From corset to compass: Ucademy’s wild education
“Wild means being yourself, being authentic.” With this statement of intent, Pablo Prieto, COO and co-founder of Ucademy, defines the essence of a project that has evolved from a single brand into an ecosystem built on symbiosis. In this conversation with Ismael Barros, CEO and co-founder of Soluble, Pablo explains how the company’s growth forced them to transform their identity: from a corset that had become too tight into a map capable of guiding more than 10,000 students.
Throughout the interview, Pablo breaks down the challenge of specializing their offering through the Atlas, Polaris, and Explora brands, and how the concept of Human Tech is breaking the paradigms of traditional education. It’s a conversation about the value of authenticity, the importance of learning adapting 100% to each person, and the confidence that comes from having a brand that finally feels as good as it truly is.
There’s also room for the flip side of the process: the initial sense of vertigo, the naming crisis when none of the options seemed to click, and the importance of having a partner who “puts pressure on you” so you don’t settle for the obvious. A reflection on how to build a company that isn’t simply looking to scale, but also to stay true to its pillars so the result is, quite simply, a reflection of who they are.
Q. What was causing enough friction in your day-to-day operations that you decided to go through a process like the one you went through with us?
What started to hurt about two years ago was that, after entering several different markets, we felt we weren’t delivering an incredible experience in each one. We realized we needed to split into different teams so they could make specific decisions. And that naturally led us to think: if we’re doing this internally, we have to show it externally too.
Q. Ucademy was already a validated and recognized brand in the market. Weren’t you worried about what might come out of a process like this?
Not really, because we had no idea what would come out of it. At first, we started with an endorsement system in our own way, and what we felt was that it came from within. We’re the kind of people who, when something comes from within and sits within one of our core pillars, tell ourselves that the outcome doesn’t really matter. If it reflects who we are, it’s going to work.
Q. In this particular case, the challenge is to specialize each of your brands and each of the solutions you have as Ucademy while also scaling and becoming a benchmark in the industry. How do those two realities coexist: scaling and specializing?
There’s a very basic concept at Ucademy, and that’s the word symbiosis. What we’ve ultimately managed to create are independent teams that can work autonomously, innovate, and make their own decisions. At the same time, they share a huge amount of information with one another.
We’re constantly working like that: three teams moving at their own pace, with moments when they come together. That coming together is what creates Ucademy, along with all the legacy it brings with it, of course.
Q. What does wild mean?
Wild means being yourself, being authentic, not being fake. When we talk about wild education, we believe in an education where the person teaching you is right there beside you, like a friend, supporting you and helping you rather than ordering you around and making you suffer.
Q. How does this idea of being wild translate into the student experience?
It means we’re always going to make the best decision for the student. A decision we can afford and that isn’t going to bring the whole thing down. But we’re not going to put barriers in the way of achieving our vision: education that adapts to people.
And when we say adapt, we don’t mean 99%. To me, something that’s 99% adapted is the same as zero. It has to adapt 100%. To every person. To each one of those 10,000 students we already have, plus the next 10,000 who join over time.
Q. What sacred rule of the education industry are you breaking with this new brand system?
We’re changing the paradigm where the person teaching you is usually someone you see as telling you what to do, giving you orders, and even making the experience miserable at times because you stop going out with your friends, you’re struggling, and you’re often alone in order to reach that goal.
We change that paradigm by saying: I’m here with you. I’m your friend.
Our “magic touch,” as we call it, to keep people from dropping out is: “We’re here with you, right by your side.” What we want first is for you to be psychologically ready to achieve the result you want. And we approach it in a way that makes the experience fun and enjoyable, so your brain actually wants to be there.
Q. How do you convince a traditional student that the Ucademy Human Tech approach is really what they need compared with traditional academies?
A lot of the time, we start with this: tell us about a negative experience you’ve had while studying, and we’ll show you how we solve it.
That’s when you introduce the idea of, “I’m going to be here with you, and this is going to adapt to you.” So when you’re studying alone and need to ask something over WhatsApp, you’ll be able to ask it here. Or when you need to go back and review a class, you won’t have to wait until the next day. Ucademy is there for you in those moments.
Ultimately, what we want is to show people what they’re actually going to use and then let them decide whether this is better for them than a private tutor or whatever the alternative might be.
I also always say that Ucademy isn’t for everyone. It’s for people who need to study online because it gives them an additional benefit, and they’re going to receive the best online education they can possibly get.
Q. What has surprised you most about Soluble’s methodology?
What surprised me most about Soluble’s methodology was that challenge — that refusal to simply please the client from the start.
I’ve also been a service provider, and I think that when you’re dealing with something as delicate as brand, where subjectivity plays such a major role, I was surprised by the dynamic of: “You think about this, we’ll think about this, and then we’ll find the answer together.”
