When Carlos Secada brought Zagitas to Toronto, the city had gone quiet. It was the pandemic years, and the networking events, accelerator programming, and community activity that make Toronto one of the best cities in the world to launch a tech company had essentially stopped. The Startup Visa program that had brought him to Canada was also navigating regulatory change. The path that was supposed to accelerate his market entry was closed at almost every turn. This is the story of what happened next. Carlos did not get a smooth path into the North American market. He built one. Through pivoting, repositioning, and the kind of resilience that comes from building companies in Latin America, where crisis is a recurring condition rather than an exception, Zagitas found its footing. Today, Zagitas is an enterprise AI company helping mid-market organizations automate critical finance and operations workflows, deploy AI agents, and directly improve EBITDA, cash visibility, and execution speed, built on Microsoft technology clients already trust. Carlos's story represents dozens of founders who came through those same years. Not all of them made it. He did. As Global Startups turns 10 this September, we are celebrating the founders, partners, and community members who built something real with us over the last decade. This week, we are hosting a series of expert-led masterclasses at our Toronto HQ, free to attend and open to founders and operators at every stage. See the full lineup and register at luma.com/globalstartups #globalstartups #startupstory #torontolife