Meet Alfonso Cobo | Entrepreneur

We had the good fortune of connecting with Alfonso Cobo and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Alfonso, is there something that you feel is most responsible for your success?
The most important factor behind my success is building from genuine curiosity, not numbers first.

Everything I’ve created started as something I personally wanted. Unfold came from how I wanted to tell stories on social media. Hypelist came from how fragmented my taste felt, with my favorite things always scattered across different apps. Olivar came from the kind of physical spaces I wanted to exist in. None of it was engineered to fit a market trend. It was an extension of how I live.

That authenticity compounds. When you build from real obsession and real taste, people feel it. They connect with it because it’s not manufactured positioning. It’s consistent and personal. The brand is not separate from me. It’s a scaled version of my perspective and my experiences in life.

Another key factor is taste as discipline. I’ve always been obsessed with design, curation, emotional detail. That focus creates coherence across everything I touch.

And finally, proximity to inspiring people. I’ve intentionally surrounded myself with people who are better than me in different ways. Maybe creatively sharper or operationally stronger. Maybe more experienced. That keeps me evolving and prevents stagnation.

What should our readers know about your business?
I moved to the U.S. as a broke student with a big obsession for design and the internet. I didn’t come from money or connections, I just had this constant urge to build the things I wished existed.

Everything I’ve done, from my first app Unfold to the current one Hypelist, started that way. I felt how fragmented our taste had become, screenshots, DMs, random notes, and I wanted to create a space where your recommendations and identity could actually live in one place. Always design first. Always emotional first.

It definitely wasn’t easy. There were financial pressures, rejections, moments where I questioned everything. The American dream sounds shiny, but most of it is long nights and resilience. What kept me going was building from something real. I was never chasing the money. I was chasing a feeling.

New York gave me the hunger and opened my eyes to what was possible. LA gave me the balance I needed. Both shaped how I think about culture and creativity. I’m most proud that even as we’ve grown, the brand still feels like an extension of me. It’s personal. It’s intentional. And I’m still building it the same way I started, with curiosity and conviction!

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
You can honestly just open my Los Angeles list on Hypelist and follow that, but if my best friend was in town for a week, this is how I’d do it 🙂

First, we’d lean into the neighborhoods. LA isn’t really about checking landmarks, but experiencing the lifestyle and energy of each area.

Mornings would start in Koreatown. I love the coffee scene there, it feels creative and low key. Van Dyke Coffee is a favorite, and so is Out of Ordi. You get that mix of design forward space and people working on interesting things.

Downtown is next. I’d take them to Idyllic or Maru for coffee, then wander around the shops nearby like Bodega and Hennessey + Ingalls bookstore. That area feels very LA to me, fashion, art, architecture all colliding.

In Los Feliz, we’d stop at Kettl for matcha. It’s calm, intentional, almost meditative. Then maybe walk around the neighborhood before dinner.

For food, I’d keep it personal. Bulan Thai in Silver Lake is one of my comfort spots. Casa Leo in Los Feliz has this Northern Spain influence that feels close to home for me. And if they’re down for something iconic, I’d take them to Thai Town for roasted duck. Some of the best Thai food in the city is hiding there.

During the week, we’d mix in walks. The Hollywood Reservoir is perfect around sunset. And Little Tokyo is great to wander through, especially if you want that layered cultural energy LA does so well.

For me, the most exciting part of LA isn’t just the places. It’s the mix of creative people everywhere. You can be in a tiny coffee shop and the person next to you is building a brand, directing a film, launching a startup. That intersection of ambition and aesthetics is what makes the city fun.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I’d actually shout out iJustine, an LA-based tech content creator (actually the OG!). Watching her in the early YouTube era made tech feel creative and human to me. She’s the reason I opened my first Twitter and Instagram accounts and started experimenting with content. We’ve never met, but that spark pushed me toward building and sharing online, and that changed everything, leading to create the tech platforms that ended up changing my life.

Website: https://hypelist.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cobo

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alfonsocobo/

Image Credits
For the picture of me: Jack Juliar

All other promotional imagery is from @hypelist