Talent shortage is a common challenge in software development. This is where nearshoring comes in—it’s a great way to find skilled people while also saving costs.
In this special episode of the Scaling Tech podcast, our host, Arin, explores this topic with three tech experts: Luisa Diaz, Pablo Miller, and Mariana Lopez. Luisa, a seasoned technology recruiter and advocate for the Medellin tech community, brings a wealth of experience. Pablo, a Colombian-British entrepreneur and CEO/Founder of remoti, shares his insights from a global perspective. Mariana, a a COO at AgilityFeat, offers her expertise in working with remote teams.
They cover the advantages of nearshoring, why Latin America is a top talent hub, how to build a high-performing remote team, and much more!
Tune in to hear their valuable tips and insights on nearshoring in software development.
About Guest:
Name: Luisa Diaz | Pablo Miller | Mariana Lopez
What they do: Luisa is a tech recruiter. Pablo is the CEO and Founder of remoti. Mariana, a COO at AgilityFeat.
Company: CloudFactory | remoti | AgilityFeat
Where to find them: Luisa’s LinkedIn | Pablo’s LinkedIn | Mariana’s LinkedIn
Key Insights
⚡Nearshoring is a smart way to balance cost savings and quality talent. It opens the door to a pool of skilled developers while keeping expenses in check. The benefits go beyond just proximity, offering smoother collaboration through shared time zones, aligned work ethics, and cultural understanding—all of which contribute to delivering exceptional results. As Mariana says, “There are significant cost savings when you hire nearshore developers, but I would hope that people that come to us through references and that understand a little bit more our methodology, our mentality, is that we’re able to make their vision happen.”
⚡Latin America is a top choice for U.S. companies looking for talent closer to home. One key reason is the time zone advantage, which makes collaboration much easier. But there’s more to it. Pablo shares a few other reasons to choose Latin America for outsourcing software development. He says, “People here, ultimately, we provide good conditions, a good career development plan. Latinos are very, very loyal people. […] The technical skill set is very good. So outsourcing is not something that’s just come up with all these sexy HR tech companies that have started in the last five years. This has been around. I’m sure you’ve seen it for many years. But ultimately, the level of talent here, just in Bogota alone, we have over 200,000 for, let’s say, mid to senior devs at the moment.”
⚡Proactive communication is key to making a tech team successful. When working with a tech team in Latin America, there are several best practices to ensure success. Mariana, with years of experience working with remote teams, emphasizes the importance of communication. She says, “I would say there are some things that, across our clients, we look for in our developers and our team members because they make a difference. So I think one of the most important things is communication. You would tend to find that with the project that we work on, they are fast paced, they’re challenging. You hit blockers; they’re collaborative. And if there’s somebody that is just waiting for the scrum master or the project owner to say like, ‘Oh, hey, it looks like you’re having trouble,’ or ‘It looks like you’re having issues’ or ‘You don’t have any ticket design’ it’s not going to work. Those people very quickly don’t make it in our team.”