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Meet Cynthia Del’Aria of Raika Technologies in Littleton

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Cynthia Del’Aria.

Cynthia, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I started coding when I was eight years old. I love to read and had run out of library books one day. My mom was taking some basic computer and networking classes at the community college, and her Visual Basic (remember Visual Basic?!) book was sitting on the desk. I picked it up, started reading, and three days later was incredibly satisfied with the shapes and colors flying around the screen. I was hooked. By the time I was 15, I had started my first company doing web development for small businesses. I ended up selling that company at 19 and starting my second company a few years later. Over the intervening 25 years, I’ve been everything from various levels of developer for small and large companies to managing groups and teams of developers to being a founder and CEO/CTO/COO/CFO for several startup ventures.

Today, I help two groups of people very near and dear to my heart, both in the tech space. I help entrepreneurs who are just getting started in the tech world and who have an idea for an app, website, software, or SaaS product turn their ideas into successful, profitable, viable businesses. I also help women and gender minorities in tech navigate the challenges of a male-dominated industry to get the career of their dreams and the pay they deserve.

Both of the efforts allow me to contribute the knowledge, skills, and strategic thinking I’ve developed over the last nearly-three-decades to people who are ready for the next step in their life or career or business, and both allow me to be part of the change and shift in the world for the generations that follow.

Has it been a smooth road?
My journey has definitely had its share of challenges! I grew up very poor, and the only thing I knew about money from my childhood was that when you had some, you should spend it… And fast! My first two exits happened before I was 30, and in both cases, within two years after, I was completely bankrupt. The first time I did exactly what my childhood had trained me for and spent, spent, spent. It wasn’t until I was living in my car, showering at my gym, that I realized something wasn’t right! So with my second exit, I decided to get smarter and consult with other people who did “smart” things with money. I ended up working with a commercial real estate investor/developer who taught me some really insightful things. If only I’d listened! You see, good advice is only good if you actually TAKE it.

In classic 20-something style, I was certain I knew the Denver market better than he did and proceeded to participate in a deal he told me was bad. Just about two years later, I had zero assets and nearly $650k in debt to show for all my “wisdom”. Being in that situation scared me and I realized that I didn’t understand even the fundamentals of money, and without that, I’d never get out of a paycheck-to-paycheck cycle, much less be wealthy. So I got a financial education, started budgeting, and started living below my means. What a difference a decade of being smart with money makes!

We’d love to hear more about Raika Technologies.
Raika Technologies is known for helping tech entrepreneurs turn their ideas into successful, profitable, viable businesses. We provide the knowledge, along with the behavioral coaching, that guides entrepreneurs to making the right decisions at the right times for them, their goals, and their lives. Many entrepreneurs with a tech idea jump straight into hiring a developer or trying to build their product. In almost any other type of business, you have to validate and prove some viability in your idea long before you’d actually start building it. Tech is so accessible, and almost everyone knows someone in the tech industry, so it’s easy to think, “Hey, I’ll just hire my brother-in-law and build this thing.”

The problem is the outcome of that story, and I hear it way too much. It goes something like, “I’ve spent $250,000 and about four years of my life building this thing, and I’ve got nothing to show for it.” That is a painful and entirely preventable story, and Raika exists to educate and support entrepreneurs in all of the things that should come before spending money on development. It’s our mission to remove that story from the entrepreneurial experience altogether.

I’m also a coach and advocate for women and gender minorities in tech, and I have a ton of passion for this work. So many women and gender minorities have such horrible, demeaning, confidence-shaving experiences in their 20s that by the time the average woman in tech hits their mid-30s they leave tech altogether. If we are going to pave the way for others now and for future generations, we have to make it a place where women and non-male genders can thrive. Having these segments leave the field in droves won’t get that job done. I work with people on techniques and strategies that are authentic for them and that produce the results they need to get the careers they really want in tech. It’s incredibly satisfying to work, and I love every one of my clients. (https://www.cynthiadelaria.com)

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
Entrepreneurs are, in my mind, the lifeblood of an economy and the source of the majority of innovation in the world. Recessions like we are in now get me excited… As weird as that sounds, what happens when people are all of a sudden, realizing that their “steady 9-to-5” really isn’t steady at all is that they get curious. They start to think about all the ideas they’ve had, they start to invent new ways of doing things, and (my favorite) they start to see problems all around them that they could solve. This is how new business is born, and sometimes the removal of comfort is all that’s required to light the founder fire. Over the next 3-5 years, as a result of the pandemic and the upheaval in our sense of security during 2020 in general, you’re going to see a lot of people take the leap and venture into starting their own business at much higher numbers. Like I said, exciting… 🙂

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