Detailed Notes
In this episode of Building Better Developers, Rob Broadhead and Michael Meloche talk with Agustin Morrone, CEO and co-founder of Vintti, about how his company is redefining remote hiring across Latin America.
Read the blog: https://develpreneur.com/redefining-remote-hiring-agustin-morrone-vintti-part1/
Learn how Vintti connects North American businesses with top-tier Latin American professionals in under 21 days—building stronger teams, reducing costs, and creating global opportunities.
Agustin shares his journey from Argentina to Barcelona, the founding of Vintti, and lessons on leadership, culture fit, and scaling remote teams with integrity and innovation.
💡 Topics Covered: • The future of remote hiring and cross-border talent • Building trust through secure, transparent processes • How culture alignment drives success • Scaling global teams with relationships, not ads • Leadership lessons from a high-growth startup
🌍 Learn more at: https://www.vintti.com
Transcript Text
[Music] Well, hello and welcome back. And once again, Rob has got to work on hitting the recording button. This has really been like recently this has been a challenge. Uh but this is the developer podcast also building better developers. I am Rob Broadhead, one of the founders of developer also a founder of RB consulting where we are a boutique consulting company. We sit down with you we talk about your processes talk about your procedures talk about your business and where you are today and then we work on building a technology roadmap for how do you do things better today? How do you get some of those lowhanging fruit? But also, how do you improve your business for success for the future, whether that's 6 months or 6 years from now? We do that through simplification, integration, automation, innovation, all of those shuns. Uh, but when we get done with it, we help you make the most out of your bottom line and your one of your most expensive investments, which these days is technology. Good thing, bad thing. Uh, you can reach us at rb-sns.com, just in case you're checking that out. a good thing, bad thing today uh or actually this week in the midst of a very busy week which is in itself very good uh but also very bad. So I'm very busy don't have to worry too much about what I'm doing each day but I am also pretty exhausted by the end of the day. It's also allowed me since I am on a client site this week to be able to work on my digital nomadness a little bit and it is pretty much working pretty good. Uh things have been well. I've got the devices and the things I need. I do occasionally forget to charge items so they get close to zero before I have to plug them in. Other than that, I don't have to plug him in. Uh, but Michael's going to go ahead and introduce himself. Hey everyone, my name is Michael Malash. I'm one of the co-founders, Building Better Developers, also known as Developer. I'm also the founder of Envision QA, where we take test-driven development and apply it to uh client software testing and helping customers really assess their software stack to make sure that the software that they're using is working for them, be it custom or over-the-shelf software. If it's not, we come in and we help work with you to either uh determine if you need to buy something new or build something custom to meet your needs. At the end of the day, we help you streamline your processes so that you your software works for you, not the other way around. Good thing, bad thing. Uh like Rob, it's also a very busy week this week, which is very good. Bad thing, allergies are kicking me in the butt again. And today we are back to an interview and we're going to speak be speaking with Augustine Marone and I'm going to let you go introduce yourself and share some good a good bad thing uh that you have going on. >> Amazing. Thank you very much, Rob. Thank you very much, Michael, for inviting me here. Very happy to be here. Also, um as mentioned, my name is Augustine. I'm co-founder and CEO at Binty. Um born and raised in Argentina and actually living in Barcelona. We started Binty 3 years ago. Uh it's been crazy bootstrapped since scratch uh and breaking records month after month. So in terms of good thing, bad thing, uh what the good thing here is that we still growing. We still breaking records month after month and this is this is amazing. Uh and bad thing my my kid two years old is with the flu. So my sleeping hours are a bit uh tight this week, but but here we are. So let's dive right into uh So you're in Barcelona, Spain, right? And so you're in Europe, but you're uh you're basically placing people in uh South and Central Americas. What are your what are your primary customers? Are they North America, European, all of the above? Exactly. So H Binti is a recruiting and staffing agency, right? And what we focus is in delivering uh talent from Latin America to clients in the US and Canada. Actually 95% of our clients are in the US and we have 5% of our clients in Canada but we focus just on that area. We want to go niche there understand perfectly what you need and deliver great talent from from Latan. >> Now we we're always interested in uh startup stories and things like that and I guess we'll start at the beginning of this. So, what was the what was the genesis or what was the thing that got you guys deciding that you were going to build Venti or and maybe a little bit like what was your background before you started into that? >> So, it's it's a bit weird because um I came to Spain to study to do an MBA and after that I I always wanted to to start my own company. It was my dream since since I get out of school I got out from school from college and as I as soon as I finished my MBA I started working for a startup called Avakum where they they provide a software um the that they were automating all the financial planning and analysis part of startups and I was in charge of of well actually I was on on a sales role selling that software to to LATAM companies and at that point I realized that there was a big pain to to find talking with all the will entrepreneurs with finance managers CFOs I discovered that there was a big pain to to finding talent uh for work to those startups which also are US startups and and startups that are in North America and I realized that it was very hard not just to automate all the finance part but also to find talent that that were good and and that can add value and and that have experience in in US markets. So at that point I said okay this is the moment h I have there is an opportunity there is a clear path h and there is a clear need h for finance and accounting teams to to to build their team