About
I'm Sebastián Delsalto, Sebdel. Entrepreneur, father of three and citizen of the world. This is my digital book: how I got here, year by year, with the wins and the falls too. I'll keep writing it.
Everything you are about to read started with a vision and nothing else. I didn't inherit a company or a team: I learned each trade when I needed it, almost always by doing it and often by getting it wrong first. I went from charging 50 dollars for the music at a party to founding Daleki Global, a holding of companies that run largely on AI agents. Today I'm the developer of their platforms and the CEO of all of them.
One phrase guides me and I repeat it often: Don't talk about it, be about it. Actions speak louder than words, and they're what builds credibility. That's why this book tells what I did, the wins and the falls, because in life it doesn't matter how you fall: it matters how you get back up. If anything I lived helps you believe it can be done, it has done its job.
Year by year
I was born in Boston on 27 March 1986. At the age of 2 I arrived in Ecuador and was raised there, in Quito. My heart belongs to both countries, and I think that first move prepared me for something that would happen again and again: starting over somewhere new.
I was 7 when my mother took me to buy CDs at a small shop in Quito. I picked one almost at random. I had no idea it was a compilation of European hits, let alone that it would shape my life. Back then, listening to electronic music in Ecuador was about as alternative as it got, and it hooked me with its sounds and its essence. The song that sealed it was "Hey Boy Hey Girl" by The Chemical Brothers.
From then on, the best present my parents could give me was a CD, and if it was electronic music, even better. Birthday after birthday I built a collection. I didn't know it, but I was building my first asset.
At 12, that collection put me in front of my first real challenge. I liked a girl, she was throwing a party, and when the chance came to play the music I said yes before thinking it through. I had the records. What I didn't have was the equipment, or the slightest idea how to be a DJ, and that kept me up at night until I found a way.
The answer came from where I least expected it: my mother's driver. He helped me rent the equipment and ended up being my first DJ teacher. The night went well. I made a good impression on the girl I liked and charged 50 dollars for the music. It was my first sale and my first success story, and it left me a lesson I still use: a challenge you don't know how to solve is just a problem you haven't taken apart yet.
With my lifelong friends Esteban, Felipe and Martín, I formed a DJ crew. We played our friends' parties, my school, Academia Cotopaxi, and theirs, Colegio Menor. Bookings started coming in and little by little people got to know us. Whatever we earned went on Burger King after the party. A burger is still one of my favourite meals, and going out for a good cheeseburger with my children is one of my favourite moments today.
They were a year older than me. When they graduated I put together another crew, and with it we reached Quito's clubs: we played Elysium, the club of the moment, and later others like Futbol News and Rumba Café. I loved nights out because they were time shared with friends, a place where people came together through music.
At 16 I moved to Switzerland, to a boarding school in Lausanne: Brillantmont. That's where I went to my first music festival, in the middle of the snow. I saw DJs live and fell for all of it: the sound, the atmosphere, the way thousands of strangers connected through music. There was love, there was unity. From that day on I wanted to live many more festivals.
In 2003 Daniele, my first son, was born. I was 17. I became a father very young and didn't marry his mother, and I won't pretend it was an easy road. What I can say is that over the years we built a beautiful relationship. Today Daniele is 23, he's a pilot, and being his dad is one of the greatest gifts of my life.
At 18 I moved to Buenos Aires for a year. There I saw The Chemical Brothers live for the first time, the band that had made me fall in love as a kid. To me, the best music fans in the world are in Argentina, and the nights at Pacha Buenos Aires were spectacular. I saw Deep Dish, I saw The White Stripes, and "Seven Nation Army" is still the song that defined my youth. I admit I studied little and lived a lot.
I went back to Ecuador and studied for a semester. My parents could see I still hadn't found my rhythm at university and asked me to go out and work. I became a salesman at Almacenes Japón. I didn't earn much, but I beat my sales targets and earned the bonus. That's where I learned to sell, and I'm grateful for it as one of the most important stages of my life.
In the end I went back to Boston, the city where I was born, to study business management at Mount Ida College, a small university. This time I did well in every class. I worked too: first as a salesman at Abercrombie & Fitch, where I found out fashion wasn't for me, and neither was working behind a counter. Then I sold real estate, renting apartments to students, and that taught me a great deal about sales.
