The Nearshore Cafe

A 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 reality of building a company: the first painful years, the 2008 collapse and restart, and the decisions that eventually helped him scale to roughly 110 employees across multiple locations.

We dig into a simple framework that changes how you lead: y...

Hiring 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 hire in Mexico, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, and Nicaragua — what it costs, where to look, and the mistakes that sink nearshore hiring strategies before they even start. From QA engineers to AI and data engineering talent, this is the complete 2026 pla...

Real 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 to unpack seven real case studies sourced by senior Plugg recruiter Xiomara "Xio" Santana, one of the top performers on Plugg's nearshore staffing team, who alone closed 39 placements across Brazil and Mexico in 2025. From a Brazilian project manager...

Mario 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 largest payroll services companies in the region. In this conversation, we get into the "sales triangle" of Mexico's three business cities, how sales talent differs from Colombia to Argentina to Brazil, the AI tools changing the game for outbound teams, and wh...

Victor 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 plants and steel factories, then a single phone call in 2021 that pulled him into the data world. We talk about what it's like building for U.S. teams from Northeast Brazil, the cultural shock of his first American standup, and how he thinks about AI on p...

The 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 down with Robert Richard, Chief Digital Officer at Tier 4 Group and the creator behind the H1B Guy, to talk about what is actually happening inside high-skilled immigration and the labor market right now.

We unpack how H1B hiring works in the real world...

In 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 growing up in Alabama to relocating to Mérida, Mexico, Jen shares how she and her husband “nearshored themselves” by leveraging remote work, lowering their cost of living, and building a business that now helps others move overseas.

They discuss e...

What 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 Costa Rica. 

In this episode, Doug shares his transition from a Pennsylvania-based founder to a nearshoring pioneer. We explore the logistical and cultural "must-haves" for setting up shop in Latin America, from choosing the right free trade zones to hiring...

How 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 Latin America for over two decades.

What started as a backpacking trip to Patagonia turned into a 20-year career as a financial leader and international consultant. From his early days as a CPA in Mendoza during the 2004 financial crisis to managing multi-c...

In 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 real-world business environments.

Oleg shares why AI should be treated like a junior team member—not a finished product—and how continuous training, iteration, and feedback are essential to unlocking real value.

They also explore how companies...

In 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 America.

He explains what the country looked like before the recent political shift, what Venezuelans are experiencing today, and why companies looking to hire globally should keep an eye on the country’s evolving talent landscape.

Watch the full episode:
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In 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 America.

Joe shares how his background in ATMs, online payments, and government software led him to outsource customer support — first in the U.S., then nearshore in Nicaragua. He discusses the challenges of English proficiency, professionalism, backgrou...

In 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 businesses in Panama and Colombia.

Chad shares how his journey began in Panama in 2007, where he built and scaled a Spanish-language CRM serving nearly the entire real estate market. From there, the conversation moves into Colombia — comparing Bogotá vs M...

In 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 Riddell, Head of Deal Advisory for Brazil and South America at KPMG Brazil.

Together, they explore the evolving M&A landscape in Latin America and why investor confidence is rising heading into 2026. Drawing from KPMG’s global executive research an...

Welcome 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 English-speaking software engineers and digital talent across Latin America.

In this episode, Brian sits down with Marvin Martinez, CEO and Founder of Bandsaw AI, to break down how businesses are practically implementing AI today. They explore the differe...

In this final episode of 2025, Brian Samson sits down with Ruben Santana, President of Plugg Technologies, to break down how nearshore hiring evolved this year—and what U.S. companies should expect in 2026.

They discuss why companies are moving away from traditional offshoring toward nearshore teams in Latin America, focusing on time zone alignment, project delivery speed, English fluency, and long-term retention. Ruben shares...

 Thinking about nearshoring? Wondering how it compares to outsourcing, offshoring, or onshoring? In this value-packed episode of The Nearshore Cafe Podcast, host Brian Samson — CEO of Plugg Technologies — answers the 7 most frequently asked questions about nearshoring in 2025.

From cost savings of 40–70%, to real-time collaboration with Latin American developers, Brian explains how nearshoring can help U.S. co...

How fast can companies build high-performing nearshore teams?

In this episode of The Nearshore Cafe Podcast, host Brian Samson, Founder of Plugg Technologies, explains how U.S. companies can go from zero to fully onboarded nearshore talent in as little as 14 days.

Brian breaks down why nearshoring in Latin America outperforms traditional offshoring, focusing on time zone alignment, communication, cultural fit, and long-term performan...

In this episode of The Nearshore Cafe Podcast, host Brian Samson sits down with Ricky Michel, founder of Ualett, to talk about building a fintech company from the Dominican Republic—and why the gig worker and rideshare driver economy is still underserved by traditional banks.

Ricky shares how Ualettwas founded in 2018, how the team designed a mobile-first, low-friction liquidity experience by spending time directly with driver...