Mic&Pose: the edtech turning every sales conversation into data and training
Mic&Pose turns every sales conversation into actionable data. Its founder shares how the IFE Accelerator fueled its pivot, its first global client, and its investment round.
Monterrey, Mexico — What if every interaction between a salesperson and a customer became actionable business intelligence? That’s the bet behind Mic&Pose, the startup founded by Colombian entrepreneur Valentina Salazar that is building retail’s conversational layer: a solution that captures in-store conversations to train salespeople and gather valuable customer data, generating returns of up to 8.8X for businesses.
How does Mic&Pose work?
The solution combines hardware and software. A small magnetic pin with a microphone, the Mic&Pin, captures salespeople’s interactions, while the platform processes them and connects them with the company’s systems, such as its point-of-sale CRM. With this information, salespeople earn points tied to their commission for carrying out key behaviors: greeting customers, showing them several products, inviting them to join the loyalty program, or making a cross-sell.
“Salespeople earn points based on what they do in the store—not in an app, but in real life. We believe that’s the most disruptive part,” Salazar explained. “It’s a real-life video game, with no controllers or screens.”
The pivot that took shape inside the IFE Accelerator
Mic&Pose joined the IFE Accelerator, the Edtech acceleration program run by the Institute for the Future of Education at Tecnológico de Monterrey, with a different product: a platform where salespeople practiced with AI-simulated customers. It had clients such as Cueros Vélez, Protección, and Falabella, but they all agreed on one thing: salespeople didn’t have time to train outside of work.
The change in direction took shape within the program. “The Tec’s innovation director explained that there’s a first layer, which is the content; a second, which is the technology; and a third, which is how it integrates with the rest of the ecosystem. We realized that the third layer didn’t make sense for the organization. That explanation helped us understand that the pivot was about changing how people are trained,” the founder said.
The result: a solution where there’s no longer any difference between training and working.
Another important outcome during the IFE Accelerator was the interest of a global sporting goods retailer. After 3 months of discussions, Mic&Pose has signed a 3-month pilot with the potential to scale to a contract covering 4,000 people in 7 LATAM countries.
Learn more about the IFE Accelerator here, or connect with César Sánchez, the program manager, on LinkedIn or by email: cesar.sanchez@tec.mx
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The IFE experience: ecosystem, community, and care for education founders
Beyond the connections, Salazar highlights the value of a program 100% specializing in Edtech: startups in the cohort working with similar budgets, real-world market pricing benchmarks, and a guide to which companies actually pay for training solutions. “That’s the kind of overview you can’t find online or anywhere else,” she noted.
The program also provided direct access to Monterrey’s business ecosystem, home to giants such as Cemex and FEMSA, sparking sales conversations that are still ongoing today. This was complemented by the comprehensive support the IFE provides its startups: lodging, meals, international mentors, specialized workshops such as the metrics session held after the pitches, and the opportunity to present to the most prominent VCs in the EdTech ecosystem at the IFE Conference. “It was like having the entire EdTech ecosystem in one place, which is very rare. Getting to meet them face to face in Mexico was incredible,” Salazar said.
Learn more about the IFE Accelerator 2026 and apply before October 26, 2026.
The future of retail and Mic&Pose
Mic&Pose’s vision points to the future of retail in 2030. “When you walk into a store, they’ll say, ‘Hi, how are you?’ because they’ll recognize your voice. ‘You bought these shoes last time—how about I show you these?’” Salazar said.
Behind that vision is a philosophy about how future generations will learn. “A child tries to climb a tree, falls, gets hurt, and doesn’t climb it again. They didn’t have to read in a book that it was a bad idea,” the founder explained. “That’s the concept we’re bringing to life: everything is implicit; you learn by doing. We believe that’s the future of education. We see ourselves moving with the future of retail.”