That year, at 20, I started the routine I keep to this day: sport six days a week. And in Boston I lived music on another level: I saw U2, The Strokes, The Killers and Red Hot Chili Peppers, and I started playing again, now focused on electronic music.
In my final year of university I lived in a house on Etna Street with Ricky, one of my best childhood friends, and with Ronnie. In the basement we built a mini club and named it Rock Da House: in English it's spelled "Rock the House", but we swapped the TH for DA to make it ours. We threw parties all the time.
That's where I learned something I still apply in business: every idea needs a plan, and every plan needs solutions. Our problem was how to pay for the drinks to look after our guests. The solution was to sell four tables, at 400 dollars each, to friends who wanted the comfort of their own space at the party. Those 1,600 dollars covered all the liquor and drinks, and we gave an incredible experience to more than 500 people who came to our house.
Without realising it I had built my first complete business model: what a few paid funded the experience for everyone. That mindset of finding solutions and understanding how to sell an experience is what later led me to produce events. Around the same time I launched my DJ career in earnest as Bastian D.
I graduated and moved to New York. From that day on I never worked for anyone else again: I always invested in my own path, and I know how fortunate I was to be able to. I enrolled at Dubspot, an electronic music production school, and met producers who taught me to produce and who I collaborated with. It was the moment when a DJ had to produce to grow their brand, and I had a dream.
Over the years I got to open the stage in Ecuador for names like David Guetta, Hardwell, Steve Aoki and Justin Bieber, and produced songs that are on Spotify and YouTube today under the Sebdel name. That stage left me with the habit of investing in myself and in what I love, and with an idea I still hold: a community that sees itself in you is worth more than any product you sell it.
After two years in New York I spent one in Miami, working at an electronic music events company and learning how that industry works from the inside. I came back to Quito, saw an opportunity and decided to start something of my own. In December 2012 I incorporated Dancing Shoes, an events company.
We kicked off with LUVRUN5K: Love, Unity, Voice. The idea was a beautiful recreational experience that got young people involved in their community's causes. Half of the sales went to five foundations, among them Techo para mi País, Protección Animal Ecuador and Centro del Muchacho Trabajador.
For that race I brought MTV International to produce an event in Ecuador for the first time. Under its MTV Agentes de Cambio concept, the deal brought a million dollars of media worldwide. The first edition drew more than 10,000 runners and four more editions followed. We worked with some of the country's biggest business groups, like Grupo Danec, Grupo DK and Roland, and with brands like Nestlé and Funky Fish. Later Huawei came in as official sponsor and funded most of the following editions. It was the first time I raised a sponsorship that size, and it is still one of the things I'm proudest of.
For the 2014 World Cup in Brazil we put on Fútbol al Parque, a free World Cup fan fest in Quito's Parque La Carolina. We showed Ecuador's three matches there, building on Gama TV's broadcast rights, with sponsors like Pinturas Cóndor, Claro, Grupo Danec and Funky Fish, and more than 30,000 people. I spent five years producing events, and that was one of their biggest moments.
With Dancing Shoes we also brought over and created concerts with a party atmosphere for some of my favourite urban music artists: Bomba Estéreo from Colombia, Plastilina Mosh from Mexico, and Ecuador's own Guanaco and Swing Original Monks, among others. Watching people sing and dance with artists I used to play at home was one of the best things that stage gave me.
At 30 I met Daniele Salvador. When we started dating we moved to Bogotá together, and that city joined my map. Life gave me the chance to find a beautiful wife, whom I love and am deeply proud of. She is the founder of Vinew. We are two entrepreneur parents under one roof, and we both believe entrepreneurship is the road to freedom.
Events gave me enormous joy and also taught me their limits. They don't answer a constant need for companies: they depend on how the country's economy is doing, and they're the first thing cut in a crisis. Marketing, on the other hand, is always needed. I wanted a stable company, so in January 2017 I took Dancing Shoes into marketing and advertising, and that same month it became Wingman.
I was Rappi's agency when it entered Ecuador and worked with Grupo Moderna, Grupo Danec and other clients on one-off projects. Then I saw that Grupo Danec had a serious vision for growth, and I designed a full-service in-house agency model for them. That decision gave me the stability I was looking for and let me grow year after year alongside the whole group. Today that work weighs more than fifteen clients put together, and I learned that less is more: I'd rather stay loyal to one large group than split myself across many fronts where I wouldn't give my best.
