From Car Lots to Code: Daniel Peña’s All-In Bet on Tech

Daniel Peña’s story begins with a deceptively simple decision: go all in. From working in automotive sales and picking up shifts in a kitchen he’d never cooked in before, to building full-stack web applications and co-founding a SaaS startup, his path wasn’t linear, but it was intentional.

“From working in kitchens and car dealerships to building full-stack web applications and working on my own SaaS product, all because I decided to go all in.”

The Trade-Off No One Talks About

Before the bootcamp, Daniel was doing well in automotive sales, well enough that walking away wasn’t obvious. “Some months I was making good money,” he admits. But once he enrolled, the schedules clashed and something had to give.

He took a kitchen job to make the hours work. He had never cooked before. “It fit the schedule and that’s what mattered.” That kind of practical resolve, sacrificing short-term comfort for a longer game, became the defining trait of his journey.

What drew him to tech wasn’t hype. It was the rare convergence of passion and possibility: “Technology is one of the few fields where you can create real products and businesses with just your skills and a computer. I wanted to build things, not just sell them.” Miami’s growing tech scene sealed it.

More Than Syntax: Learning to Think Like a Developer

Daniel is quick to point out that the most valuable thing he gained wasn’t a programming language, it was a problem-solving mindset. “I learned how to break down problems, read documentation, and figure things out even when you don’t have the answer right away. That mindset is what I use every day at work.”

That mindset was forged through repetition. Before landing his first job, Daniel had already built multiple tutorial-based projects, completed real-world work through Skillhatch, and shipped several personal projects, completed real-world work through Skillhatch, and shipped several personal projects on his own. When he did enter the workforce, he wasn’t starting from scratch, he was continuing.

But technical skills alone don’t get you hired. That’s where Miami Tech Works, in partnership with 4Geeks Academy, stepped in. Through the program’s wrap-around services, Daniel received one-on-one coaching, a mock interview, and professional resume assistance, all in September 2024, just weeks before his job search went live. The kind of preparation that turns a capable developer into a hireable one.

One Month. One Job Offer. Everything Changed.

One month after graduating, Daniel landed his first developer position. The timeline is striking, not because it was fast, but because of what it represented: every early morning, every evening study session, every financial compromise had a return on it.

“That was the moment it became real. All the early mornings, evening study sessions, and sacrifices actually led somewhere. Plus getting to work remotely was a game changer.”

Full-Stack by Day, Founder by Night

Today, Daniel works at Arvida Labs as a full-stack developer, contributing to a multi-brand B2B e-commerce platform and internal tools. He’s worked on e-commerce platforms, third-party logistics integrations, and custom plugins in real production environments.

But his ambitions extend beyond his day job. Daniel is co-building ScriptLab AI with two partners, a SaaS tool for social media content intelligence. It’s still early, but the significance isn’t lost on him: “It’s exciting to go from learning to code to actually building my own product.”

What He’d Tell Someone Starting Out

Daniel’s advice is short, and hard-won: “Start before you feel ready.” Stay consistent. Use every resource available to you. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. And above all, trust the process even when progress feels slow, because it rarely feels fast until suddenly, it does.

His goals from here are clear: keep growing as a developer, get ScriptLab AI to revenue, and keep building things that work for him long-term. Not just a job, a career. Not just a product, a business.

Daniel Peña’s story is a reminder that in tech, the ingredient that matters most often has nothing to do with code, it’s the willingness to go all in.