Luis Derechin: Only 1 in 4 Offshore Hires Succeeds. Here's Why. | Ep 1320
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How did Luis’s early startup experience shape his offshore hiring strategy?
Welcome to Corizont Technologies, home of the Digital Executive Podcast. Do you work in Emergent Tech, working on something innovative, maybe an entrepreneur? Apply to be a guest at www.corizant.com forward slash brand. Welcome to the Digital Executive. Today's guest is Lewis DeRetchen. Lewis DeRetchen is a serial entrepreneur, global talent strategist, and the founder and CEO of Near You, a nearshore staffing company that helps U.S. and Canadian companies hire full-time talent across 12 Latin American countries. He is the author of Amazon's number one bestseller, The Offshore Team Death Trap, and the creator of the Remote Intelligence Framework, Easter. Started his first company at the age of 18. In the early 2000s, he founded Jackbee, the first Mexican technology startup to land U.S.
venture capital funding, enterprise massive software that let businesses build dashboard applications out of scattered data sources. Jackbee made the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 and was acquired by Software AG, one of Germany's leading software companies in 2013. Well, good afternoon, Lewis. Welcome to the show. Hey, how are you, Brian? Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure. Absolutely, my friend. I appreciate it. Love traversing the globe. 90% of my podcasts, well, probably about in the high 80s now, are in the US or North America, but to North America, you're in Mexico City today. That's awesome. I'm in Kansas City. So just a few hours apart, essentially, as far as travel goes, but we are on the same time zone.
So I appreciate that. Luis, let's jump into your first question. I want to get this thing kicked off. You started your first company at 18 and in the early 2000s co-founded JATB, the first Mexican tech startup to land U.S. venture capital enterprise mashup software that made the Deloitte technology Fast 50 and was eventually acquired by Software AG. But you've said the part you didn't plan was the team. How did building an integrated US-Latin America team out of necessity at Jack Bee become the foundation for everything you do now.
Wow. You just made twenty five years of my life flash B. That was amazing. So look, the story is pretty simple, right? Entrepreneur trying to do entrepreneurial things in order to survive. When we first raised our venture capital round, I thought that I was king of the world. And we moved, the company was founded in Mexico, as you said, moved to the US. And then when I got to the US, realized that US wages were very expensive. And if I wanted to be Up or hire the entire team, I would go through through the capital I raised very quickly. So, like on an entrepreneur, you start thinking, what can I do differently? And in my case, the goal was let's prolong the runway because the longer you can last as a new venture, theoretically, you'll have more of an opportunity to find product market fit.
So my job was let's hire. Everyone that we need, but I would like to spend less money. So I resorted to that which I knew. And it was, I'm gonna hire some positions in the US, the key positions, no doubt, because people need to understand US market, US culture. I mean, all those things if you're going to sell into the US, but a lot of the other work could be done remotely. And that's what we did.
Why do only 1 in 4 offshore hiring attempts succeed?
And we saved 70, 80 percent of what the cost of the same positions or the As people filling the same positions from the US would cost. And that way we were able to prolong our runway, which is what I said. Ultimately, we got to a point where we raised more venture capital, right? And we were able to prove out the concept enough to raise more venture capital. And the company stayed around for 14 years until it's acquisition. But throughout the 14 years, what we did is we had a blend of team. We had positions in the US, people that understood the market, people that knew what they had to do. We then had some engineering and some other back office positions in Latin America, not only Mexico, but Mexico, Colombia, Brazil.
And then we had an engineering office in India. So this blended team gave us gave us great coverage.
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Chapters
7 chapters
1
How did Luis’s early startup experience shape his offshore hiring strategy?
0:08–3:29
2
Why do only 1 in 4 offshore hiring attempts succeed?
3:29–7:19
3
What are the seven “Offshore Team Death Traps” that cause failures?
7:19–9:40
4
How does the “Talent Mirage” trap undermine remote project performance?
9:40–11:48
5
What is the Remote Intelligence Framework (R‑E‑M‑O‑T‑E) and how does it prevent death traps?
11:48–14:12
6
Why is rigorous talent selection and expert onboarding critical for remote teams?
14:12–17:01
7
How does transparent cost‑plus pricing improve offshore team scalability?
17:01–17:57
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from The Digital Executive
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