Wingman has billed more than a million dollars a year for over five years; last year it reached 1.6 million. I'm deeply grateful to Grupo Danec: it is the most important client of my career. What moves me most about Wingman is community building: creating digital communities that last, with content that gives something back, so people feel an affinity for a brand and that affinity turns into business. Today Wingman works with artificial intelligence too.
“The way he thinks is always a step ahead, with distinctive ideas that break with convention.”
From the moment I met Daniele in 2016 I knew I had found the love of my life. On 25 May 2018 we had our civil wedding in Miami, and it was one of the happiest days of my life.
In 2019 we celebrated our church wedding in Marbella with the people we love. It was a beautiful celebration. Today I'm happily married and together we've built a beautiful family: Alessio arrived in 2020 and Kiana in 2022.
Stability gave me something I didn't have before: the time and headspace to look at other things. That's how I got into crypto in 2020. I fell for the idea of taking part in a growing digital economy, and above all for Bitcoin, which to me democratised the opportunity to invest: anyone, in any country, can protect their savings when a government prints money and erodes their purchasing power.
I believe financial education is one of the most important things in a person's life. Investing in assets that appreciate without depending on your time is how you build wealth without being tied to your hours. But you have to study the asset, understand it, believe in it and hold high conviction, especially in crypto, because of its volatility. In the 2022 crash my portfolio lost more than 60% and I didn't sell. In 2023 it recovered in full. That's where I learned that failure held with discipline also builds.
“A great entrepreneur: visionary and forward-thinking.”
I had my first forum in YNG, the program of YPO, the Young Presidents' Organization, for its members' children. That's where I understood the power of sitting with peers and speaking with complete honesty about life, family and business.
In 2018 I was invited to Entrepreneurs' Organization and couldn't get in: my revenue still fell short of the million dollars the membership requires. I made that rejection a target and got in in 2021. I've now been in EO for five years. Two of them I served on the board: one as director of GSEA, the program that recognizes the country's most outstanding young entrepreneurs, and one as director of events. For a year I was a coach at EO Accelerator, supporting entrepreneurs still billing under a million dollars. The program's roadmap was the book Scaling Up, and that methodology also helped me put my own companies in order. Today I'm part of EO Ambassadors 2026-2027, the program that trains EO members to strengthen their personal brand and be EO's ambassadors in the media.
I've been in EO forums for five years and have been part of two. That space has boosted my personal, family and professional growth like few things in my life. I believe every entrepreneur needs great mentors, a hunger to learn and a place at the leading edge so their company doesn't become obsolete. Traditional businesses have never drawn me; I'd rather look ahead and lean on technology to scale. I see myself as an entrepreneur of disruptive innovation, someone uneasy with what's comfortable.
“Strategic vision, and a rare ability to drive high-impact projects.”
In April 2022 I went to the Bitcoin Conference in Miami, and there was a before and an after. Seeing thousands of people building on the same idea confirmed that crypto was going to make the financial system work better and open huge opportunities in the digital economy, through disruptive innovation. I left determined to focus, day after day, on investing in the opportunities that could make me grow as an investor and as a fund manager.
After the conference I got into Blockchain 2022, an exclusive gathering Michael Terpin holds in Miami for the entrepreneurs he invests in. Hearing how the industry's leaders thought opened my mind again, and that's where I built a network that still feeds what I know and how I grow in crypto.
A month later, on 10 May 2022, the Arco agency invited me to Puerto Rico to give a talk on the potential of crypto to representatives of the Government of Puerto Rico and business leaders from the island, at a gathering with Invest Puerto Rico. I shared the stage with Michael Terpin, one of the most influential pioneer investors in crypto.
That year was the engine behind Green Numbers, my first private fund management company, which I founded with Andrés Navarro, one of my best friends. He came from years of stock market trading and I brought what I knew about crypto. In time we each chose our path: he stayed with his family's company, alongside his sister, and I wanted to go further with digital assets. Thank God our friendship came through intact; we're still best friends, and that stage made us both grow. Green Numbers is now in an orderly wind-down.