Rather than the other approach of saying, “Okay, great, whatever you say.”
I think that second approach can give the client pleasant results in the short term, but in the long term, if the client was wrong in the feedback they gave, the results can be very negative because you’ll end up feeling that the final outcome isn’t good.
Q. If you had to describe your experience with Soluble in three words, what would they be?
Fun. I’ve had a lot of fun in the meetings because I felt like my head was spinning, but there was someone there to support me and keep me grounded.
I’ve also felt pressure. It’s true that this was a topic that Jeff, Ramir, and I sometimes felt a bit lazy about. We enjoyed talking about it, but we were less excited about actually getting to concrete results or deliverables. And I felt that pressure from Soluble: “This has to be done because we committed to it.” It’s been incredibly helpful for us.
And finally, what I’m feeling now is that it’s been a learning experience. I come from a marketing and sales background focused on analytics, performance, and that kind of thing. Being able to step away from that engineering mindset and move into something more related to brand marketing and a more holistic way of thinking is something I’m really enjoying.
Q. Which part of the process have you enjoyed most?
I really enjoyed the naming and visual parts because I think that was when we started giving the brands eyes, a nose, a mouth, and ears.
We’d also been going through this process for a year and a half, so it had already been taking shape for quite some time. And now we’re at the point where we can finally say it’s real — I’m going to have a baby. (Laughs.)
Q. Which part of the process was the hardest for us?
The naming too. That was the part I was most worried about after the first version because I didn’t like it at all. I knew there was something that wasn’t quite clicking for me, but I also couldn’t find the solution.
So I was pretty worried, because I didn’t want us to launch with a bad name.
And it ended well. It ended very well.
Q. Would you work with Soluble again?
Without a doubt. More than whether I’d do it again, I think I’ve already told four or five people, “Soluble helped us with this and exceeded our expectations.”
That’s the reality.
Q. What moment from working with us has really stuck with you?
The first thing that comes to mind is the in-person workshops. I feel like I had fun and really enjoyed them because I hadn’t done anything like that in a while, and they allowed us to step away from the day-to-day.
You also worked with 15 people from the team, and I know they really enjoyed that too because we felt we were able to clearly express — without having to make a final decision — how we felt about the brands, the customers, and everything else.
Q. Tell me about the moment when you presented the result of the work with Soluble to the whole team.
It was a highly anticipated moment. We brought the whole company together, and people were like, “Wow.”
One of the things people liked most was the mockup of the hats. All anyone wanted was for us to actually make the hats. We still haven’t made them, but honestly, we should.
People were really excited to finally see the activation of everything we’d been building for a year and a half.
We had a strong result, but we were also able to present it in a really cool way through those mockups — scenarios and things you can actually imagine seeing in everyday life with Atlas, Polaris, and Explora.
It was awesome.
Q. What would you say to a CEO who isn’t sure whether to invest in brand?
I think the first thing you need to do when deciding whether to invest in brand is determine whether it represents a competitive advantage for your business.
We believed it did, and we believed investing in the brand over the medium and long term was worthwhile.
Once you’ve answered that question — and the answer will rarely be negative when it comes to brand, although there are cases where it genuinely doesn’t give you a differentiating advantage — I think it’s essential to show yourself as you really are.
Then you need someone to help you express that without moving away from your core pillars.
I think moving away from your pillars is very dangerous because then you have to actively think about how you’re going to communicate who you are.
What I really love about having a brand you identify with is that I can simply be myself, and that brand is me.
Q. What role do you think brand plays in the landscape we’re in today?
For me, brand can play two roles: one is reassurance — knowing that where you’re going has a certain seal of approval — and the other is curiosity.
If I’m buying sneakers and ChatGPT recommends three options, but it doesn’t recommend a brand I like, I’m going to say, “Hey, what about this brand? Do you have anything from them?”
So I think brand gives you those two things: the confidence of knowing whether something is good or not — although there are bad brands too — and then there’s that element of curiosity where, despite everything, you still want that particular brand.
Q. Of the new brand system — Ucademy, Polaris, Atlas, and Explora — which is your favorite? Which one do you have a soft spot for?
Ucademy, without a doubt. It’s the one that encompasses all of them, and I’m someone who really enjoys creating that sense of a tight-knit group, that pack.
It’s the one I like most because I feel it’s the brand that has the most to give to the other three. And every time one of those brands improves, because there’s a kind of partial endorsement relationship, Ucademy improves too.
And in turn, Ucademy can pass that improvement on to the other two.
So I see it as a complete whole — like a mother brand that protects, supports, and empowers.
Q. Do you think Ucademy now comes across as being as good as it really is?
Yes. And what makes me happiest is that I feel it’s only going to get better.