of shore right h it's known that there is a bit of a shortage of accountants in the US h the the um that career is uh sort of struggling in a way in terms of generating more more talent. So, US companies, US firms are going outside to the Philippines generally to find talent and we believe that finding people in Latin America based in the same time zone which are also culturally aligned and also they can they can have really really good English skills and they are really good professionals right which is the most important thing that's why we focus just in LATAM and and that's what kicked me off to start >> now you actually addressed one of them was what the you know some of the the selling points of lithium uh resources and things like that but now are you especi especially in the the financing sector and that I'm wondering are do you run into any issues where companies are concerned with having offshore uh resources dealing in that areas I know sometimes we run into it in the software world I would expect that finances would be one where they they struggle with that and how do you address it >> exactly so data security is one of the most important points and concerns of our clients. So what we do there is we don't we don't access that the the data. We just provide the equipment and we let our clients to do whatever they want with the computer just put their softwares their security measures and we let them do what they need to do. So that relationship can work. And also we have a pretty thorough h prevetting h how do you say process where we we do a criminal background background check contacting the police entities in the specific country where the c with the candidate is being hired. We ask for a like three four reference checks from previous jobs. We we make sure that the person that we are hiring h is is prevetted at the end right and they have good records. they are good people and and in that in that way we I mean we have never had any any any issue regarding this. >> Now do you um do you have are these do you guys have employees? Does Venty have employees that you guys are or are are sending out to these customers or are they contractor basically just subcontracting through you primarily or a little bit of both? So we have a little a little little bit of both, right? Depending on the country, depending on what our client wants, but most of them are contractors, right? So we we eng we we coach them, we train them, we help them succeed with our clients. We we that's sort of also our value added h and mainly depends a lot of what the client wants, but 80% 85% are contractors. Now, do you because that's a lot. It sounds like you guys invest a lot in your your contractors. So, are you able to then, you know, able to keep them busy for a long period of time, maybe roll from one customer to another because now you know them, you've vetted them, so you don't have to repeat that process with with someone new. So, generally how we work is we try not to have people on the bench or or people h we won't push anyone to one of our clients because it's on the bench of our company. What we try to do is we try to understand exactly what our clients want and then go out to the market and find that perfect profile for them. Culturally aligned, technically aligned. We do several interviews with before we even introduce them to our clients. So we don't like to to have like a pool of candidates hired by Vint because I don't believe I mean I believe that any each of our customers they have their own culture. they want to to specific things in each candidates and and I want to find the best the best cultural fit there because when we find it's the most difficult thing to find is culturally alignment is cultural alignment with our clients right technical technical skills it's also difficult but it's easier to find them cult culture that's the big challenge and I cannot have people on the bench and try to force them to be what our clients want right I need to find them and bring the the the best fit for So given that most of these are contractors and you're dealing with a lot of financial companies I'm assuming uh given the particular market you're uh going after are do you run into any like Sorbane Oxley or government uh securities that these companies need additional security for your contractors or uh specific like login or special security for them to even be able to work with your customers? erh when they are dealing with so in terms of taxes our generally our clients do not outsource taxes to outside the US uh because if not legally you have to disclose that to their own clients so generally what they they they do is just they outsource the accounting part or the financial planning part or whatever when it's everything related with FPNA of a company security measures are lower because it's super important but it's not that sensitive in terms of personal information or things like that. When it's regarding accounting, it's they are a bit thorough in terms of the analysis that they do for who are they hiring and the software that they want to to install in the equipments that the people are going to be using. You can and as and as in everything you have clients that are super strict which ask us to include them in our in our insurance and also they they request uh to install a software where they will be recording the sprint of the candiate and taking pictures of the candiate. So they are not and so they are h they can they can assess if they are doing other things or not if they stand up and they leave or so there are lots of softwares to evaluate h attitudes of the candidates and now with AI that's even easier because you can detect if they are using their phone to take a a picture of the screen or it's easier to detect h strange or weird attitudes from from the candidate. >> Gotcha. So you your company doesn't really have that infrastructure. It's your customers that have that infrastructure and your contractors essentially go through them and their security protocols for what they Okay. I was curious because I've seen that with uh I've seen that with different contract companies where they have their own and they have to go through a different type of thing. So I was just curious how you guys had that set up. Um >> in regards to your contractors and that uh what's your overall turnover with your contractors? So uh it when since you have all this growth right now are you finding that a lot of your clients are hiring your contractors on after a period of time or are they keeping them as contractors through your company? >> Depends a lot on the type of company. What we have seen is like companies with a more h