The Nearshore Cafe
by Brian Samson
Latest episode
Jim Fricker (Spanish and Go) on Expat Life in Mexico: Running a U.S…
Jim Fricker (Spanish and Go) on Expat Life in Mexico: Running a U.S…
About this podcast
Hear from Nearshoring veterans about what it's like living and doing business in LATAM. Join our hosts and numerous guests from LATAM & the U.S. with interesting real life experiences. This podcast is full of great stories and useful advice on how to navigate the world's most untapped talent market along with travel tips.
Episodes
The newest 20 of 100 episodes
- Jim Fricker (Spanish and Go) on Expat Life in Mexico: Running a U.S. Business from LATAM, Hiring & AI · 34 minA music producer from Rochester, Minnesota records artists all day, stares at a screen all night, and starts wondering if life can feel bigger than a studio. That’s where Jim…
- Alberto Monroy: Pick Mexico for Speed and Brazil for Depth. Cost Is the Wrong Question. (87 chars) · 29 minEveryone asks me what nearshoring costs. Alberto Monroy, who guides U.S. companies through this every day at Plugg, says that’s the wrong first question. We sat down while he was…
- Series C AI Burn: How LATAM Senior Engineers Cut Costs From $700K to $200K · 8 minA Series C company in 2026 can have product market fit and still be in trouble if burn gets sloppy, and the fastest way burn gets weird is AI. When token budgets quietly rival…
- A British Reporter Explains What Latin America Taught Him · 46 minA lot of people dream about “moving to Latin America,” but far fewer can explain what actually changes when you do. Richard McColl can. He grew up in London, fell in love with…
- You Cannot Lead Globally Without Changing How You Speak · 25 minYou can have the perfect project plan and still fail if you speak to every culture the same way. I sit down with Anna Martins, a Brazil-based project manager whose career jumps…
- Matt Hines Built a 110-Person Law Firm with Latin American Talent. Here's How. · 31 minA law firm is a business, and pretending otherwise is how a lot of talented professionals stall out. Brian Sampson talks with attorney and entrepreneur Matt Heinz about the messy…
- Brian Samson Breaks Down the 2026 Playbook for Hiring Top Talent in Latin America · 15 minHiring top tech talent in Latin America is reshaping how U.S. companies build engineering teams in 2026. Brian Samson, founder of Plugg Technologies, breaks down exactly how to…
- Brian Samson Shares Real Nearshore Hiring Stories from Brazil and Mexico · 12 minReal nearshore recruiting stories straight from the front lines of Latin America tech hiring — no theory, just placements that actually happened. Host Brian Samson sits down solo…
- Building Sales Teams in Mexico: Mario Oliveros Figueroa on LATAM Talent & Cross-Border Selling · 29 minMario Oliveros Figueroa has spent his career doing one thing: building sales teams across Latin America. Today he's the Global Director of Latin America at Niyamo, one of the…
- H1B Hiring Reality Check · 32 minThe H1B conversation is loud, political, and often full of half-truths, so we wanted a clean, practical breakdown from someone who has lived it from the staffing side. We sit…
- Victor Fernandes Spent 7 Years Automating Power Plants. Now He Builds Data Platforms. · 22 minVictor Fernandes is a data platform engineer from Fortaleza, Brazil — and his path to get there is unlike anything I've heard before. Seven and a half years automating power…
- Nearshoring Yourself; step by step to building an expat life in Mexico · 32 minIn this episode of the Nearshore Cafe Podcast, Brian Samson sits down with Jen from Expatsi to explore what it really looks like to leave the U.S. and build a life abroad. From…
- Scaling high-performing teams in Costa Rica staffing legend Doug Firestone on growing to 225 LATAM · 28 minWhat does it take to grow an IT staffing firm to $28M in revenue while competing against giants like Tech Systems? For Doug Firestone, the answer was found in the jungles of…
- Why Chile Wins & Brazil is Complex: A Founder's Guide to LATAM · 28 minHow do you handle a land deal with a duffel bag of cash? Brendan Quirk, Founder of LACPA, joins Brian Samson to share the wild, "boots-on-the-ground" reality of doing business in…
- AI agents aren’t plug-and-play and that’s where most companies get it wrong. · 24 minIn this episode of the Nearshore Cafe Podcast, hosted by Brian Samson, we sit down with Oleg Baranov, Founder & CEO of FlameTree AI, to break down how AI agents actually work in…
- Venezuela: The Most Exciting High-Risk Talent Market? · 11 minIn this short clip from The Nearshore Cafe Podcast, Brian Samson discusses why Venezuela may become one of the most exciting high-risk, high-reward talent markets in Latin…
- How A Founder Built A 24/7 Call Center In Latin America · 23 minIn this episode of The Nearshore Cafe Podcast, Brian Samson speaks with Joe Helleny, Founder & CEO of CourtMoney, about building a 24-hour nearshore call center in Central…
- Doing Business in Medellín, Colombia (Expat Founder Story) · 28 minIn this episode of The Nearshore Cafe Podcast, host Brian Samson sits down with entrepreneur and expat founder Chad Smalley to explore what it really takes to build and scale…
- Latin America M&A Outlook 2026: Deal Trends, Risk Architecture, and Nearshoring Opportunities · 31 minIn this episode of The Nearshore Cafe Podcast, host Brian Samson is joined by JP Trouillot, Deal Advisory Partner and Regional Advisory Leader for the Americas at KPMG, and Alan…
- AI Automation Without the Hype. Real Nearshore Workflows That Scale · 28 minWelcome to The Nearshore Cafe Podcast, hosted by Brian Samson and sponsored by 💻 Plugg Technologies (plugg.tech), a nearshore talent partner connecting U.S. companies with…
