Growing a company in one country is hard enough. Growing it between Mexico and the United States (or Canada) means running two playbooks at once: different legal systems, banking rules, hiring practices, business cultures, and networks that rarely overlap.
Most founders and executives who operate across borders learn this the expensive way, and they learn it alone. That is the problem PASMAA was created to solve.
On paper, cross-border entrepreneurs have every advantage: two markets, two languages, and the ability to move between business cultures that many competitors never understand. In practice, the decisions that matter most rarely come with a manual.
Local business networks tend to understand one market. Global networks tend to be too broad to be useful. Leaders who live between both often find that the people who truly understand their reality are scattered and hard to reach.
PASMAA began in 2022 as a group of business leaders who shared a common foundation: the IPADE community and the experience of building companies with roots in Mexico and ambitions beyond it. What started as conversations between peers became something more structured, and in 2024 PASMAA was formally incorporated as an association.
The idea behind it is simple: the people best equipped to help a cross-border leader are other cross-border leaders who have faced the same decisions.
The people best equipped to help a cross-border leader are other cross-border leaders.
The Peer Advisory Forum gives members a space to bring real business challenges to peers who understand both markets. It is not a lecture series or a networking mixer. It is a working room where experience is shared openly, and decisions get sharper.
Our podcast, Cross-Border CEOs by PASMAA, features conversations with member CEOs about their stories, their companies, the challenges they have faced, and the projects they are building next. It aims to amplify our members' reach in the United States and Canada and give multicultural, international entrepreneurs a platform that reflects how business is actually done across borders.
PASMAA grows through partnerships. Companies and organizations that share our focus on cross-border business can work with the association through sponsorships and event partnerships, connecting with a community of leaders operating in Mexico, the United States, or both.
Membership is individual. Our members lead companies based in Mexico, in the United States, or in both countries. They share not an industry or a company size. It is the experience of building something that crosses a border, and the conviction that doing it alongside the right peers is better than doing it alone.
This blog will be a practical resource for leaders working across borders. Expect:
If you are building a company across borders, you are exactly who we are writing for.
Want to join the conversation? Learn more about PASMAA membership, or listen to Cross-Border CEOs by PASMAA.