startup mindset, they tend to start with the like with a classical staffing model and once they realize this is a good fit, they execute a buyout and they bring the p the person under their payroll. H and then you have like more SMBs or or accounting firms like from zero to 20 people. They leave the staffing model uh and they leave the the contract in that way. They don't want to deal with the payroll. They don't know. They don't understand. They are afraid of how things are done in Latan. So they prefer us to take over and and that's it. So when you go uh when you approach these customers and you're looking for new customers, um how are you going out and attracting them? Are you uh like through online marketing or are they coming to you through I'm just kind of curious how you're finding these customers to basically uh you know match your contractors with your customer. That's that's the the like the the biggest challenge, right? How how we can grow at the end. uh and we do lots of things. My background is in sales. So starting this what was not that difficult in terms of uh putting systems like uh doing out on call calling, out on email, reaching people out through LinkedIn. Now we are scaling more with a marketing perspective, investing a lot in in in in quality information than that positions us as as experts in the in the industry. H we are trying to participate a lot in in communities flying to the US to to conferences being there. Erh so this is how we are trying to to to scale at the end right and this is the way we bring clients and then obviously uh we we got out to the market and find the candidates for them. So based on that, can you give me an example of where you've been really successful with that and where you've had run into challengers had some bad experiences with that trying to find customers? >> So what have worked really good for us is like go doing outreach cold outreach for them like we have a an amazing team of VDRs which are experts in in in in the fields of our clients. Like if we are are we have an a team that is uh reaching out to to accounting firms. So there are people that have they don't have background in accounting but we train them to understand and to speak the same h technicalities with their clients and in that way that's the way we found that h these people are are these BDRs are being able to to get positive responses for them by talking them in the in the in their same let's say language right so outbound call outreach through email LinkedIn and calling has been a good channel for us and where we are struggling a lot is in in in all the in paid media and and paid ads in Google ads to be honest that's a channel that in these three years we tried everything what like whatever you can imagine we tried and nothing works the sad part is that I see our competition that they have things that are working and it's desperate but H I don't know I don't know what we are doing wrong. We tried with with different agencies with different people and I don't know why we are not hitting the the target. So now being u uh since you're you know you're in Spain and you're you're dealing with US companies do you have uh essentially you know boots on the ground do you have people that are they're located US that you do uh where you have to do in person u you know meetings and things like that with your customers or have you found that this has worked really well that you can use you know Zoom and and tools like that and do virtual meetings and be able to you know really haven't really you know had any problem finding customers that way. So uh we sell we sell online talent right so and we sell also people that sell for our clients. So at the end we need I'm a true believer that we can we can generate we can sell and we can do things h only online. Having said that, I know that there are lots of strategies working out for people in in place organizing dinners, organizing community events, things that are working very good in terms of growth. We are starting to do that. Also, I have I have gone to the US last year a lot. This year I have learned a lot and next year my plan is to go two or three times per month to meet clients, generate community, do networking. Those are the things that are helping companies like ours scale and our strategy is going that way. H after the pandemic every everything h during the pandemic everything went online but after the pandemic uh the online trend has been going down and people wants to to go out wants to be in person they want to meet and what we have discovered is that when we fly there and when we have h either me or my my sales leads or or someone from the marketing team we go on the ground our our success rate in terms of meeting 20 people and getting to affiliates it's huge compared to call calling outbound or or the conversations that we have h online right >> and that makes sense because there's I think there's still that level of uh you know people like to meet somebody face to face especially when you're doing something like this when you're dealing with something that's that's sensitive data you know like your financial systems and stuff like that even if you aren't meeting face to face necessarily the person that's doing the work. I think having, you know, somebody like yourself that's the a representative that it's somebody they can trust. They say, "Oh, okay. I know him. He's great. I I trust that he's doing the things that he needs to do to, you know, to vet these people." So, if he says they're good, then, you know, they're good. So, I I totally get that. Now I I did want to shift gear a little bit on the with this is like I now you mentioned actually already a couple of things that have been your struggles as you've been growing but uh outside of you know obviously the marketing which I think in itself we've I'm totally with you on that is that you know marketing seems to be a there's a lot of options out there and it seems like everybody's got their own niche and it's you know finding yours is is always a challenge but what are some of the other uh struggles that you've had as you've grown and it sounds like you've grown fairly quickly. So, what are some of the the things that you've run into? Maybe particularly the ones that you didn't expect when you started this out a few years ago. >> For me, and it's a bit paradic for having a recruiting film, but for me, finding a players and and really the people who I need to help me to bring Binty to the next level, which is at the end my team, it's been a big challenge. Erh because it's very difficult to find someone that fits with the culture that understands you that wants to go to your