Hey, I’m Alexi.

I’m a 19-year-old founder and product engineer in Manila. Most of my work starts from problems I’ve seen up close: student workflows, event operations, fintech dashboards, and teams trying to move faster.

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Life

Coffee, code, cameras, friends.

Small pieces outside the projects.

Camera roll

Origin

The first hook was a picture changing on screen.

I was 7 when I first saw my aunts and uncles working on a Visual Basic project. They had three radio buttons, and clicking one changed a picture on screen. To me, that felt like magic.

My family showed me how to make websites with Wix, so I started making pages about games and toys I liked. Soon after, I made a little web browser called IcyFox. It was basically my Firefox copy, but I made seven versions because each one taught me something.

During the pandemic, The Odin Project helped me understand what I had been copying. I built a calculator, a sketchpad, rock-paper-scissors, and a lot of half-finished things that made the basics stick.

Now I’m at Ateneo studying Computer Science. The work still starts the same way: a messy enlistment week, a grade what-if, a room full of strangers, a receipt nobody wants to split by hand.

Where it started

Why

Two ideas I keep coming back to.

Code for others

Ateneo talks a lot about being a person for others. That clicked for me through software. I like when the work is close to someone’s day: a student planning classes, an org checking people in, a team trying to move a little faster.

The QPI Calculator and Enlistment Helper were small tools, but the thank-yous during finals and enlistment week stuck with me.

We can just do things

If something should exist, I’d rather try making a rough first version than keep talking about it forever.

A lot of attempts are messy or too early, but starting usually teaches me what the next version should be.

Bio

The short version.

Alexi Cañamo is a 19-year-old founder and product engineer in Manila, studying Computer Science at Ateneo de Manila University as a DOST Merit Scholar.

He is currently a software engineer intern at NextPay (YC W21), and is part of StellarPH's PH100 2026, the annual list of the brightest minds under 30 in the Philippines.

He builds software around problems he has seen up close: enlistment, grades, event operations, fintech dashboards, and team workflows.

His work includes Ateneo's QPI Calculator, Enlistment Helper, Hati, and One Big Match, plus projects with Swarm, Bytespace, NextPay, Sip & Scale, Ateneo MISA, TEDxAteneoDeManila, and StartupQC.

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