The Robot He Never Put Back Together

Lucas Torres was four years old when he first took something apart to understand how it worked. It was a talking robot. He opened it, figured out the mechanism, and never put it back together. He'd already found what he was looking for.

Two decades later, he's still doing much the same thing, only with bigger systems.

During twelve years at Agileana, Lucas has worked as a developer, team lead, project manager, business analyst, technical architect, IT director, and now in business development. He's never taken a formal technology class. Curiosity just kept pulling him toward new skills and responsibilities.

"The only thing in life that is forever is death," he says when asked what advice he'd give someone unsure about their future. "Try all of the available options, and see what you like the most."

It Escalated Quickly

Lucas's first paid project was a hotel website he landed through a friend. A web design course taught him the software, but working with a real client taught him how to build. Like many self-taught developers of that era, he found answers through Google and online forums.

He got paid and thought, "Huh, interesting." And, in his words, "it escalated quickly."

That curiosity eventually led him to establish a six-person web agency in Colombia. Although the business later closed because of long client payment cycles, Lucas helped every employee find another job first. The experience taught him that creating something well is only one part of making it sustainable.

A Career of Filling Gaps

In 2014, a friend referred Lucas to InQbation, the company that later became Agileana. He interviewed in English, his second language, and got the job.

Lucas describes his role at Agileana as "filling gaps." He identifies what the company needs, steps into that role, and moves on when someone else is ready to take over.

Early in his career, he messaged CEO Blake Newman and asked to lead a team. Blake said yes. Lucas considers that conversation a turning point, not because it was part of a carefully designed career plan, but because he was willing to ask for a new opportunity.

That trust later ran both ways. When a stalled intranet project had fallen months behind, Blake asked Lucas to take over. Lucas brought it back to a recoverable state within weeks. For Lucas, it's proof of what becomes possible when someone trusts you to take ownership.

What Twelve Years Taught Him

Of all his roles, project management changed Lucas the most. It taught him how to take a large, overwhelming problem, divide it into smaller pieces, and identify the first step.

Business analysis taught him how to translate what a client wants into something a technical team can build. He values that skill as much as coding, because what truly interests him is creating, not the specific tool used to create it.

Lucas also credits Agileana's culture for his long tenure. During difficult periods in his personal and family life, the company gave him the flexibility and support he needed.

He often returns to something Blake told him early on: family and health come first. For Lucas, watching the company actually live that out is what turned a reassuring phrase into a value he trusts.

Still Building, With Different Tools

Lucas now focuses primarily on business development and proposal writing. AI has changed how he works, but not why he works.

He uses tools such as Claude, Claude Code, OpenAI products, and NotebookLM to review documents, research opportunities, monitor projects, and identify next steps. Instead of relying on rigid prompt templates, he speaks to AI as he would to a colleague, testing whether it understands the material before letting it move forward.

His internal project, "Growth Machine," reflects this approach: AI writes the code, while a human reviews and approves it before anything ships. The technology handles more of the execution, but human judgment stays in control.

Which brings Lucas back to the talking robot. He still wants to understand how things work. He's just collected better tools, and gotten a lot faster at finding out.