rhythm and and and also that understand and knows the the technical skills. So for me that's the the finding finding good players has been a challenge h especially when you start growing fast and you need to feed the machine like quicker right because at the beginning you have one or two hires and then you can take time and you can do interviews and you are just one or two and it's easier but now that you have to on board I don't know five six per week and you have to do 20 interviews you you start driving crazy and I like to at least get to know everyone that enters Binty and it's like getting half of my agenda. And so that's the the the challenge that I'm I'm facing I'm facing right now. That's my biggest issue today is how to solve finding great players, pre vetting them and and and on boarding them to to Indie. Um and a second one is a how to how to I'm like a bit obsessed with systems processes and I want to have everything documented and everything understand perfect how works and how the process goes from marketing to sales sales to operations operations to our clients and when you get bigger and bigger things get a bit h you start losing control of lots of things and you have start trusting a lot your team, right? >> So the second challenge for me to to to try to to for to to impart to my team to keep doing things the way I think are going to help us to to get to the next level, right? Which is having SOPs super clear so when we on board people it's easier. Those things have been also a a challenge. Now, did you start because you said this is something that's actually you, you know, you're sort of obsessed with that you enjoy doing that. So, did you start with the idea of having to have like SOPs and that from the the beginning or is this one of the things that sort of uh became more of an awakening as you got further in the organization when you realized, oh shoot, we got to go back and we got to make sure that we have these there so we've got this documented so we we can grow those processes. So I technically I always knew that it's key to have everything documented and for everyone to be able to access all the information and access how the process are done in any area of the company. But the reality is that when you start and you are iterating like crazy and trying to find different ways to grow and then you find one client and you adapt to that client then you find another one and you adapt to that one. when you start growing things get crazy and the reality is that that you cannot document everything because 99% of the things that that that you are documenting don't even work right so the challenge was one we start discovering things that were working start to to to transport that knowledge and put it in paper and and and having everything really good so I knew that I had to have that but I didn't do it since the beginning because it was it was impossible That makes sense. You said, yeah, you have to figure out what works before you want to or it makes most sense to figure out what works before you start documenting it and saying, "Okay, now this is the the path we're going to go." Now, back a little bit to your other problem, have you found any uh processes or uh you know, common things that you can do as part of trying to find those A players or is it really sort of a does it tend to be sort of like a a each case is just trying to find that person, interview them, and and figure it out, or is there some are you starting to sign find some sort of a a process, procedure, an automated approach, a streamlined approach that you can get to to to gather those people. >> So how how we are handling today's I trying to interview everyone at at at least at that last stage of for for the recruiting process. So when the hiring manager they say hey this is the person technically I want them culturally they can work with me then I do the last interview because I think that as CEO and co-founder I'm sort of the guardian of the culture of the company and it's my responsibility not to get any rotten apples in the team right so even though in all the life of minty I I learned a lot how to discover the people that that will succeed within bindi right so I now I try I at the beginning it was a one hour interview going deep in in in their personality in their technical skills now I do a 15 20 minute 20 minute interview where I try I go right to the bone asking free for questions and trying to understand where their ambition is where their view is where how they are and I try to hire good people with a lot of ambition I think that that combination has worked amazing for And that wraps up part one of our interview with Augustine Marone. I just want to thank him. Uh we will thank him again in part two and then uh you know a little bit more. There is going to be a little bit of bonus material outside of these for those of you in the YouTube world. Obviously you get to see some get to see a lot of behind the scenes stuff when you do this. So if you're just listening to this, check us out. uh YouTube.com developer channel got now multiple season I think three four seasons of podcast that's like almost like a hundred episodes of podcasts that are out there not to mention a couple of hundred of episodes of uh tutorials and training and mentor episodes and things of that nature so you can check that out as always shoot us an email at [email protected] uh and let us know your thoughts good and bad about what you see and future topics recommendations uh speakers that you have guests that you you know your feedback on them but also if you have some if you want to be one check uh go ahead and reach out to us there let us know uh you can also check us out at developpreneur.com obviously I would say out of contact forms you can leave uh comments everywhere there wherever you listen to podcasts you can check us out there please subscribe and just let us know it's that just helps us know who's out there and who's listening on a regular basis also developer onx x uh facebook.com. We also have a developer page. So, you name it, we're out there somewhere or another. Unless you name it and we're not there, in which case, let us know and we will get out there because we want to uh make sure that we are where you are. As always, I want to thank you so much for your time and go out there and have yourself a great day, a great week, and we will talk to you next time. [Music]
Transcript Segments
[Music]
Well, hello and welcome back. And once
again, Rob has got to work on hitting
the recording button. This has really
been like recently this has been a
challenge. Uh but this is the developer
podcast also building better developers.
