Keyla González, known on TikTok as @keylitaglez, and her partner opened an online store for artisanal donuts from their home kitchen in Vedado, Havana, with an initial investment of just 9,000 Cuban pesos and the determination to build a future without emigrating.
This Tuesday, Keyla posted a video on TikTok that garnered over 8,000 views in just a few hours, in which she details how the business was born, the obstacles they have faced, and the dream that keeps them going: "We started our donut business with the goal of becoming millionaires. Will we succeed? We don't know, but we will try every day in this world."
The beginning was austere. "We started with little, in the kitchen of the house, without trays, using cardboard boxes, with few materials," Keyla shared. Today, the situation has changed: they have a pastry table, quality materials, and a mixer. "Today we are still at home, but in a larger room, with things we thought would be hard to obtain," she added.
The journey has not been easy. The young woman acknowledged that there were difficult moments: "The truth is that it hasn't been easy, we've had ups and downs and felt like giving up, but the desire to grow is stronger." Her most famous phrase encapsulates that philosophy: "I don't have a dryer, but I have vision."
Keyla also addressed in the video the skepticism of those who advise them to leave the island. "We are going to rise out of misery in Cuba, and I know a lot of people are going to say: 'A business in Cuba? What are they thinking?! The government will take it away from them. It's better for them to leave the country.' Because there are always negative people," she said, not hiding the fact that she is well aware of the criticism.
Their bet is clear: "We are two young Cubans in search of our dreams, to create and to grow. It doesn’t matter where we are, because it’s not the place that defines us, but the mindset we have."
The entrepreneurial venture of this couple is part of a growing trend among young Cubans who are investing in their own businesses in response to the severe economic crisis the island is experiencing, a result of 67 years of communist dictatorship.
Since 2021, the regime has enabled the figure of micro, small, and medium enterprises (MIPYMES), which opened a formal avenue for entrepreneurship, although the environment remains hostile: the fuel crisis affects 96% of MIPYMES, bureaucracy is a constant obstacle, and Agreement 10216, published in February 2026, requires e-commerce platforms to register with the Central Bank and the Ministry of Communications, adding new layers of state control.
Other stories about the TikTok digital bubble as a revenue model for Cubans show that this phenomenon goes beyond an isolated case, with young people even leaving state jobs to venture into social media.
Despite that challenging backdrop, Keyla and her partner insist on moving forward: "Today we are an online shop for delicious donuts, but we will be much more than that, because our donuts are meant to be bitten and never let go."
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