Hi! I’m Tomas Di Mauro. Today, I want to share a bit of my story with you and motivate more students to take the leap and create their own projects. I’m 19 years old, and just a few months ago, I graduated from Technical High School №5 in the city of Mar del Plata, Argentina. Right now, I’m over 15,000 kilometers from home, in Malaysia, driving a project forward!
The First Challenges and a Crucial Change of Direction
My early days in elementary school were far from ideal; I never managed to make a group of friends. It was a period marked by loneliness and difficult thoughts, a time when I felt like I wasn’t good for anything.
I wanted to be an architect. My whole family took it for granted. That idea grew with me, and I used it as an excuse to change schools. It was a tough change for my family to accept, moving from a private school to a public one, but they eventually did, and that change of scenery was exactly what I needed. It was a 180-degree turn; I managed to build a group of friends and became super optimistic.
But when I got to the first year of high school, I realized something very important: I didn’t like to draw. At that point, I wasn’t sure which way to go.
However, I had a hobby I’d been into since I was 11: computers. I started programming for fun in Lua and C#, making games and programs for Windows. My classmates saw me as someone who had a knack for it, but I never saw it as a career, or even a profession.
The Spark: From Hobby to Calling at Technical School №5
Everything changed with an extracurricular robotics course I took with some friends; I would wait all week for that class. When I found out that my school, Technical High School №5 (EEST N°5) in Mar del Plata, offered a specialization in Computer Science, my friends also thought it was the right path for me. It took a lot to convince my family, many therapy sessions and conversations, but I finally enrolled.
When I started the class, the professor noticed from day one that I knew how to program and introduced me to the world of competitive programming. He told me to research outside of class, a world of super difficult, endless, and fun problems to solve. This was when I was 16 years old. After a year of practice, I placed 5th nationally in the OIA (Argentine Informatics Olympiad) Level 2. Simultaneously, I was starting to discover web development and doing my first jobs. One of them was a website for my grandfather’s workshop, which went from making 0 sales in a month to receiving dozens of calls and several clients per month. That’s when I realized this was a profession and I could dedicate myself to it.
The Pandemic and My First Job
Then the pandemic came. I did small jobs (or “gigs”) for months and managed to save a little money. I took that and bought web development courses; with what was left over, I upgraded the computer my grandmother had given me several years earlier with much effort (it was all she had saved).
During the pandemic, I didn’t play any games, I didn’t watch series. I programmed. For fun. In 2022 (at 16 years old), I started my first job at a small VC (Venture Capital) firm. I remember applying because an acquaintance gave me the confidence to do so; internally, I felt super unprepared. But I took the chance anyway and got the job. I learned so much, and to this day, that team (the founder and a colleague) have remained my mentors forever.
First Hackathons
At 18, I went to Buenos Aires alone for “ETH Argentina 2023,” without having met my team beforehand. We put together a project to make public procurements transparent, and we won! Then, in November, I went to another event, “Labitconf,” with a different team and project, and we won that too.
My First Impact Projects and International Leaps
In 2024, while still studying at EEST N°5, I immersed myself in a project that deeply marked me. Together with the Faculty of Psychology at UNMDP (National University of Mar del Plata), I coordinated a team of seven people to redesign “Tranqui,” a non-profit application aimed at teen suicide prevention. It was incredible to see how the app generated such a positive response: local TV channels, local and national media, and radio stations helped us spread the word, and we managed to surpass one thousand downloads. This experience showed me the power of technology to create real social impact.
In parallel, I continued exploring the world of hackathons. I returned to ETH Argentina and, with a new team, we won with “ChatterPay,” an idea we were passionate about: a wallet to send and receive money to any country in seconds, using WhatsApp. The streak continued, as that same project also led us to victory at ETH Uruguay. I felt we were on the right path.
The Leap to Thailand: An Unexpected Adventure (Still in High School)
The next big surprise came when I took ChatterPay to the ICP Chain Fusion Hackathon in Buenos Aires. We won a trip to Thailand to participate in Devcon 7 (2024)! It was my first solo trip to a country with a completely different language, and to top it off, I hadn’t even finished high school yet! The trip dates coincided exactly with my graduation ceremonies, but it was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.
The challenge was enormous: I had to present ChatterPay to investors and compete in a hackathon with over 3,000 participants (ETH Global Bangkok and ICP Chain Fusion Bangkok). I, who had always been terrible at public speaking and had never done it on a stage, let alone in English, prepared intensively for a month and a half.
Arriving in Bangkok was an odyssey. After more than 40 hours of travel, my luggage was lost. On the first day, I got “bangkok belly” and had to go to the hospital. As if that wasn’t enough, once at the hackathon, I realized I didn’t have the correct adapter to connect my computer and lost half a day looking for one.
Despite everything, I managed to present to the investors. In the competition, I participated solo, facing teams of up to five people. It was about 30 non-stop hours of programming, fueled by coffee and maté. Although I didn’t make it to the finals, I did manage to win a prize from Circle, one of the event’s sponsors. That experience, with all its setbacks, was a trial by fire that taught me a lot about resilience.
Post-High School: The Bet on ChatterPay and the Journey to Malaysia
After the intensity of Thailand and finishing high school, there was a moment when I thought ChatterPay wouldn’t move forward. But then, when I least expected it, I received an email that changed everything: “You’ve been selected for a two-month accelerator program in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia!”
The opportunity was incredible, but it involved difficult decisions. It meant pausing the academic term I had just started at UBA (University of Buenos Aires), leaving my current jobs, and dedicating myself one hundred percent to ChatterPay in a completely new country. I thought about it, discussed it, and decided to bet on it.
So, relatively recently, I found myself in Kuala Lumpur. It has been an experience of total immersion in the project. Just a few days ago, after a lot of hard work, we finally launched ChatterPay. And one of the nicest moments was being able to create a virtual wallet for my grandmother for the first time!
Final words
My message is for other students, especially those from public schools in Argentina, explore your passions, try things out, dare to go for it.
The path is not usually linear; there are difficult moments and doubts, but if you find something you are truly passionate about, with curiosity and dedication, you can open incredible doors.
The potential is there, be brave enough to discover it. It all depends on you. I send you all a big hug. Go for it!
