Business — Alex M. Rivera

Turning engineering into a company

ESPOLETA Tecnologías started with four engineers and one shared conviction: Cuba needed locally-built, affordable sensor technology instead of expensive imported equipment. We build hardware end-to-end — from PCB design to firmware to the enclosure that survives a rooftop in the Caribbean sun.

As Director of Technology Development, I run the technical and operational side: budgets, hiring, supplier sourcing, and making sure what we design can actually be manufactured, tested, and supported for a decade.

Co-founded in 2021, one of Cuba's first 1,500 recognized MSMEs
Flagship product: Vórtice, Cuba's first commercially-produced weather station
Featured in national press, podcasts, and international outlets

The Founding Team

Four engineers, four disciplines, one product.

Alex Manuel Rivera

Automation Systems

Carlos Valdés

Design & Documentation

Orestes Chávez

Electronics & Research

Lázaro O'Farrill

Firmware & Software

See the four of us together in Panamerican World's coverage (photo: Abel Rojas / PanamericanWorld).

Vórtice Weather Station

Cuba's first commercially-produced meteorological station — designed to cost a third of comparable imported models.

Vórtice measures eight environmental variables in real time and streams them over WiFi to a companion mobile app, with local storage as a backup. Four of its sensors are developed in-house; the rest are sourced and integrated to keep costs down without cutting corners on reliability.

Humidity & temperature
Atmospheric pressure
Wind speed & direction
Precipitation
Electrical discharge detection
Ambient light
WiFi + real-time mobile app
15-day battery autonomy

Built for both research labs and outdoor agricultural use, with a 10-year minimum warranty and ongoing technical support — at roughly a third of the price of comparable international stations.

Brands & Ventures

ESPOLETA has grown from one hardware line into a small house of brands.

Site Offline

ESPOLETA Tecnologías

The parent brand — hardware and sensor technology, home of the Vórtice weather station. espoletatecnologias.com is temporarily down.

Live

Espoleta Solar

Solar energy solutions for Cuban homes and businesses — turnkey photovoltaic kits with batteries, addressing Cuba's daily blackouts.

espoletasolar.com

Site Offline

Andune Factory

Another ESPOLETA venture (andunefactory.com is currently unavailable — ask me directly for details).

What I Actually Do

Day to day, my role at ESPOLETA covers the full arc from spec to shipped product.

Managerial responsibility for personnel, budget, planning, and long-term goals.

Select hardware and materials, ensuring compliance with product specifications.

Supervise and assign work across programmers, designers, and technicians.

Calculate costs, production times, and staffing needs for new designs.

Design test methods and validate finished products against standards.

Apply lean manufacturing to improve quality, reliability, and profitability.

Source and purchase equipment, materials, and parts.

Bring new methods and processes into existing operations.

Co-Founder & Director of Technology Development, ESPOLETA Tecnologías

Turning engineering into a company

The Founding Team

Alex Manuel Rivera

Carlos Valdés

Orestes Chávez

Lázaro O'Farrill

Vórtice Weather Station

Brands & Ventures

ESPOLETA Tecnologías

Espoleta Solar

Andune Factory

What I Actually Do

Press & Media

Espoleta Tecnologías, a Cuban MSME that exploits new business ideas

Talking about MSMEs with ESPOLETA Tecnologías and the Ministry of Economy

Technology-based microenterprise develops projects at the lowest possible cost

Meeting on the strengths of MSMEs for territorial development

From worker to MSME: an easy or difficult path?

ESPOLETA Tecnologías: at the center of the vortex

Video feature

Interested in ESPOLETA or a hardware collaboration?