Most people consider coastal cities or large, booming metropolitan areas like Denver or Austin to be innovation hubs.
Yet, as one of this year's Inno Under 25 honorees put it, "capital is everywhere." It just takes a dedicated support network to turn an idea into a reality.
Each year, Albuquerque Business First and New Mexico Inno look for young startup founders, entrepreneurs and people who are doing their part to advance the state's economy. After a call for nominations from the public, the editorial team then reviewed nominee applications and selected four individuals as part of this year's Inno Under 25 group. To qualify, those selected had to be 25 years old or younger.
From building a video game to shaping a brand identity to educating the next generation of gamers to developing kitchenware, these four people are driven to innovate. And they are doing it, right here, in New Mexico.
Today, meet Isabel Last, our final honoree.
Learning a new language can be tedious, and at times, a frustrating endeavor. Isabel Last wants to make that process better.
Last is leading the development of a video game called Faena. It's an immersive, voice-recognition Spanish-language-learning game that Last and her four-person development team are building from the ground up. Players learn Spanish in real-time while using their voices to navigate the game.
It's a story-based game, Last said, so players learn the language by participating in real-world scenarios while working toward an end goal. Players are also able to progress at their own pace.
Last believes Faena could be a "true paradigm shift" in language learning.
"Language learning has been long overdue for something truly different," she said.
Faena is currently in its pre-revenue, pre-user stage. Last plans to have a demo version of the game ready to show prospective investors in the next couple of weeks. She said she has already had initial conversations with potential investors in New Mexico and California.
Last came to New Mexico from Baltimore to earn a master's degree in Hispanic linguistics from the University of New Mexico. She was teaching Spanish while working on her master's, but she left the program in February to work on Faena full-time.
After the demo and a Series A funding round, Last plans to launch the game. Eventually, she said, she hopes to see the game used in an academic setting, to fill gaps in education left when there are teacher shortages or a lack of resources.
If that occurs, Faena could meet a real-world problem, Last said.
"People are really pushing people to innovate just for the sake of innovation, instead of genuinely looking for problems to solve," Last said.
Ultimately, Last wants to make people feel like they're taking part in a story while learning Spanish along the way.
"We're not just trying to imitate reality," Last said. "We're trying to romanticize it, too."
