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p.0001— Threshold2026·06·06 · 20:55 CR
SOTODEV
AI engineering studio · San José, Costa Rica

We build the software Latin American organizations run on — and still run on in year three.

SOTO is an AI engineering studio led by Alvin Soto. We design, build, and operate systems from the channel, the payment rail, and the regulatory reality the region actually uses — then document them to survive the third year, not just the demo.

Try Concierge freeSee the workBook a call
Alvin Soto · Founder · principal engineer15 years delivering at HPE (Fortune 100) and Granicus (US government). One operator, accountable end to end — backed by a vetted contractor bench.Meet the operator →
15 years in operations & infrastructureHPE · Granicus · Fortune 100Live systems in production · CR & LATAM
Proof you can open
Atlas Criminalidad — live & public HPE · Granicus record 4,000+ hrs delivered · references on request
What you can hire us for

Engagements that ship and stay.

Engagements from $2,500 · retainers from $1,200/mo.

How engagements work →
What we're building

Our own products, in the open.

Built by the studio, not yet a buyable product. Shown honestly — a pilot, not a promise.

The Model

How the studio works.

01

We build our own products

WhatsApp Concierge today; ORIGO and civic/data tools in the workshop. Products the studio designs, ships, and operates — the long game.

02

Funded by engagement work

High-craft builds for organizations that need infrastructure now fund the products — and keep the studio close to real operations.

03

Built for year three

Every system ships with a runbook, recovery procedure, and change log. Optimized for the third year, not the demo.

Why SOTO

Systems built for their third year.

Most software is optimized for the demo. We optimize for operations — the moment a real team depends on your system at 11pm on a Tuesday.

Meet the studio →

Optimized for year three

Every system ships with a runbook, recovery procedure, and change log. We build for durability, not demos.

Written scope before code

Scope is locked in writing before development starts. Delivery is documented after. No surprises at handoff.

LATAM-native, globally fluent

Bilingual (ES/EN) from day one. WhatsApp-first architecture. Built for the channels your market lives on.

15 years of real delivery

HPE Fortune 100 portfolio delivery. Granicus US-government digital transformation. 4,000+ hours; zero failed engagements.

Why Now · Why LATAM

The infrastructure window is open now.

WhatsApp reaches over 90% of smartphone users in LATAM. SINPE Móvil processed over 200 million transactions in Costa Rica alone in 2024. Costa Rica's public sector is investing in digital infrastructure through MIDEPRES and municipal modernization programs — the systems being built between 2024 and 2026 will run for the next decade.

Most technology built for this window is US-platform software with a LATAM plugin. SOTO builds from the channel, the payment rail, and the regulatory reality first. That's the moat.

90%+

WhatsApp penetration

Smartphone users · LATAM

200M+

SINPE transactions

Costa Rica · 2024

82

Municipalities served

Observatorio Municipal CR — built by SOTO

4,000+

Delivery hours logged

HPE · Granicus · zero failed engagements

Verified Record

Every claim is checkable.

Selected Work

Shipped. Documented. Running.

Civic Data2025

Criminalidad data made navigable for every Costa Rican.

Live public tool that converts raw OIJ data into a 5-minute read for citizens, journalists, and municipal planners.

Public · Live · atlas-criminalidad-cr.vercel.app

Read the case View live
Public Infrastructure2025

Municipal performance indicators, made legible.

Active observatory serving as reference infrastructure for local government performance monitoring.

Active · 82 municipalities covered

Read the case
AI Tooling2024

A production-ready WhatsApp agent framework for LATAM businesses.

Open-source release; adopted by developers building LATAM-facing agents.

Open source · GitHub · 2024

All work →
From the studio

The latest teardown.

Field note6 min read

The five-minute rule: why slow WhatsApp response is your most expensive problem

Every minute a lead waits for a reply is a minute they spend deciding whether to try someone else. In LATAM, where WhatsApp is the front desk, the response-time problem is also a revenue problem — and most businesses have no idea how much it costs.

Read the teardown
All insights →

Ready to replace fragile workarounds with infrastructure that lasts?

Describe the problem in two sentences. We reply within 24 hours.

Book a callSend a brief

One technical teardown per issue. No sequences, no spam.