DiazFuturo Corps · Project AuthorMexicoNo. 044

Record Futuro MMXXVI

0 Accreditation Hours

Accumulated through convenings, workshops, and institutional mentorship.

0 Legacy Projects

Initiatives designed for lasting impact.

0 Month in the Ecosystem

Since Futuro cohort MMXXVI.

Santiago's Story

Santiago Diaz, an industrial engineering student at the Universidad Panamericana, joined the ecosystem through the Author × AI MMXXVI cohort in Mexico City. he is building a platform that pairs backpackers with hosts on a labor-for-stay basis: the traveler lists skills (barista, kitchen, mechanics, basic plumbing) and a destination, the host posts available rooms in exchange for a set number of hours of work, and the two sides match through a catalog model with a small entry fee on each side. The project grew from his own backpacking experiences across Asia and the United States, where housing emerged as the single biggest cost barrier keeping young travelers from going.

Santiago's Work

Backpacker housing exchange platform (labor-for-stay)

community.alumni.projectStatus.in-progress

Santiago Diaz, an industrial engineering student at the Universidad Panamericana, joined the ecosystem through the Author × AI MMXXVI cohort in Mexico City.…

Credentials

0 Accreditation Hours

From the sessions

Stills

“I noticed that what almost always makes travel expensive — what can be a deal-breaker, wherever you are — is housing. So I came up with a model where the traveler enters their skills, their availability and where they'd like to go, and on the other side there's a host who asks for those skills: while you stay, you contribute four hours in one of your abilities, whether as a barista, in the kitchen, or solving technical work.”
Santiago Diaz · Project Author

“I'd like it to be something that makes the adventure approachable for anyone who wants to set out. You do have to step in and do it yourself, but it isn't something impossible, the way it looks in the movies — and I want to show people it can be done.”
Santiago Diaz · Project Author

“What I take away most is the questions they ask. You can talk to them about an idea and very quickly they know what to ask, and you can tell their questions are genuine. That's what I'm carrying with me: what to ask, and how to ask it so that it's genuine.”
Santiago Diaz · Project Author

Plate 01 · Author × AI · MMXXVI

Still of record · Author × AI

Institutional Connection

Cohort Futuro MMXXVI

Generation Emerging Leader

Convening Author × AI MMXXVI · May 15-17

View on Futuro →

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