I am Rob Broadhead, one of the founders
of developer also a founder of RB
consulting where we are a boutique
consulting company. We sit down with you
we talk about your processes talk about
your procedures talk about your business
and where you are today and then we work
on building a technology roadmap for how
do you do things better today? How do
you get some of those lowhanging fruit?
But also, how do you improve your
business for success for the future,
whether that's 6 months or 6 years from
now? We do that through simplification,
integration, automation, innovation, all
of those shuns. Uh, but when we get done
with it, we help you make the most out
of your bottom line and your one of your
most expensive investments, which these
days is technology. Good thing, bad
thing. Uh, you can reach us at
rb-sns.com,
just in case you're checking that out. a
good thing, bad thing today uh or
actually this week in the midst of a
very busy week which is in itself very
good uh but also very bad. So I'm very
busy don't have to worry too much about
what I'm doing each day but I am also
pretty exhausted by the end of the day.
It's also allowed me since I am on a
client site this week to be able to work
on my digital nomadness a little bit and
it is pretty much working pretty good.
Uh things have been well. I've got the
devices and the things I need. I do
occasionally forget to charge items so
they get close to zero before I have to
plug them in. Other than that, I don't
have to plug him in. Uh, but Michael's
going to go ahead and introduce himself.
Hey everyone, my name is Michael Malash.
I'm one of the co-founders, Building
Better Developers, also known as
Developer. I'm also the founder of
Envision QA, where we take test-driven
development and apply it to uh client
software testing and helping customers
really assess their software stack to
make sure that the software that they're
using is working for them, be it custom
or over-the-shelf software. If it's not,
we come in and we help work with you to
either uh determine if you need to buy
something new or build something custom
to meet your needs. At the end of the
day, we help you streamline your
processes so that you your software
works for you, not the other way around.
Good thing, bad thing. Uh like Rob, it's
also a very busy week this week, which
is very good. Bad thing, allergies are
kicking me in the butt again.
And today we are back to an interview
and we're going to speak be speaking
with Augustine Marone and I'm going to
let you go introduce yourself and share
some good a good bad thing uh that you
have going on.
>> Amazing. Thank you very much, Rob. Thank
you very much, Michael, for inviting me
here. Very happy to be here. Also, um as
mentioned, my name is Augustine. I'm
co-founder and CEO at Binty. Um born and
raised in Argentina and actually living
in Barcelona.
We started Binty 3 years ago. Uh it's
been crazy bootstrapped since scratch uh
and breaking records month after month.
So in terms of good thing, bad thing, uh
what the good thing here is that we
still growing. We still breaking records
month after month and this is this is
amazing. Uh and bad thing my my kid two
years old is with the flu. So my
sleeping hours are a bit uh tight this
week, but but here we are.
So let's dive right into uh So you're in
Barcelona, Spain, right? And so you're
in Europe, but you're uh you're
basically placing people in uh South and
Central Americas. What are your what are
your primary customers? Are they North
America, European, all of the above?
Exactly. So H Binti is a recruiting and
staffing agency, right? And what we
focus is in delivering uh talent from
Latin America to clients in the US and
Canada. Actually 95% of our clients are
in the US and we have 5% of our clients
in Canada but we focus just on that
area. We want to go niche there
understand perfectly what you need and
deliver great talent from from Latan.
>> Now we we're always interested in uh
startup stories and things like that and
I guess we'll start at the beginning of
this. So, what was the what was the
genesis or what was the thing that got
you guys deciding that you were going to
build Venti or and maybe a little bit
like what was your background before you
started into that?
