Medellin.co
The largest resource hub for Medellín, Colombia — built because the information simply did not exist in one place.
- Type
- SaaS / Media
- Timeline
- 2020 — present
- Role
- Founder — product, engineering, SEO, partnerships
- Live
- medellin.co
- @medellin.co
Gallery
The problem
Medellín has a large and growing population of tourists and expats, and almost no reliable central resource written for them. Information was scattered across outdated blogs, closed Facebook groups, and word of mouth.
The domain had recently been released by the city. I negotiated with the owner and acquired it in October 2022.
What it does
A content platform with an AI layer on top. Visitors ask questions in natural language and get answers grounded in the site's own content rather than a general-purpose model's guesses — retrieval-augmented generation over an embedded corpus of everything the site knows.
Beyond content, it integrates directly with local systems: a path for users to file criminal reports with law enforcement, and Stripe checkout for advertisers.
Engineering notes
- Chatbot on an OpenAI LLM with a Zilliz vector database and OpenAI embeddings
- Custom PHP integrating directly with TikTok and Instagram
- Custom WordPress build using Elementor and Crocoblock
- Overseas team managed on design and development
Result
The largest resource hub for the city, used by locals, expats, and tourists before they arrive. 200+ pages optimised, roughly 70% ranking on page one, and domain authority grown from 10 to 30.
Skills applied
Engineering
- Custom PHP
- Third-party integrations
- Payment systems
AI
- RAG
- Vector search
- Embeddings
- Chatbot design
Marketing
- Technical SEO
- Content strategy
- Link building
Leadership
- Managing an overseas team
- Partnerships & advertising sales
Built with
- WordPress
- Custom PHP
- OpenAI
- Zilliz
- Stripe