That's how I founded Daleki Capital, where today I manage more than 600,000 dollars in digital assets with written rules and every risk disclosed. Digital assets can lose much of their value. I believe Bitcoin and other digital assets will be the rails for transactions between agents, and that there is enormous growth ahead there.
In June 2023 I started making content about crypto under my own name. Having a community forced me to research until I understood each topic well enough to explain it, and that discipline made me an expert more than any degree. For a while I stopped posting because the companies took all my time. In 2026 I decided not to wait any longer and started communicating again: I tell my story, help others and share what I test while building businesses with AI, because when you teach, you learn too.
In September 2024 Forbes Ecuador invited me onto its podcast to talk about cryptocurrencies because of my experience in the field: what they are, what investment opportunities they open and how to think about how much to put into them. It was an important moment in my journey. Years of studying each asset and holding my convictions through the drops ended in a conversation anyone can now listen to.
Listen to the episode on Forbes Ecuador: «¿En qué criptomonedas invertir y cuánto?» (opens in a new tab)On 11 August 2025 my father passed away. He left us many of his journals, and in one of them was a vision he had written down: to create a merch company.
Today that vision lives in Daleki Merch, a Daleki Global company. We make corporate merch in Quito for all of Ecuador, and every client tries their logo in 3D before getting a quote. My father is no longer with us, but Daleki Merch is part of the legacy he left me, and every order that goes out means something very special to me.
Born hereDaleki MerchI programd Vinew, Doctor IESS and the whole Daleki Global system myself. Today my companies run a largely agentic operation: agents do most of the daily work and I govern from the boardroom, with the vision and the decisions about what to build. I believe that operation will one day be fully agentic. I work with specialized providers instead of building large traditional teams, and I run each company as its provider, not from the payroll.
I believe agents will be the operating team of the companies of the future, and that people will be their board: the ones who set the vision and decide what to build together. That gives enormous power to entrepreneurs and visionaries. A vision used to need a lot of capital to flourish. Today one person can carry it out with an agentic team, and I believe we'll see unicorns run day to day by agents.
I also know what that means for anyone who depends on an operational role: that role will have to evolve, or it may run out of opportunities. That's why the human side of work matters so much to me. I believe in leadership that backs people and treats them well, so they can be their best and feel someone has their back.
“His expertise in crypto, AI and community building runs deep.”
Daleki Global is my holding, and its line sums it up: we build, launch and govern the companies that run the future. The name Daleki comes from my three children, Daniele, Alessio and Kiana, and I chose it so it reminds me every day who I work for. Daleki Lab exists because I believe in AI as an ally for developing processes, platforms and opportunities; its motto, "If you can dream it, we can build it", is literal today. Daleki Capital came from my conviction in crypto. Daleki Trade came from a need: my merch business imports from China and Panama, and constant foreign trade showed me how many opportunities there are in bringing to Ecuador what works abroad and taking abroad what is made here. Daleki Gaming is the newest: a 3D educational video game studio for kids aged 6 to 12, played in the browser and running on a platform built by Daleki Lab. And Daleki Merch turns the vision my father left in writing into corporate merch with your logo, which you see in 3D before getting a quote.
Daleki Art reminds me of my mother. She took me to museums from when I was a child, and the place where our tastes meet is conceptual art. Creating this brand with her has been a beautiful journey: for her it is a legacy for her grandchildren, and for me, for my children.
With partners I build Wingman, because I believe in communities: they're what turn a brand into something people feel is theirs. And I believe in personalisation, because the next generations will choose products made to their taste that give them an identity of their own; that's why Daleki Merch is part of the family.
Born hereDaleki GlobalMy philosophy
One phrase stays with me: ego is your enemy. Every prudent, positive decision is made with humility, and every bad decision is made with ego. So when a challenge shows up, the key is to look for solutions, not to be right: with a solution both sides win; with being right both sides lose.
I'd rather act than talk. Actions speak louder than words, and they're what builds credibility. That's why I tell what I did and show how I decide, instead of promising what I'm going to do.
I love win-win opportunities. I believe they're the ones worth developing or building: when there's mutual benefit and synergy, the odds of success grow. That's how my partnerships were born, and it's how I weigh every new proposal.