>> So, it's it's a bit weird because um I
came to Spain to study to do an MBA and
after that I I always wanted to to start
my own company. It was my dream since
since I get out of school I got out from
school from college and as I as soon as
I finished my MBA I started working for
a startup called Avakum where they they
provide a software um the that they were
automating all the financial planning
and analysis part of startups and I was
in charge of of well actually I was on
on a sales role selling that software to
to LATAM companies
and at that point I realized that there
was a big pain to to find talking with
all the will entrepreneurs with finance
managers CFOs I discovered that there
was a big pain to to finding talent uh
for work to those startups which also
are US startups and and startups that
are in North America and I realized that
it was very hard not just to automate
all the finance part but also to find
talent that that were good and and that
can add value and and that have
experience in in US markets. So at that
point I said okay this is the moment h I
have there is an opportunity there is a
clear path h and there is a clear need h
for finance and accounting teams to to
to build their team of shore right h
it's known that there is a bit of a
shortage of accountants in the US h the
the
um that career is uh sort of struggling
in a way in terms of generating more
more talent. So, US companies, US firms
are going outside to the Philippines
generally to find talent and we believe
that finding people in Latin America
based in the same time zone which are
also culturally aligned and also they
can they can have really really good
English skills and they are really good
professionals right which is the most
important thing that's why we focus just
in LATAM and and that's what kicked me
off to start
>> now you actually addressed one of them
was what the you know some of the the
selling points of lithium uh resources
and things like that but now are you
especi especially in the the financing
sector and that I'm wondering are do you
run into any issues where companies are
concerned with having offshore uh
resources dealing in that areas I know
sometimes we run into it in the software
world I would expect that finances would
be one where they they struggle with
that and how do you address it
>> exactly so data security is one of the
most important points and concerns of
our clients. So what we do there is we
don't we don't access that the the data.
We just provide the equipment and we let
our clients to do whatever they want
with the computer just put their
softwares their security measures and we
let them do what they need to do. So
that relationship can work. And also we
have a pretty thorough h prevetting h
how do you say process where we we do a
criminal background background check
contacting the police entities in the
specific country where the c with the
candidate is being hired. We ask for a
like three four reference checks from
previous jobs. We we make sure that the
person that we are hiring h is is
prevetted at the end right and they have
good records. they are good people and
and in that in that way we I mean we
have never had any any any issue
regarding this.
>> Now do you um do you have are these do
you guys have employees? Does Venty have
employees that you guys are or are are
sending out to these customers or are
they contractor basically just
subcontracting through you primarily or
a little bit of both? So we have a
little a little little bit of both,
right? Depending on the country,
depending on what our client wants, but
most of them are contractors, right? So
we we eng
we we coach them, we train them, we help
them succeed with our clients. We we
that's sort of also our value added h
and mainly depends a lot of what the
client wants, but 80% 85% are
contractors.
Now, do you because that's a lot. It
sounds like you guys invest a lot in
your your contractors. So, are you able
to then, you know, able to keep them
busy for a long period of time, maybe
roll from one customer to another
because now you know them, you've vetted
them, so you don't have to repeat that
process with with someone new. So,
generally how we work is we try not to
have people on the bench or or people h
we won't push anyone to one of our
clients because it's on the bench of our
company. What we try to do is we try to
understand exactly what our clients want
and then go out to the market and find
that perfect profile for them.
Culturally aligned, technically aligned.
We do several interviews with before we
even introduce them to our clients. So
we don't like to to have like a pool of
candidates hired by Vint
because I don't believe I mean I believe
that any each of our customers they have
their own culture. they want to to
specific things in each candidates and
and I want to find the best the best
cultural fit there because when we find
it's the most difficult thing to find is
culturally alignment is cultural
alignment with our clients right
technical technical skills it's also
difficult but it's easier to find them
cult culture that's the big challenge
and I cannot have people on the bench
and try to force them to be what our
clients want right I need to find them
and bring the the the best fit for
So given that most of these are
contractors and you're dealing with a
lot of financial companies I'm assuming
uh given the particular market you're uh
going after are do you run into any like
Sorbane Oxley or government uh
securities that these companies need
additional security for your contractors
or uh specific like login or special
security for them to even be able to
work with your customers?
erh when they are dealing with so in
terms of taxes our generally our clients
do not outsource taxes to outside the US
uh because if not legally you have to
disclose that to their own clients so
generally what they they they do is just
they outsource the accounting part or
the financial planning part or whatever
when it's everything related with FPNA
of a company security measures are lower
because it's super important but it's
not that sensitive
in terms of personal information or
things like that. When it's regarding
accounting,
it's they are a bit thorough in terms of
the analysis that they do for who are
they hiring and the software that they
want to to install in the equipments
that the people are going to be using.
You can and as and as in everything you
have clients that are super strict which
ask us to include them in our in our
insurance and also they they request uh
to install a software where they will be
recording the sprint of the candiate and
taking pictures of the candiate. So they
are not and so they are h they can they
can assess if they are doing other
things or not if they stand up and they
leave or so there are lots of softwares
to evaluate h attitudes of the
candidates and now with AI that's even
easier because you can detect if they
are using their phone to take a a
picture of the screen or it's easier to
detect h
strange or weird attitudes from from the
candidate.
