1. Name, Position and Company
Gonzalo Canales, CEO and Co-founder of OrAIsi Tech, S.L.
2. Tell us about the company you work for. What is its story?
Wow! We’ve only been around for a short time, but it already feels like enough for a book. I’ll try to keep it brief.
It all started from a need, combined with the experience and knowledge I had gained throughout my personal and professional life. When you bring those two together, great ideas can emerge—and that’s exactly what happened. It all began one night during a period of personal reflection and brainstorming about how I could make the most of both my own circumstances and the emergence of disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence.
Then I followed a piece of advice my father-in-law always gives me: “The best idea is worthless if you don’t put it into action.” So that’s exactly what I did. I set out to validate the idea with a technology partner, enrolled in the UMH Startup Marathon, and invested my own modest savings to develop and validate the product.
Just six months after launching, the project started gaining momentum. Awards began to arrive, the company grew, we expanded the team by bringing in people with the technological expertise and experience I lacked, and we became fully independent from our technology partner. That gave us wings—both financially and technologically—allowing us to make a significant leap ahead of existing software solutions, which do not simply replicate the toxicological reasoning of a safety assessor, but actually enhance it.
Over the past few months, we’ve been tested through industry events, award nominations, and startup competitions, and I couldn’t be prouder or more convinced that we are going to transform the industry. We passed every challenge with flying colours.
Our story is still short, but it’s been intense, exciting, and driven by the ambition to build something truly revolutionary that leaves a lasting legacy. I have two personal mottos: “Ora, lege, relege, labora et invenies” and “Good, better, best.” I apply both to my life and to the company. With that mindset, success is simply a matter of time.
3. What does your day-to-day role involve?
My day-to-day is what you would expect in a young company. The team already has clearly defined roles, but I believe a leader must lead by example—with energy, motivation, and determination, because that attitude is contagious.
And, as every entrepreneur knows, in the early stages you have to wear many hats: coordinating, planning, supervising, managing, and making sure everything moves in the same direction.
4. What makes your company different?
I would highlight two factors, which are closely connected.
The first is the software itself. We’ve integrated artificial intelligence and technology in a way that breaks many of the taboos surrounding its use within highly regulated environments. Rather than replacing the safety assessor’s expertise, our solution enhances professional judgement while maintaining a robust, defensible, and fully auditable dossier, reducing preparation times by up to 90%.
The second is the team behind it. Our greatest strength lies in bringing together two very different worlds: cosmetic formulation and regulatory expertise on one side, and technology on the other. It’s rare to find professionals from such different backgrounds working so closely on a shared vision. That unique combination is what drives our innovation and gives our software its distinctive value.
5. What challenges do you think you will face over the coming years?
The biggest challenge comes once a company begins to establish itself: growing, scaling, and ultimately becoming a benchmark in both the beauty industry and artificial intelligence.
We’re an ambitious, passionate team with a genuine desire to build something meaningful. We have a roadmap full of innovative challenges of varying complexity, and we’re determined to achieve every one of them.
6. What does being part of the Beauty Cluster bring to your company and to you personally?
I don’t really separate what it brings to the company from what it brings to me personally, because in both cases the benefits are the same.
Being part of the Beauty Cluster gives us visibility and valuable connections, and ultimately, those relationships are what enable companies to grow and create new opportunities.
7. Returning to you, how did you enter the beauty industry?
It happened almost by chance. It wasn’t something I had originally planned.
Fourteen years ago, I founded my own contract compounding laboratory, which today provides services to more than 600 pharmacies. When I first started, I had spare time during the working day, so I decided to offer personalised cosmetic formulation services, an area I had already trained in while working in Madrid with two people I consider my mentors in pharmaceutical formulation, Santiago Lastres and Rafa Aguilar.
The success of that service encouraged me to take the next step by creating a cosmetic manufacturing laboratory, and that’s where my journey into the beauty industry truly began.
8. Speaking of “beauty,” how would you define it?
Beauty is a concept without a single universal standard. It can refer to both the physical and the intangible.
For me, beauty is about feeling comfortable with yourself. It lies in authenticity and in taking care of it. Individuality is beautiful.
9. Do you have any hobbies, hidden talents, or passions you’d like to share?
No superpowers—I’m a very down-to-earth person, with my strengths and my flaws. That said, I do my very best every day to be a super dad.
I enjoy sports, although unfortunately I have much less time for them than I’d like. Luckily, my children make sure I stay fit. You could say they’ve invented a new discipline that combines Hyrox, refereeing, Krav Maga, and self-defence. I highly recommend it—I can assure you more than one professional CrossFit athlete wouldn’t last very long!
And I can’t finish without mentioning my passion for Elche CF. I’m a loyal supporter… and, inevitably, a long-suffering one.
10. What’s the last book you’ve read or film you’ve watched?
The last film I watched was Toy Story 5 (which probably makes perfect sense in the context of this interview).
As for books, I have to admit I’m not much of a recreational reader. My day-to-day already involves reading plenty of scientific papers, technical articles, and educational books, so perhaps because of that—or simply because it’s not something I’m naturally drawn to—I rarely spend my free time reading for leisure.
11. Business is based on…
For me, business is built on a combination of courage, hard work, talent, experience, integrity, people skills, vision, passion, and resourcefulness.
