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Unicorn of the Month: Guillermo Kleinlein

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  2. UNICORN MONTH GUILLERMO KLEINLEIN

Guillermo Kleinlein, Lead Member of Technical Staff, is our Unicorn of the Month for June. Based in Buenos Aires in Argentina, Guillermo has been working for Duetto since October 2018.

Guillermo was awarded by his colleagues because he always takes the lead on the hardest integration tickets, provides creative solutions to problems, and consistently delivers results. He often goes above and beyond to help teammates, especially when welcoming new developers to the team.

He is an extremely well-respected member of the team known for his innovation and the impact his work has on his fellow developers and the evolution of our solutions.

Away from the keyboard, he’s a keen runner – in fact he delayed his start date with Duetto so that he could take part in the Berlin Marathon in September 2018.

Here we catch up with him to find out more about his role, how he came to work for Duetto and what advice he would give to someone considering a career in hotel tech right now.

What was your work experience before joining the Duetto team in Argentina?

I’ve been working in travel industry technology since early 2010. I worked as a senior Java programmer with Globant in Argentina, where I was contracted to work with our client, Disney, on backend development. My focus was on the e-commerce experience: how they not only sold tickets for their amusement parks, but also the resorts and complete travel packages. It was like building a booking engine dedicated to Disney.

After three years – and plenty of visits to the Disney parks – I made the move to a well-known Argentinian travel agency. Here, I had the chance to intervene in different parts of the process, including the end-user experience. It was here that I had the chance to work with Laura Slepetis, who is now Senior Engineering Manager here at Duetto, and who was the one who referred me to Duetto.

Can you remember what it was that attracted you to Duetto?

First, the stage in which the company was at, as I was feeling tired of working in large, very bureaucratic companies.

Second, the Buenos Aires team: when I started at Duetto the Argentina team was made up of just Laura and Damian Yoo, both of whom I worked with previously, so I knew beforehand that the ambience was going to be great. Through the interview process, as I met more Duettos, I could see how great the company culture was.

Third, the prospect of building the Buenos Aires team was a great opportunity.

And finally, the opportunity to travel, working with people across the globe while improving and keep practicing my English locked up the deal

Tell us what your job entails?

I could make it simple and say that it is to translate into code the requirements brought by our Partner Managers, making all our integrations possible, but that would be oversimplifying it. Obviously, part of my job is coding not only new features, but also improvements and every now and then bashing a few bugs. But also, researching new features and integrations, interviewing candidates to strengthen our team at Buenos Aires and helping new members ramp up, and interacting with the whole global engineering team on architectural decisions.

What is your average day like?

Having a two-year-old daughter means that not all days are the same, but usually it starts with walking the dogs, and then, depending on the day, it’s either going out for a morning run or taking the little one to kindergarten. It’s right here when the office hours begin. You can imagine how with the whole pandemic situation, working from home and having a little one running around all day, presents a challenge by itself but seeing her grow on a daily basis is certainly rewarding. Duetto is very family first as an employer, and that is a big plus. There is lots of flexibility to work around your personal needs.

What do you most love about your job?

As I mentioned before, the culture at Duetto is a great plus, with all the different events we have making it possible to interact with team members from around the globe. Also, there is the opportunity to challenge and be challenged by others, which I consider a huge factor for self-improvement.

Best day you’ve ever had working at Duetto?

It’s difficult to pinpoint one, so let me mention three!

First, working alongside our ‘professor’ Juan Ruano, I was part of the team to achieve second place in the 2020 Duetto Jubilee hackathon, which took place in San Francisco.

Then there was the day I was promoted from Senior Developer to Lead Member of Technical Staff in November 2020.

And finally, being awarded the Unicorn of the Month, for which I was completely unprepared for, and it came out of nowhere.

What piece of advice would you give to someone looking at a career in hotel tech right now?

My advice comes from an engineering viewpoint, but I feel the hotel tech space is a great place for anyone to start a career in. People will always want to travel. And even after this long pause caused by the pandemic, we are already seeing travel recovering.

Technology, such as Duetto, enables the industry to make fast and data-driven decisions. And the adoption of this type of technology is only going to keep growing.

Interested in becoming a part of the Duetto community? Check out our Careers Page for our current openings.

 

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Sarah McCay Tams, Director of Marketing Communications.

Sarah joined Duetto in 2015 as a contributing editor covering Europe, Middle East & Africa (EMEA). In 2017, she was promoted to Director of Content, EMEA, and in 2022 promoted to Director of Marketing Communications. An experienced B2B travel industry journalist, Sarah spent 14 years working in the Middle East, most notably as senior editor – hospitality for ITP Publishing Group in Dubai, where she headed up the editorial teams on Hotelier Middle East, Caterer Middle East and Arabian Travel News. Sarah is now based back in the UK.

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