>> Gotcha. So you your company doesn't
really have that infrastructure. It's
your customers that have that
infrastructure and your contractors
essentially go through them and their
security protocols for what they Okay. I
was curious because I've seen that with
uh I've seen that with different
contract companies where they have their
own and they have to go through a
different type of thing. So I was just
curious how you guys had that set up. Um
>> in regards to your contractors and that
uh what's your overall turnover with
your contractors? So uh it when since
you have all this growth right now are
you finding that a lot of your clients
are hiring your contractors on after a
period of time or are they keeping them
as contractors through your company?
>> Depends a lot on the type of company.
What we have seen is like companies with
a more h startup mindset, they tend to
start with the like with a classical
staffing model and once they realize
this is a good fit, they execute a
buyout and they bring the p the person
under their payroll. H and then you have
like more SMBs or or accounting firms
like from zero to 20 people. They leave
the staffing model uh and they leave the
the contract in that way. They don't
want to deal with the payroll. They
don't know. They don't understand. They
are afraid of how things are done in
Latan. So they prefer us to take over
and and that's it.
So when you go uh when you approach
these customers and you're looking for
new customers, um how are you going out
and attracting them? Are you uh like
through online marketing or are they
coming to you through I'm just kind of
curious how you're finding these
customers to basically uh you know match
your contractors with your customer.
That's that's the the
like the the biggest challenge, right?
How how we can grow at the end. uh and
we do lots of things. My background is
in sales. So starting this what was not
that difficult in terms of uh putting
systems like uh doing out on call
calling, out on email, reaching people
out through LinkedIn. Now we are scaling
more with a marketing perspective,
investing a lot in in in in quality
information than that positions us as as
experts in the in the industry. H we are
trying to participate a lot in in
communities flying to the US to to
conferences being there. Erh so this is
how we are trying to to to scale at the
end right and this is the way we bring
clients and then obviously uh we we got
out to the market and find the
candidates for them.
So based on that, can you give me an
example of where you've been really
successful with that and where you've
had run into challengers had some bad
experiences with that trying to find
customers?
>> So what have worked really good for us
is
like go doing outreach cold outreach for
them like we have a an amazing team of
VDRs which are experts in in in in the
fields of our clients. Like if we are
are we have an a team that is uh
reaching out to to accounting firms. So
there are people that have they don't
have background in accounting but we
train them to understand and to speak
the same h technicalities with their
clients and in that way that's the way
we found that h these people are are
these BDRs are being able to to
get positive responses for them by
talking them in the in the in their same
let's say language right so outbound
call outreach through email LinkedIn and
calling has been a good channel for us
and where we are struggling a lot is in
in in all the in paid media and and paid
ads in Google ads to be honest that's a
channel that in these three years we
tried everything what like whatever you
can imagine we tried and nothing works
the sad part is that I see our
competition that they have things that
are working and it's desperate but H
I don't know I don't know what we are
doing wrong. We tried with with
different agencies with different people
and I don't know why we are not hitting
the the target.
So now being u uh since you're you know
you're in Spain and you're you're
dealing with US companies do you have uh
essentially you know boots on the ground
do you have people that are they're
located US that you do uh where you have
to do in person u you know meetings and
things like that with your customers or
have you found that this has worked
really well that you can use you know
Zoom and and tools like that and do
virtual meetings and be able to you know
really haven't really you know had any
problem finding customers that way. So
uh we sell we sell online talent right
so and we sell also people that sell for
our clients. So at the end we need I'm a
true believer that we can we can
generate we can sell and we can do
things h only online. Having said that,
I know that there are lots of strategies
working out for people in
in place organizing dinners, organizing
community events, things that are
working very good in terms of growth. We
are starting to do that. Also, I have I
have gone to the US last year a lot.
This year I have learned a lot and next
year my plan is to go two or three times
per month to meet clients, generate
community, do networking. Those are the
things that are helping companies like
ours scale and our strategy is going
that way. H after the pandemic every
everything h during the pandemic
everything went online but after the
pandemic uh the online trend has been
going down and people wants to to go out
wants to be in person they want to meet
and what we have discovered is that when
we fly there and when we have h either
me or my my sales leads or or someone
from the marketing team we go on the
ground our our success rate in terms of
meeting 20 people and getting to
affiliates it's huge compared to call
calling outbound or or the conversations
that we have h online right
>> and that makes sense because there's I
think there's still that level of uh you
know people like to meet somebody face
to face especially when you're doing
something like this when you're dealing
with something that's that's sensitive
data you know like your financial
systems and stuff like that even if you
aren't meeting face to face necessarily
the person that's doing the work. I
think having, you know, somebody like
yourself that's the a representative
that it's somebody they can trust. They
say, "Oh, okay. I know him. He's great.
