Yaiza Canosa, entrepreneur with a $80M turnover, reveals: “I get asked whose secretary I am at many meetings”

Yaiza Canosa is only 31 years old but she is already the CEO of a logistics company generating more than $80 million in annual revenue.

Previously named one of Forbes’ most influential women under 30, the GOI founder has disrupted the bulky-goods logistics industry and is making her name for herself in the world of business. In an interview with The Objective, Canosa detailed the classist and sexist behavior she continues to encounter as a young female CEO in one of the most male-dominated corners of the economy.

Canosa said her career has been shaped less by formal studies and more by surrounding herself with talented colleagues and learning through repeated trial and error.

“What I learned most was from working with really good people and from making a thousand mistakes,” she said. “I was clear that I wasn’t going to give up a job, a project, or starting my own business just to study, which was precisely what hadn’t worked for me. Sometimes you simply have to say: ‘This isn’t me, I don’t feel good like this, and I’m not going to continue doing what others impose’.”

She underscored the principle that ideas only gain value through execution. “Having an idea is useless if it’s not executed. We all have ideas. What makes one potentially worthwhile is starting it, whether it succeeds or fails. We’re all very lazy and full of ‘I’d like to…’ You need a minimum roadmap and the courage to begin. There’s no magic formula: it takes courage, dedication and hard work.”

On gender roles, Canosa said that although everyone faces hurdles—whether linked to gender, background or ability—her position as a young woman in logistics creates specific challenges. “Is being young and a woman complicated? Yes. Isn’t being a 65-year-old man in a world of digital transformation complicated? Hell yes. What matters is how you confront it. As a woman, you have to rebel; you have to make them change their perspective.”

She recalled repeated incidents in which her authority was questioned. “Being a woman and very young, especially in the logistics world, which is super-masculine, means they don’t take you seriously. I’ve been asked many times who I’m the secretary for; it happens about once a month,” she said. One exchange in particular stood out: “After a meeting with older men in ties, one of them approached me and said, ‘Don’t smile so much; you don’t project seriousness.’ I replied, ‘Maybe you should smile a little more so you don’t seem so bitter.’”

Canosa said she refuses to change her personality to satisfy outdated expectations. “I wasn’t telling jokes; I was just being friendly because that’s who I am. I’m not going to stop being myself because of this kind of advice. Everyone sets their own boundaries. One of the keys to success in life is the ability to shrug off idiots, to neutralize them.”

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