Leaving Bdeo

March 6, 2026

Almost four years ago I walked into a startup for the first time. Today is my last day. I wanted to write something honest about what happened in between, partly because I find personal exit reflections far more interesting than company announcements (see: Reflections on OpenAI , Leaving Anthropic), and partly because I think there is real value in one person’s unfiltered story.

I had never experienced startup life before Bdeo. I hope this serves as a small window for anyone who hasn’t, and maybe a nudge to try it.

First, what is Bdeo?

Bdeo is a Spanish scale-up founded in 2017. It specializes in Visual Intelligence (an AI solution powered by computer vision), designed to automate and digitize key processes (for example, car claims management and policy underwriting) for insurers and fleet management companies.

When I joined, the company was present in around 15 countries. Today, Bdeo is in ±30 countries and works with more than ±60 insurers. Considering how conservative this industry is, that is a huge achievement. We also became the standard tool for underwriting inspections in Spain, where 9 out of the 10 biggest insurers are working with us.

I joined Bdeo as an SDR, but moved into the chaotic world of Sales Ops about a year later. From there, I had the chance to work on various interesting projects: building a custom integration between Salesforce and the ERP to automate the invoicing process; implementing fantastic tools like Remuner, Genesy, and Piper; reinventing the Sales compensation plan; automating many repetitive tasks (reporting, data hygiene, Slack notifications); and building some GTM internal AI agents with N8N.

During my 4 years at Bdeo, the company went through a couple of reorganizations, one workforce reduction, but relatively low employee rotation overall. We opened several new markets, and before I joined, the company closed a 5M Series A and after my incorporation a 7.5M Series B in 2023.

Why I joined

Before joining, I was doing an internship at Jack and Jones as a Marketing Strategist. Bdeo was my first full-time job after university. Back then, AI was not where it is today. LLMs were not mainstream yet, but interest in the technology was growing fast.

That was also happening to me. I decided to join because of the AI and because during the interview process I met extraordinary people who would later inspire me a lot: Miguel (who was my manager for a period and inspired me to move into Sales Ops), Teresa (whose energy shaped part of Bdeo’s culture while she was there and taught me a lot about sales and prospecting), and Pablo (still in the company, and from whom I received a final masterclass in B2B enterprise sales).

When I received the offer, I accepted without hesitating. Looking back today, it was a perfect fit because at Bdeo I found:

Very experienced sellers. I enjoy sales, but especially sales/revenue ops. Contributing to their success while learning along the way was very enriching.
A company that gives you opportunities to explore and move across roles/departments when it fits business needs. They prioritize internal growth over external hiring. I am proof of that: I started as an SDR (where the natural path is usually becoming an AE) and finished this chapter as Sales Ops Manager.
A cross-functional environment. I had the chance to work on projects with Marketing, Finance, Customer Success, Ops, Legal, People and obviously Sales.
The chance to build my first demand generation team and see Maria Jose break targets quarter after quarter.

Despite that, during my first year I genuinely thought I could be fired any day. Two people who joined in the same role as me did not pass probation. Even receiving positive feedback consistently, I still felt it could happen to me. Classic impostor syndrome.

The culture

A lot of what made Bdeo feel like Bdeo traces back to Ruth. When a co-founder embodies the values they write down, it sets a tone that spreads without being pushed.

The culture is built on “freedom and responsibility.” Autonomy was the default, not something you had to earn or negotiate. You owned your time, your output, and your decisions. No one was tracking your hours or looking over your shoulder. Of course, that level of trust requires maturity, and I also saw moments where it was taken for granted.
Culture is built by the people you hire, and Alba did an extraordinary job at exactly that. Finding people who fit culturally and also performed at a high level.
You could ship autonomously. Experiment, make mistakes, iterate; without waiting for approval.

Looking back

I am deeply grateful for this chapter. At the same time, no meaningful experience is perfect, and some frictions became clearer to me over time.

The insurtech industry moves very slowly. I remember Samu saying this when he joined from Carto: “At my previous company, end of quarter was complete chaos. Here, it is just another day.” In this space, you have to switch your mindset: be patient, do not force your rhythm, and learn to dance with theirs. From a Sales Ops perspective, you often work with small data samples (especially in startups), so analysis usually requires longer time windows and more assumptions.
I also realized this industry is not the best fit for my energy long-term. Fewer people who thrive on fast-paced experimentation, and in many cases, a slower pace of innovation than what I naturally enjoy.
At Bdeo, it was also common to compress information so it could be consumed quickly by senior stakeholders. I always felt this could be counterproductive. Better decisions usually come with full context. It is true that Slack does not help long-form thinking, but I still believe teams should write more deeply when the topic matters. A lot of clarity appears once you pass the first quick summary.
I tried to push AI/agentic initiatives internally, but the timing wasn’t right yet. And I understand that. Still, we are watching companies reach billion-dollar valuations with fewer than 100 human employees. In the agentic era, “less is more” is becoming even more true, and I want to be building in that direction.

I felt it was the moment for me to leave. The initial excitement that fuels you through the first years eventually gives way due to routine and the problems you’re solving start to feel familiar.

Before I go

Even with these frictions, I would repeat this experience 100 times. Thank you Bdeo!

There are people I haven’t named yet who deserve to be here:

Estefania, thanks for your patience with the Salesforce chaos, and for the Accounting and Finance masterclass that came along with it.
Eduardo,I wish we’d had more time to collaborate. Thank you for involving me in all those technical projects,it was extremely fun to build things together.
Alberto, Maria Paula, Cristobal, & Jorge, we did not share many projects, but somehow ended up sharing a lot more than that.
.. And Ruth deserves a second mention. Thank you for trusting me and involving me in so many projects, and for pushing me to always document processes and initiatives. That habit is where I started enjoying writing.

Let me close with a poem by William Stafford that came to mind while writing:

The Way It Is

There is a thread you follow.It goes among things that change.But it does not change.People wonder about what you are pursuing.You have to explain about the thread.But it is hard for others to see.While you hold it you cannot get lost.Tragedies happen; people get hurt or die; and you suffer and get old.Nothing you do can stop time’s unfolding.You do not ever let go of the thread.