I I trust that he's doing the things
that he needs to do to, you know, to vet
these people." So, if he says they're
good, then, you know, they're good. So,
I I totally get that. Now I I did want
to shift gear a little bit on the with
this is like I now you mentioned
actually already a couple of things that
have been your struggles as you've been
growing but uh outside of you know
obviously the marketing which I think in
itself we've I'm totally with you on
that is that you know marketing seems to
be a there's a lot of options out there
and it seems like everybody's got their
own niche and it's you know finding
yours is is always a challenge but what
are some of the other uh struggles that
you've had as you've grown and it sounds
like you've grown fairly quickly. So,
what are some of the the things that
you've run into? Maybe particularly the
ones that you didn't expect when you
started this out a few years ago.
>> For me, and it's a bit paradic for
having a recruiting film, but for me,
finding a players and and really the
people who I need to help me to bring
Binty to the next level, which is at the
end my team, it's been a big challenge.
Erh because it's very difficult to find
someone that fits with the culture that
understands you that wants to go to your
rhythm and and and also that understand
and knows the the technical skills. So
for me that's the the finding finding
good players has been a challenge h
especially when you start growing fast
and you need to feed the machine like
quicker right because at the beginning
you have one or two hires and then you
can take time and you can do interviews
and you are just one or two and it's
easier but now that you have to on board
I don't know five six per week and you
have to do 20 interviews you you start
driving crazy and I like to at least get
to know everyone that enters Binty and
it's like getting half of my agenda. And
so that's the the the challenge that I'm
I'm facing I'm facing right now. That's
my biggest issue today is how to solve
finding great players, pre vetting them
and and and on boarding them to to
Indie. Um
and a second one is a
how to how to I'm like a bit obsessed
with systems processes and I want to
have everything documented and
everything understand perfect how works
and how the process goes from marketing
to sales sales to operations operations
to our clients and when you get bigger
and bigger things get a bit h you start
losing control of lots of things and you
have start trusting a lot your team,
right?
>> So the second challenge for me to to to
try to
to for to to impart to my team to keep
doing things the way I think are going
to help us to to get to the next level,
right? Which is having SOPs super clear
so when we on board people it's easier.
Those things have been also a a
challenge.
Now, did you start because you said this
is something that's actually you, you
know, you're sort of obsessed with that
you enjoy doing that. So, did you start
with the idea of having to have like
SOPs and that from the the beginning or
is this one of the things that sort of
uh became more of an awakening as you
got further in the organization when you
realized, oh shoot, we got to go back
and we got to make sure that we have
these there so we've got this documented
so we we can grow those processes.
So I technically I always knew that it's
key to have everything documented and
for everyone to be able to access all
the information and access how the
process are done in any area of the
company. But the reality is that when
you start and you are iterating like
crazy and trying to find different ways
to grow and then you find one client and
you adapt to that client then you find
another one and you adapt to that one.
when you start growing things get crazy
and the reality is that that you cannot
document everything because 99% of the
things that that that you are
documenting don't even work right so the
challenge was one we start discovering
things that were working start to to to
transport that knowledge and put it in
paper and and and having everything
really good so I knew that I had to have
that but I didn't do it since the
beginning because it was it was
impossible
That makes sense. You said, yeah, you
have to figure out what works before you
want to or it makes most sense to figure
out what works before you start
documenting it and saying, "Okay, now
this is the the path we're going to go."
Now, back a little bit to your other
problem, have you found any uh processes
or uh you know, common things that you
can do as part of trying to find those A
players or is it really sort of a does
it tend to be sort of like a a each case
is just trying to find that person,
interview them, and and figure it out,
or is there some are you starting to
sign find some sort of a a process,
procedure, an automated approach, a
streamlined approach that you can get to
to to gather those people.
>> So how how we are handling today's I
trying to interview everyone at at at
least at that last stage of for for the
recruiting process. So when the hiring
manager they say hey this is the person
technically I want them culturally they
can work with me then I do the last
interview because I think that as CEO
and co-founder I'm sort of the guardian
of the culture of the company and it's
my responsibility not to get any rotten
apples in the team right so
even though in all the life of minty I I
learned a lot how to discover the people
that that will succeed within bindi
right so I now I try I at the beginning
it was a one hour interview going deep
in in in their personality in their
technical skills now I do a 15 20 minute
20 minute interview where I try I go
right to the bone asking free for
questions and trying to understand where
their ambition is where their view is
where how they are and I try to hire
good people with a lot of ambition I
think that that combination has worked
amazing for
And that wraps up part one of our
interview with Augustine Marone. I just
want to thank him. Uh we will thank him
again in part two and then uh you know a
little bit more. There is going to be a
little bit of bonus material outside of
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to see a lot of behind the scenes stuff
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