Learn from our community entrepreneurs! In this interview, Miryam Lazarte shares the story of building and growing LatAm Startups, located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Hi! Tell us about your business and what problem are you solving?
We are a community of newcomers, whether founders are just landing or planning to land in Canada with a technology company, or they have immigrated to Canada years ago and have founded their tech company here.
Access to services to scaleup businesses are scarce for newcomers. They require a different type of guidance and support in order not just to fit in the market but to thrive.
Newcomers represent most of the business owners across the country but also, they are a minority that don't ask for help while growing a tech business, or just don't find the right type of business program for them in the market.
What's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?
Long story short, I have had many businesses in the past with my family, I have failed multiple times, and success just a couple. Coming to Canada I figured out that we have a great and supportive tech ecosystem that I couldn't find back at home. I thought maybe people coming with business ideas to Canada will receive better guidance, and that's what exactly happened. Canadians are the best to welcoming people and new ideas and the community has helped to support those in need to thrive in the ecosystem.
With many bumps in the way, I'm still shaping LatAm, but we have achieved a lot in these years of learning and working with wonderful people around me.
How do you motivate yourself to keep going every day?
As a community of newcomers, we all have a story behind, we want to see others thrive and provide the right support. Our clients success is our success and we feel close them when they achieve their goals or when they are facing challenges.
What's your one biggest accomplishment as a business owner?
We are the first community of newcomers receiving a $3.2M grant to support other newcomers in tech from the federal government through FedDev Ontario
What’s your one biggest challenge you face and how do you overcome it?
Attract the right type of entrepreneur for our community is not ease, many of them are still in areas that we cannot help at the moment but we are working towards include more services in the community.
What are your hiring strategies to build a successful business?
We want to know the motivation behind a person willing to work with our organization. Give opportunities to people that were not given the chance to demonstrate their skills and capacity, is one of the biggest assets we have in the organization. Lack of experience doesn't mean the person cannot achieve career goals. As our startups, our staff members require full support and constant training. With the right help you get the right people to work in an organization.
To anyone looking to start or grow a business today, what three tips would you give them?
1) Seek help. Be an entrepreneur can be a very lonely path. You need more than one brain to make your company successful in the market.
2) Be coachable. People with more experience may disagree with you in the strategy you are using to grow your company, maybe they have a good reason why, instead of reject an advice, think how to implement it, if it makes sense for your business.
3) Be resilient. Business have up and downs, no body expects a perfect growth. You will be tested when things go south on how you handle the situation.