Don Pickens

Founder & Owner of Milagro Properties LLC

A little bit about Don…

Donald R Pickens is the founder and 100% owner of Milagro Properties LLC, which operates the Casa Cupula Boutique Hotel in Puerto Vallarta Mexico. He has undergraduate degrees in Computer Science and Management from the University of Pennsylvania, and an MBA from the Wharton School in management and marketing. Pickens began his career managing small vertical market software companies in Philadelphia, and installed maintenance management systems in all of Ford’s North American plants.  He joined Microsoft in 1990 after Wharton, where he was Group Product Manager for the $300 million dollar Mac Office and PowerPoint business. He left in 1997 to join Connectix to take on the challenge of launching the world’s first webcam, the QuickCam making it the world leader before selling that business to Logitech. He then founded Urban Design Online, focused on the high end interior design business.

All these disciplines combined to provide a strong background for opening a guesthouse with a focus on the luxury end of the LGBTQ market.  This passion turned into a business as Casa Cupula found a very successful niche which is already returning record profits in our post-pandemic recovery. 

A self-professed tech nerd, Pickens oversaw the first WiFi installation and the first website and online bookings any boutique hotel in Puerto Vallarta in 2002, and today operates a modern and geographically distributed company and has a strong presence in e-marketing and social media platforms.  

Don learned about Puerto Vallarta while living in its “sister city” of San Francisco in the late 90s, and fell in love with the town after studying Spanish and buying a property there. A Permanent Resident of Mexico and truly bi-cultural, Pickens spends his time between PV and Seattle, Milagro’s home base.  Casa Cupula currently employs over 30 in the hotel, Pool Club, Gym & Spa.