From Equipment on the Street in Full Lockdown to Building AI Agents in Patagonia

Winter, 2020. Full lockdown. Outside the lab, on the sidewalk of Puerto Natales, there were molecular biology instruments worth millions of pesos.

We couldn’t get them inside.

The lab was on the second floor. The streets were empty. No cranes available. No clear timeline for when any of that would change.

We left them outside, protected as best we could, for nearly a month. Patagonian winter: cold, wind, rain. When we finally got a crane, we lifted them up. When the Ministry of Health validated the lab, Biohealth became the first private molecular biology laboratory authorized to run PCR tests in the entire Magallanes region.

In Punta Arenas, the regional capital, their equipment arrived two to three months later.

I’m not telling this to impress anyone. I’m telling it because that episode captures exactly how I think about problems: if there’s no obvious path, you build one.

Twelve Years Before Writing Code

I arrived in Puerto Natales in 2011 as a Medical Technologist. Public hospital, southern Chile. There I learned something no bootcamp teaches: in medicine, systems cannot fail. There’s no room for “we’ll look at it tomorrow.” There are patients waiting for results.

That context changes how you think about technology. Not as a pretty tool — as a responsibility.

In 2015, while still working in the public system, I founded Biohealth: the first high-tech private clinical lab in Puerto Natales. SERCOTEC and CORFO funding, a team built from scratch, infrastructure assembled without a manual. Just a clear problem and the drive to solve it properly.

Softmedic: When the Problem Became Code

In 2017, I saw the same problem from a different angle. Clinical records were a mess. Medical supply sales had no integration with clinical workflows. The lab operated in silos.

That’s how Softmedic came to be: a platform integrating medical supply sales, clinical records and laboratory management in a single system. It wasn’t a whiteboard idea — it was the direct response to a problem I had lived from the inside for years.

Two founders, two hired staff, one CORFO grant. Real product, real clients.

In 2020 the pandemic closed the project. The market contracted and Softmedic didn’t survive. The skills did.

The Synthesis

Between 2022 and 2024 I served as Municipal Administrator at the Municipalidad de Natales. Running a municipality means managing complex systems: people, budgets, processes, technology, politics — all at once.

In 2024, with Macarena Alegría, we opened Estepa Patagónica: six cabins in Puerto Natales. The first AI agent I built for a real problem was Huillín, the booking bot that handles availability, payments and guest communication via WhatsApp, completely autonomously.

That’s when everything clicked.

Why This Matters If You’re Thinking of Working With Me

I don’t build tools. I build solutions to problems I understand.

I come from healthcare, where systems cannot fail. I come from building businesses with public funding and personal money, under real pressure. I come from managing complex organizations in one of the most isolated cities on the planet.

When I say an AI agent can solve an operational problem, I’m not saying it from theory. I’m saying it because I’ve had to solve real operational problems, with limited resources and no safety net.

That’s what I bring to every project.

If you’re building something and think AI can help, let’s talk on WhatsApp or find me on X as @marioHealthBits.