From living in a refugee camp to raising $52m USD for a startup
The journey from refugee to successful tech entrepreneur is one of resilience, determination, and the transformative power of opportunity. Symend's CEO's story is a testament to what becomes possible when talent meets opportunity, and how diverse experiences shape unique perspectives that drive innovation.
Early challenges
Life in a refugee camp is defined by uncertainty. Without knowing when—or if—circumstances will improve, maintaining hope and ambition requires extraordinary resilience. The experience of displacement creates a unique perspective on adversity, resourcefulness, and the importance of empathy—qualities that would later become central to Symend's approach to customer engagement.
For many refugees, education becomes a lifeline—a path to building a different future. Despite the challenges of camp life, the pursuit of learning remained a priority, driven by the belief that education could unlock opportunities that seemed impossible from the confines of displacement.
A new beginning
Immigration to Canada represented a fresh start, but also came with new challenges: adapting to a new culture, learning a new language, and building a life from scratch. The transition from refugee to immigrant, and eventually to citizen, is a journey marked by both struggle and opportunity.
Access to education, combined with Canada's culture of opportunity and innovation, created a foundation for future success. But the path from newcomer to tech entrepreneur was far from straightforward.
Building a career in tech
Breaking into the technology industry required overcoming skepticism, building networks from scratch, and proving capabilities in an often unforgiving environment. Early career experiences taught valuable lessons about perseverance, the importance of continuous learning, and the power of diverse perspectives in solving complex problems.
Each role provided new skills and insights: technical expertise, business acumen, leadership capabilities, and understanding of how technology can solve real-world problems. But perhaps most importantly, these experiences reinforced a commitment to building companies and cultures that create opportunity for others.
The Symend vision
The decision to found Symend was rooted in personal experience with financial stress and a deep understanding of how dehumanizing traditional approaches to collections and customer engagement can be. Having experienced challenging circumstances firsthand, there was conviction that there had to be a better way—one that treated people with dignity and respect while still achieving business objectives.
This vision attracted like-minded co-founders and early team members who shared the belief that behavioral science, AI, and empathy could transform an industry built on outdated assumptions about human behavior and motivation.
The $52 million milestone
Raising $52 million during a global pandemic represented validation—not just of Symend's business model, but of the belief that empathy-driven approaches to customer engagement create better outcomes for everyone. For someone who began their journey in a refugee camp, this milestone held deep personal significance.
But beyond the numbers, the fundraise represented something more important: resources to expand Symend's impact, create more jobs, and help millions of people have better experiences during financially challenging moments.
Lessons from the journey
The path from refugee camp to leading a well-funded technology company offers several important lessons:
- Perspective is powerful: Experiencing adversity creates empathy and understanding that can become competitive advantages in business
- Opportunity matters: Access to education, immigration policies, and inclusive cultures make success possible for people from all backgrounds
- Resilience is learnable: Overcoming early challenges builds mental toughness that serves well in entrepreneurship
- Diversity drives innovation: Different backgrounds and experiences lead to unique insights that solve problems in new ways
- Purpose fuels persistence: Building something meaningful provides motivation to overcome inevitable obstacles
Building an inclusive company
Personal experience with being an outsider has shaped Symend's commitment to building an inclusive company where people from all backgrounds can thrive. This isn't just about social responsibility—it's a business imperative. Diverse teams bring diverse perspectives, leading to better products, better decisions, and better outcomes.
Symend actively recruits from underrepresented communities, provides mentorship opportunities, and creates pathways for people who might not have traditional credentials but possess talent and determination. These efforts reflect a belief that potential is distributed equally, but opportunity is not—and that changing this dynamic benefits everyone.
Paying it forward
Success creates responsibility—to help others who are on similar journeys, to create opportunities for those who face barriers, and to build systems that work better for everyone. This manifests in several ways:
- Mentoring aspiring entrepreneurs from underrepresented backgrounds
- Advocating for more inclusive immigration and refugee policies
- Supporting organizations that help newcomers integrate and succeed
- Building a company culture that values diverse experiences and perspectives
- Using Symend's platform to help people during financially vulnerable moments
The journey continues
While the $52 million fundraise represents a significant milestone, it's not a destination—it's fuel for the next phase of growth. The mission remains the same: transform how businesses engage with customers by combining behavioral science, AI, and empathy to create better outcomes for everyone.
The experiences that shaped this journey—from refugee camp to tech entrepreneur—continue to inform how Symend operates, what we prioritize, and how we treat people. Adversity, when overcome, becomes advantage. Challenges, when navigated successfully, become capabilities. And experiences, however difficult, become empathy that drives more human-centered approaches to business.
For anyone facing their own challenges, the message is clear: your background doesn't determine your potential. With access to opportunity, willingness to work hard, and resilience in the face of obstacles, remarkable things become possible.
