It was the quest for a better life that caused Yosbel Lecha to leave Cuba at the age of 26 and make the trek to Toronto. But when he arrived in the fall of 2006 he experienced a rude awakening.

The job search was much harder than he expected. He had earned his industrial engineering degree in his native Spanish, and had only basic English skills. Jobs in Cuba are generally landed through friends of friends.

Twice a week, Chris Stafford works from morning to night.

The 36-year-old husband and father is a contract project manager for the country’s biggest banks. By day, he’s usually sitting in front of a computer terminal, or in meetings with co-workers. But on Tuesdays and Thursdays, he trades his suits for a white karate uniform and a black belt and transforms into a karate sensei (instructor) to young professionals – mostly fellow Bay St. workers – in a financial district studio.

What looks like the simplest idea is often the easiest to sell.

“I think the magic with basically anything in the tech sector is to hide the complexity as much as you can,” said Vincent Cheung, owner of Shape Collage Inc., a software program that arranges hundreds of photos into custom shapes in seconds.