How we got here

A lot of people think Davisa started in 2003… but the story actually goes back further.

David was still studying Computer Engineering, and he already dreamed of starting a company. He was so excited about it that he would write the letters DAVISA in the upper-left corner of every notebook.

One day I asked him: —"What does that mean? Why do you write it everywhere?" And he answered, very serious: —"You don't know it yet… but you and I are going to have a company called DAVISA."

After he graduated he began slowly: fixing computers, selling ink cartridges and writing small pieces of software. He shared his big dream at a family dinner with his aunt Pilar. She was so enthusiastic that she literally insisted he open his first shop… in the hallway of her home, which was in a great location.

That's how Davisa was born: in a hallway of barely 7 square metres. I still remember when David tried to hire his first employee. The guy walked in, looked around and said: —"This is… a hallway, isn't it?"

In parallel, David was working at a large manufacturing company, Gesan, that built power generators. That's where he discovered the Microsoft world. He was the IT lead and one of his biggest projects was rolling out an ERP. He had to lead it both internally and externally, because the vendor's consultants didn't understand manufacturing. Through self-study and by deeply analysing the company's needs, he rolled the ERP out successfully.

I remember perfectly the day he came home and said: —"No more selling computers and ink cartridges. I know what I want to do: we're going to be a Microsoft partner. That's what I really love."

And that's how our specialisation in manufacturing and logistics began.

While David was pulling Davisa forward, I was 100 % immersed in my family's construction business.

Like David, I had studied Business Computing. So it was impossible for me to imagine a company without a solid, integrated management system. That's how dvproject was born. We built it on top of a Microsoft ERP that was called Navision at the time. What obsessed me was that in a single screen we could see the whole project: certifications, invoicing, drill down into costs… to have everything under control.

My responsibility was huge. From day one in the office, with no prior experience from my side, my father delegated sales, purchases, negotiations, finance and accounting to me. He handled planning, execution and quality.

It was an extremely tough period. Especially when he gave me my first big challenge: a real estate project. One day he came and said: —"I've bought a plot with my own money. I want you to develop a project of around 25 single-family houses. And by the way… you pay me back for the land with 9 % interest, as if it were a loan."

I was 21 years old. And of course, in my first meetings with suppliers I kept hearing comments like: —"And how many times have you been on a job site?"

So I decided I was going to learn. In the mornings I worked in the office; in the afternoons I went to the site. I cleaned tiles, cut bricks, picked up debris, measured with my father and brother, carried tools up to the roof… I even learned to walk on the tiles without breaking them. All with one single goal: to understand construction from the inside.

That experience changed me. It forced me to optimise my ERP, to automate processes, to adapt it to the daily reality of construction. My time was limited, so I needed controls. And I learned to manage everything through the system: I wouldn't accept a single piece of data without cross-checking it in the ERP.

I admit I got tough. But it was necessary.

Some people have told me: —"Your father was pretty hard on you, wasn't he?" I always answer the same thing: he trusted me. He gave me the chance. And, without realising it, he was preparing me for turbulent times. And something even more important: he taught me how to make money.

There's no single reason, but a set of principles that have guided us from the start.

Respect for our sector. First towards yourself as a professional, then towards your team and, of course, towards the brand you represent.

Respect for competitors. There's room for everyone, and sometimes collaborating with others makes you stronger.

Passion for the industries we help with our technology. When I see a real estate developer or construction company that is well organised, making money and with a clear direction, I feel real admiration. David, on his side, has a rare quality: he can speak peer-to-peer with a CEO and with the operator in the corner of the plant… and make them both feel important inside the ERP.

Maybe it all comes down to one idea: the secret is our ability to innovate from real industry knowledge.

If we hadn't lived construction and manufacturing first-hand, we would never have understood the customer so well, nor would we have felt part of their world.

And there is one more thing: from the very beginning we have chosen to stay independent, turning down several acquisition offers. We believe that accepting an acquisition means losing the essence of Davisa. We have always bet on continuity, and today we are proud that our children — also computer engineers — work with us.

Because Davisa is much more than a company: it's the passion for what we do, the pride of having started from scratch, and the certainty that we will keep moving forward in our own way, without losing our essence.