Executive Talent Can Be Global

Nick Huber discovered that executive-level talent can be hired globally at significantly better value than expensive local hires, challenging the conventional wisdom that C-suite positions require high-cost American talent with prestigious backgrounds.

Key Realizations:

• Initial Assumptions Were Wrong:

  • Started with the belief that C-suite folks should be local or American hires with expensive packages and pedigree from recognizable companies
  • This made "total sense on paper" but wasn't actually optimal

• The Executive Talent Discovery:

  • Rebuilt not just junior and mid-level teams but the entire executive team with international talent
  • Found people like: someone in South Africa with an MBA, perfect English, 12 years at international/American companies, working as a financial controller
  • You're "saving huge amounts of money on really great talent and really hungry low maintenance hard worker hardworking talent all around the globe"

• Current Team Composition Across Companies:

  • Somewhere: 6 Americans out of 160 employees
  • Ari Kosteg: 7 Americans out of 130 employees
  • Bolt Storage: 6 Americans out of 60 employees
  • Americans are primarily in sales and account management because "I just can't replicate the Americans' ability to close deals high ticket deals"

• Executive Roles Filled Internationally:

  • COO in Johannesburg, South Africa
  • Head of Performance Marketing in Bogotá, Colombia
  • Head of Finance in Cape Town, South Africa
  • IT consultant who handled SOC 2 compliance in Cape Town

• The Mindset Shift:

  • Used to think: "I need repeatable tasks and I need to outsource those to the Philippines, South Africa, Colombia"
  • Now realizes: "The people who can run my company can do it better and cheaper internationally"

• Geographic Hotspots by Function:

  • Egypt (Cairo): Cheapest city in the world for finance and data analysts who "can work magic in Microsoft Excel and Power BI"
  • Colombia and Brazil: "Unbelievable for operations" and on your same time zone
  • South Africa: Sales and finance hub - 30,000 South Africans go to America annually for Big Four consulting work, then return and can be hired for "$3[0,000] a month to be a controller at your small business"
  • Sri Lanka: Great for almost all roles
  • Philippines: 30,000,000 Filipinos already working for American companies, "deeply ingrained in their culture"
  • Eastern Europe: Engineers