Original article in Portuguese by Startups.com.br

Being an immigrant in a foreign country is difficult. Being an immigrant, starting a startup, and trying to secure investors in a foreign country is nearly impossible. To facilitate this process, the founder of the Canadian accelerator Global Startups decided to launch GSA Ventures, a fund that specifically invests in minority and immigrant startups in Canada. The country offers a visa program for startups.

Residing in the country for 15 years, Colombian-Canadian Miryam Lazarte, general partner of GSA Ventures, participated in various panels at this year’s Web Summit Rio, and says that Brazil is a strategic country for the group of investors. In an exclusive interview with Startups, she points out that many of the companies supported by the initiative are founded by Brazilian immigrants.

“We realized that it was necessary to have someone who could provide that first check to immigrant startups newly arrived in Canada. The investor community in the country is very risk-averse. Especially when they are not familiar with the founders’ country of origin, do not know how its economy works, or whether there is political stability. But once we enter the game, we know others will join too,” says Miryam.

Latino Resilience

The investor also notes that communication is a hurdle for immigrants when making pitches and presenting their startups to funds. This occurs both due to language difficulties, which can make these founders feel less confident, and cultural issues. According to her, Latinos tend to avoid more direct approaches, while North Americans prefer matters to be dealt with more objectively. Part of the group’s mission involves guiding these founders on these details.

“Our advice is that people understand that accent doesn’t matter. Investors care about what you are communicating. And immigrants tend to beat around the bush, instead of getting straight to the point, which can be considered rude in our communities. We need to give context for everything, and it takes us a long time to get to the important part,” she laughs.

Miryam adds that many female founders face double the difficulties, as they are women and immigrants. “Most of the problem is not that investors see them as less capable. It’s that they perceive themselves as being seen that way. Our conclusion is that they need to work on their self-esteem when making presentations. There will always be a bias in the market, but what matters is how you deal with that bias,” she advises.

For the general partner of GSA Ventures, one of the qualities of Latin American founders is resilience in the face of difficulties. According to her, this is one of the points where immigrant startups are ahead compared to local Canadian companies. “Crisis is a condition in Latin America. We always go from crisis to crisis, and this makes our companies stronger. It makes companies capable of pivoting and finding new ways to do things,” she says.

GSA Ventures has been collaborating with accelerators and innovation centers in Brazil, and is looking for opportunities both to co-invest and to assist in the expansion of Canada-based startups to the Brazilian market. The group also plans to conduct exchanges and training between the two countries.