Communities have existed as long as humanity has, and each one evolves with what it lives through. Today is no different. I believe community building is immensely powerful anywhere: a company, a family, a group of friends. When you're surrounded by communities that push you to be better, that lift you and let you both help and be helped, a very strong core forms where opportunities for business, knowledge and solidarity are born. It feeds the soul.
I lived it at every stage. I learned from the music community, from events, marketing, crypto and AI, and I tried to give something back to each one, even by making content for my own. When someone creates or belongs to a community, growth opportunities open up that they wouldn't find alone.
I had the privilege of studying at good schools, at university and at a music production school, and I'm grateful for everything I lived there. But in my career my best school has been YouTube. To me it's the biggest digital school in the world: you learn what you truly want to learn, not what others think you should, and you choose your teacher among the creators you identify with.
In crypto, my school was YouTube. In AI, too. Every day I watch educational content to be a better professional, a better person and a better father, and I think that routine is one of the reasons I've stayed at the leading edge.
That road to freedom has many challenges. It isn't easy, you make plenty of mistakes, and the key is to learn from them. In my philosophy it isn't wrong to make a mistake; it's wrong to repeat it, because that means you didn't learn the lesson the first time. If you learn it, every mistake makes you better.
I believe in empowering people. I believe people deserve to fight for their freedom and live life the way they want to live it. I believe in freedom of expression, in building as a team and in the idea that, whatever you have or achieve, you should always stay humble: never think you're better than anyone, just believe in yourself so you can be better every day.
Along the way there have been failures, pain and challenges that never show up on a list of achievements. I've also faced mental health challenges throughout my life, and I'm not ashamed to say it: I believe deeply in therapy. Working with psychologists and coaches has been fantastic for overcoming them and for growing as a person, a father and an entrepreneur.
Thank God I always saw each challenge as a chance to grow, learn and evolve. I've never let one stop me. I don't work for what others say; I work for what I believe. I believe in myself, with humility, and I believe hard work always brings light at the end of the tunnel when you stay true to your mission and stay consistent.
Since I was 20 I've done sport six days a week; only on Sundays do I rest my body. I get up at five in the morning, practise gratitude, pray and train for an hour. That routine is my daily proof of discipline with myself, and discipline is built like that: with conviction, over time.
I eat healthily during the week, allow myself treats at the weekend and I'm not a fan of sugar. I love connecting with nature and grounding, and my hobby today is golf, a great sport for connecting with people and switching off from so many distractions. I believe punctuality, formality, structure and discipline are the best tools for reaching a goal. When I commit to something, I really commit. I'm not afraid of work because I've never worked on something I wasn't passionate about.
I'm Catholic and I practise gratitude every day. I believe the only perfect thing in this world is God, and that's why I don't chase perfection: I chase excellence.
I believe each of us is responsible for our own success. It isn't fair to blame others for a failure, or to take all the credit for a success, and failure is part of the path.
I'm a family man and a present father: I like to take part in my children's activities and share my hobbies with them. My wife, Daniele Salvador, is the founder of Vinew. Yes, she has the same name as my eldest son: he is Daniele in Italian and she is Daniele in French. Alessio and Kiana are our children, and Daniele, my firstborn, completes the family. I love being the father of all three; they are my greatest inspiration. We are a happy family, blessed and grateful for the opportunities we've had.
Thank God, life has blessed me with the chance to see a great part of the world. Every city I lived in taught me to adapt, to start from zero and to see opportunities you can't see from a single place. Every trip reminded me how small I am and how big the things we can build are.
My music
Music was my first business and is still part of who I am. I produced as Sebdel; before that I played as Bastian D.
What comes next
Looking back, it all connects: the CD I picked with my mother, the 50 dollars from my first party, the cities where I started from zero, the basement on Etna Street, the race with MTV, the client who trusted me, the crash I rode out without selling. Each stage taught me to see an opportunity where others saw a risk.
I believe this is the best time to build in the digital economy. And I believe the world will change more in the coming decades than in the last century: autonomous cities, robots working beside us, a humanity living on more than one planet. Those who lay those foundations today will matter tomorrow. I want to be building that future, not watching it from the outside. If you believe in what you do and put in the work, the effort and the will, it can be done.
Nothing I publish here includes a figure I couldn't stand behind if someone asked me for the detail.
Sebdel AI
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