Jonathan Assayag's family migrated to Miami in 1992 when he was just a boy.

"Initially it was tough and the business that my parents decided that made sense for them was a 99 Cent store," he says.

A Harvard Business School graduate, Assayag tried to develop a startup in Silicon Valley, but finally concluded Brazil made more sense.

"The immediate reaction in my mind was, all this hard work that my family did to come over here, all that we fought for, and now I'm going to go back? It's going to break my mother's heart," he says.

But since returning to Sao Paulo last year, Assayag has launched an Internet startup -- an online eyewear business that should be fully operational in the next couple of months.