Ready for takeoff: SoftLanding @ SDSU to help global entrepreneurs enter U.S. market

Since co-founding Argentina-based Bitlogic a decade ago, Edgardo Hames has intended to enter the North American market. But he didn’t quite know how to do it.

Now, he has a pathway for his 120-employee EdTech company to grow beyond Latin America and into the U.S., thanks to San Diego State University’s SoftLanding program.

SDSU hosted Hames and three other Latin American entrepreneurs in late January for the launch of SoftLanding @ SDSU, an initiative developed by the Wendy Gillespie Center for Advancing Global Business at SDSU’s Fowler College of Business, in partnership with the Division of Research and Innovation and the SDSU Mission Valley Innovation District.

SoftLanding provides a glide path for small and medium size enterprises to successfully touch down in the U.S. Its pilot cohort includes companies based in Brazil, Honduras, Guyana, and Argentina.

International founders spent a whirlwind week networking within San Diego’s global entrepreneurship ecosystem. They met with legal and finance experts, as well as officials from the city, the San Diego World Trade Center, the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, and the U.S. Department of Commerce.

They also participated in sessions with Fowler College of Business faculty members  regarding U.S. business culture, competitive advantage, effective hiring, and taxation. 

Finally, they pitched their companies to SDSU graduate students in the Master of Science in Global Business Development program. Over the spring semester, student teams will develop an entry strategy, competitive market analysis, and go-to-market partnership recommendations for each company.

“Students pick one of the four and work with them on a biweekly basis,” said Martina Musteen, the Charles W. Hostler Professor of Global Business at Fowler and faculty director of the Wendy Gillespie Center. “They identify opportunities, assess them, and make a plan. Then they present it at the end of the semester.”

Eventually, SoftLanding envisions offering short-term residency for select companies, with continued SDSU business consultation and office space in the SDSU Innovation District.

“We’re not sure how long the residency will be — two months, six months, 12 months — but we would love for them, in the future, to have office space provided in Mission Valley and student support while they are launching,” said Heidi Knuff, managing director of the Wendy Gillespie Center.

The center will begin recruitment for participants for the 2027 SoftLanding program this spring, with Immersion Week scheduled for Jan. 24-30. Application information can be found online.  

Special opportunity

Three of this year’s four entrepreneurs had previously spent time in San Diego as part of the U.S. State Department’s Young Leaders of the Americas Initiative. For Hames, SoftLanding is “a great opportunity to understand what needs to be done to establish operations in the U.S.”

His company builds custom software for universities and other institutions in Argentina, Chile and Mexico, among others. It also provides an artificial intelligence chatbot that allows students to ask questions about the courses they’re taking..

“We want to diversify and move into a new market in the U.S.,” said Hames, “and we think having some success stories here will help us build credibility in the Latin American market.”

Dason Anthony, founder of 592Tees, has built his embroidery and screen-printing business into a leading supplier of promotional merchandise in Guyana. To grow, however, he needs access to a larger population and more potential customers.

He came to San Diego “to better understand the culture and the way you do business. It is not the same back in my home country, so those norms will be new when I move. I am very eager to set up a base here.”

Thiago da Silva Lopes is the founder of American Insights, a network of 17 English-immersion franchises across Brazil. The company also launched an English language-learning app that employs gamification and AI to improve outcomes.

“We are committed to quality because that is our main differentiation,” said Lopes. “I basically want to understand the roadmap to establish operations here at the lowest risk possible.”

Darwin Buezo, founder of World Connect Academy in Honduras, offers remote worker training on digital tools used by global companies. World Connect specializes in training legal assistants, data entry, and digital marketing personnel.

In San Diego, Buezo aims to expand beyond training workers. He will explore a staffing augmentation model in which World Connect provides remote workers to U.S. companies for specific projects or to fill skill gaps.

“I see myself living here and investing here,” he said.

To learn more about SoftLanding @ SDSU and Immersion Week 2027, visit the Wendy Gillespie Center SoftLanding website.