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INMYTEAM co-founder Hector Garcia on his entrepreneurial journey, from Cuba to Canada to South Florida

Riley Kaminer
Riley Kaminer
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His startup is a one-stop-shop for home care agencies, providing scheduling, billing, payroll, surveys and more.

By Riley Kaminer

Some people are born in environments where being an entrepreneur is natural – even encouraged. But some must work tirelessly to become one.

Hector Garcia is in the latter category. Garcia grew up in Cuba – a country not exactly known for promoting entrepreneurship. Despite all odds, Garcia rose to prominence on the island for founding Cubisima.com, an online portal for buying and selling real estate. In an era where internet access was severely limited, Cubisima.com still managed to attract 5,000 unique visitors per day.

At the same time, Garcia was working as a freelance software developer for foreign companies. That gig enabled Garcia to cobble together enough cash to get him and his family to greener pastures. Well, perhaps greyer pastures, considering that the Garcias landed in Quebec, taking advantage of the province’s skilled worker program.

“I migrated with $4,000, four bags containing all the possessions I had collected in my 28 years, and my family,” Garcia told Refresh Miami. In 2016, after braving four Canadian winters, Garcia managed to migrate once again – this time to South Florida, having secured a job at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital.

But soon Garcia’s proclivity towards entrepreneurship started to kick in. He had a few family members who were struggling to manage their home care agencies. In 2018, Garcia devised a digital solution to help: a straightforward module that would send an SMS blast to all caregivers with the agency’s latest job openings. Users could then apply right from their phone.

Garcia found success early on, with multiple agencies beginning to rely on the tech. So he doubled down on it, building what would eventually become INMYTEAM with co-founder Ernesto Ferriol. 

INMYTEAM co-founders Hector Garcia, at left, and Ernesto Ferriol

Nowadays, the platform does much more than matching caregivers to gigs. It is a one-stop-shop for agencies, providing scheduling, billing, payroll, surveys and more. The startup currently has more than 35 customers, most of which they have found from word of mouth. 

A major turning point for INMYTEAM happened in 2020, when Florida and the US government mandated the use of Electronic Visit Verification to reduce homecare fraud. INMYTEAM quickly applied for and successfully received EVV permission, becoming a key resource for homecare providers. 

The startup now also accepts Medicaid and private healthcare plans. Later this year, it plans to start working with agencies for traditional caregivers as well as medically-trained professionals. INMYTEAM is also working to develop tools that will automatically coordinate staff and provide various efficiencies. For example, the system will be able to tell that a certain worker is active in a particular building or neighborhood, and then route closeby cases to this worker.

At the moment, INMYTEAM is comprised of four full-time employees, plus a handful of offshore developers. Garcia is based in Cooper City, while the company’s head office is in Plantation.

What advice would Garcia give to someone who is in a similar place that he was when he first left Cuba? “You can accomplish everything you want if you prepare yourself,” he said, recalling early mornings studying for his English exams and late nights studying for his French exams to enter Canada. “There’s nothing special about it. It’s just about dedication and hard work.”

*Photo at top of post: the INMYTEAM team exhibits at the 2022 Home Care Conference in Orlando.

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