When Carlos Secada arrived in Toronto with Zagitas, the city had gone quiet.
Toronto is known for its density of networking events, accelerator programming, and startup community activity. Yet during the pandemic years, most of that had stopped. The in-person connections that typically accelerate market entry for international founders were no longer available. Meanwhile, the Startup Visa program that had brought Zagitas to Canada was navigating its own regulatory uncertainty. In other words, the conditions that should have made market entry faster were working against Carlos at every turn.
Not every company that arrived during those years survived. That is the honest part of the story most anniversary posts leave out.
And yet, Carlos did.
Startup culture often talks about resilience in theoretical terms. Carlos brought a different version. He built his career in Latin America, where founders navigate crisis not as an exception but as a standard operating condition. Economic volatility, political shifts, and regulatory unpredictability are not edge cases in emerging markets. Instead, they are the baseline.
By the time the pandemic arrived, Carlos had already developed the muscle memory for moving through uncertainty without losing direction. That experience shaped how he approached Canada. Furthermore, it shaped how Zagitas adapted when the expected path closed.
The company pivoted. It repositioned. It found its footing in the North American market not because conditions turned favorable, but because Carlos kept adjusting until they did.
Today, Zagitas focuses on agentic AI enterprise solutions for mid-market companies. The platform helps organizations automate critical finance and operations workflows, deploy AI agents, and directly improve EBITDA, cash visibility, and execution speed. Importantly, it builds on Microsoft technology that clients already use and trust.
The distance from a company trying to get traction in a locked-down city to a recognized player in the enterprise AI space is significant. Moreover, 2026 has become one of the strongest years Toronto has seen for tech networking, events, and ecosystem activity. Carlos is navigating that environment with a company that earned its position the hard way.
Carlos is not the only founder who came through those years. Dozens of companies in our community arrived under similar conditions and faced the same compounding challenges: a new country, a new market, a new regulatory landscape, and a global crisis layered on top of all of it.
Some did not make it through. We carry those stories too.
However, Carlos and companies like Zagitas
represent exactly what this community was built to support. They are founders who did not receive a smooth path and built one anyway. In our ten years, we have seen enough of those journeys to recognize a pattern. The founders who survive the hardest market entries often become the most resilient contributors to the ecosystem over time.
Additionally, their stories matter beyond their own companies. They show the founders coming behind them what is actually possible.
In this 10th anniversary, we celebrate Carlos, Zagitas, and every founder who found their way through conditions that were never designed to be easy.
Are you a founder building something in Canada? This September, Global Startups is celebrating 10 years with a week of expert-led masterclasses designed to help companies at every stage grow faster and smarter. Seats are limited and vetted. See the full lineup and register at luma.com/globalstartups
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