George B. Thomas
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There is something powerful about watching a woman decide she will not only build a business, she will use that business to open doors for an entire country.
That is exactly what Haydee Ferrufino is doing from a “little country in Central America” called El Salvador, where she leads The Orange Box Agency, a platinum HubSpot partner serving B2B companies across North America and Latin America.
Her story is not polished Instagram entrepreneurship.
- It is early clients at $150 a month.
- It is a near-collapse of the business.
- It is depression.
- It is AI as a second brain.
It is 20+ jobs that now support families, mortgages, and new possibilities. And it is a reminder that being “the good guys” in business can still scale.
From Childhood Vision To Orange Box Agency
If you zoom way back in Haydee’s story, you find a little girl who already wanted what her parents had. They were entrepreneurs in El Salvador. They owned companies in food and beverage. She watched them create something from nothing and knew she wanted that same engine for herself and others.
She did not start in marketing. She chose business administration, while marketing sat in the corner of her mind as “the lover” she was not sure she was creative enough to pursue.
Life pulled her in anyway.
Haydee taught herself marketing. HubSpot became one of her greatest teachers. She soaked up content, education, and Academy resources until she could not only execute campaigns, she could see how systems fit together.
Then came the first real test.
While still at university, the owner of a wine bar-style restaurant asked if she could help with marketing and social media. There was no logo. No agency name. No polished deck. Just a young woman willing to jump.
That first client paid her $150 a month. It was not the amount. It was the belief. As Haydee put it,
“She believed in me be even before I even had a logo even.”
— Haydee Ferrufino
From that seed came The Orange Box Agency, a digital shop based in El Salvador, serving B2B clients in higher education, software and technology, real estate, and professional services across Latin America and North America, all built with HubSpot and revenue operations at the core.
The vision was always bigger than “run campaigns.” The vision was “be the engine that creates opportunities for people.”
When The Business Nearly Collapsed
Fast forward. Orange Box had grown. The team had expanded. They worked with North American and Latin American clients, including white-label partnerships with other agencies. On the outside, things looked strong. Inside, a fragile pattern had formed that many agencies know too well.
Too much revenue was tied to too few clients.
One major white-label client decided to test another provider, which meant less work for Orange Box. Another important client left. At almost the same time, accounting issues surfaced that revealed debts Haydee had not previously seen, as she transitioned from a direct control to a manager-led structure.
- Client concentration.
- Hidden financial problems.
- Operational growing pains.
All of it hit at once. She describes that period as the second time she fell into depression. Cash was tight. The company was close to collapsing. She felt the full weight of being a solo founder with no co-founder safety net and no playbook for scaling a service business in her context.
Here is where her love of the brain and her openness to technology changed the story.
She knew depression meant her brain was not performing at its best. She still had to show up for her team and fix the mess. So she asked a different question: What if I could borrow a second brain while mine healed?
That is how she leaned into AI.
She started using it as a co-CEO, a thinking partner that could help her:
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Prioritize decisions
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Check her logic
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See the options she might miss in burnout
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Turn chaos into a sequence of next steps
It did not replace her. It supported her.
Over a period of roughly six months, she untangled the debts, redesigned the company's operations, and stabilized its revenue. Today, Orange Box is a platinum HubSpot partner with a stronger foundation and a founder who knows, deep in her bones, that she can walk through collapse and rebuild.
The lesson is not “never make mistakes.” The lesson is “you can ask for help, lean on tools, and still lead.”
Creating Opportunity For Salvadorians
If you listen closely, Haydee’s true KPI is not MRR. It is how many lives she can touch.
Right now, her agency employs around 28 to 30 people. She lights up when she talks about team members who have been with her eight to ten years, who have been able to buy homes, purchase cars, and provide more for their families because of the work they do together. She does not see them as headcount.
She sees them as ripples.
In every meeting, she reminds the team of who they are.
“I always say we’re the good guys, right? Like we’re the good guys.”
— Haydee Ferrufino
Being “the good guys” means:
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Doing what is right for the client, not just what is billable
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Using HubSpot and RevOps actually to help companies grow in intelligent, systematic ways
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Building long-term relationships instead of quick wins
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Caring about the human on the other side of the Zoom window
It also shows up at home.
Her father always told her, “We’re here to serve.” Haydee is now modeling a different way to work for her parents, too. As her business stabilizes, she encourages them to embrace balance, to take vacations, and to recognize that service and rest can coexist.
Long-term, her dream is big and clear. She wants to build an ecosystem of companies, including a new sister company called Smartify that focuses on back-end processes, and create opportunities for up to 2 million Salvadorians. That includes income, education on saving and investing, and space to pursue passion without sacrificing stability.
That is not a small vision. That is a nation-level impact.
Human Powered, AI Assisted: Haydee’s View Of HubSpot’s Future
Haydee’s love for HubSpot started from the content. Academy lessons, blog posts, and documentation helped shape her as a marketer and operator. From there, the partner ecosystem became her classroom. Names like Dan Tyre, Omi, Try, and Tracy are not just LinkedIn connections. They are mentors who share freely how they sell, grow, and lead agencies.
That generosity is why she calls HubSpot a “big brother” in her journey. Looking ahead, what excites her most is where HubSpot is heading with AI, especially not just for automation but for analysis.
She cares about guided business intelligence:
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Speaking to data instead of digging endlessly through reports
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Letting insights surface more naturally so leaders can act faster
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Using tools like the ChatGPT connector to make sense of what is happening in the portal
Because here is the truth. Many companies adopt the “single source of truth” concept. However, most do not truly engage with their data. They do not slow down to ask, “What is this telling us? Where is the opportunity? Where are we leaking revenue or experience?”
Haydee can see a future where HubSpot does more of that heavy lifting, so humans can focus on serving customers, leading teams, and building strategy with a clearer vision.
- Human-powered business.
- AI-assisted analysis.
- More room for people to be people.
A Word To Women In Tech And Ops
Haydee knows what it feels like to walk into rooms where the energy is very masculine, especially in tech and revenue operations (RevOps). She sells the work herself and has had to navigate not just geography bias as a Latin American agency, but gender bias too. Her wish, if she had a magic wand, is simple and profound: She wants women to be heard.
She sees how often women hesitate to speak because they worry about bothering people. They hold back ideas. They shrink in meetings. They forget they have permission to dream, ask, build, and collaborate.
So, she is taking action.
In El Salvador, Haydee is part of a women’s leadership club called “Her,” where she shares openly about both the wins and the challenges, including depression and rebuilding her business. She teaches other leaders how she uses AI as a second brain. They, in turn, share what has worked for them in finance, operations, and life.
That kind of community matters because:
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You realize you are not the only one facing these challenges
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You can be vulnerable without being seen as weak
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You leave with practical tools, not just motivational quotes
Her biggest advice for women who want a similar path:
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Get deeply involved in your ecosystem. Join bootcamps, clubs, and Slack communities.
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Share who you are, not just what you do. That is how mentors find you.
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Remember that you are allowed to ask for more. More responsibility. More support. More opportunity.
Be the good guys. Serve first. And let people help you.
Why THIS Matters For Your Work
You might not be building an agency in El Salvador. You might not be aiming to impact 2 million people. But the patterns in Haydee’s story show up in every business and every career.
Her journey invites you to:
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Reframe failure as a crucible, not a verdict. A near-collapse can become the moment you learn how to lead truly.
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See AI as a partner, not a threat. A second brain can hold structure when your first brain is tired.
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Tie success to human outcomes. Revenue matters, but so does the number of families you support, the leaders you empower, and the younger version of you who needed to see that this was possible.
Most of all, it reminds you that you can be both ambitious and kind. You can scale and still be the good guys. You can build a business that helps you and the people around you flourish.
Reflect & Act
Use Haydee’s story as a mirror:
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Where are you currently trying to “do it all alone” instead of asking for help or tools?
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If your business disappeared tomorrow, who would feel the loss in their real life, and what does that tell you?
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What small action can you take this week to be “the good guys” for your team, your customers, or your community?
