In this episode of The Nearshore Cafe Podcast, host Brian Samson, founder of Plug Technologies, shares a powerful case study about how he helped a Series B tech company in San Francisco achieve significant cost savings and drive business growth during the pandemic.
Startups can significantly reduce engineering costs by hiring senior developers from Latin America through nearshoring solutions such as Plugg Technologies. In one case study, a San Francisco-based Series B company replaced high-cost Bay Area engineers with vetted developers from Mexico and Argentina. This approach delivered substantial salary savings, same-time-zone collaboration, and access to high-caliber talent with expertise in specialized tech stacks. The result was faster product development, lower costs, and no compromise on quality.
Yes. Nearshoring to Latin America is a highly viable strategy for U.S. tech companies that need skilled developers aligned with U.S. time zones, fluent in English, and experienced in advanced technical environments. In this case study, a CTO with a Stanford and Berkeley computer science background described being “blown away” by the engineers Plugg introduced. Within just two days, he hired two senior developers who immediately contributed to product growth and improved market fit.
Hiring engineers from Latin America offers cost savings of up to 60–70% compared to Silicon Valley salaries, along with the advantage of real-time collaboration due to shared or overlapping time zones. Companies gain access to specialized senior talent already experienced in U.S. tech environments and can speed up hiring through pre-vetted talent pools. Since no physical office is required, startups and enterprises can scale smarter, reinvest savings into product or marketing, and extend runway without reducing quality.
Brian: Hi, I’m Brian Samson, host of the Nearshore Cafe podcast, and I’m also the founder of Plugg Technologies, a staffing company that connects talent from all over Latin America to US companies. Today, I’d like to share a case study of how we worked with a Series B tech company right in San Francisco and moved their business forward and all the attributes that came from that.
So, I want to go back to May of 2020. You guys remember this time period, right in the thick of COVID? We’re wearing masks to go to the grocery store. No one’s leaving their apartment or house. We’re watching CNN all day to find out what’s going on with vaccines and all the scary news out there. But business went on. You know, it’s one thing for this to be late March and business kind of paused. By May, business was back, but it was all remote.
So, I had a Series B company, the CTO and co-founder of this company. They were pretty far along, and he realized right away some arbitrage opportunity because he called me and said, “Hey Brian, I’ve got a guy in San Jose, California, and I’m paying him over $2K a year to work from home. There’s no more benefit of being together in the office.” He was in the office, but now he’s not, and there’s no end in sight. Surely, if I’m just going to have engineers work from their home office, I can get strong engineers for a better price point. Is this something I could get in Latin America?” Big smile came over my face, “Of course!”
So, we had a talent pocket already of senior developers that met his hyper-specific tech stack. In this case, they were in Argentina and Mexico. We went ahead, and within two days, had introduced him to a couple of these people. He was blown away in the interviews. And I’ll say that my buddy, he’s tough: Stanford CS degree and then a Berkeley degree, a Master’s in CS. So, he knows his stuff. He’s tough, high hiring bar. Blown away with the talent level, he ended up hiring two people that month from us.
So, he didn’t need to spend massive dollars on Bay Area engineers anymore. He had huge cost savings, didn’t lose a minute with workday overlap, and most importantly, he moved the needle on his business. These engineers got to work, made stuff happen, pushed the product forward, and eventually, they had a better product-market fit. They were adding features quickly, and he did this at a cost savings, and he was very, very happy. So, this is a reference account for Plugg.
Brian Samson
Founder at Plugg Technologies
Brian Samson is the founder of Plugg Technologies and a veteran tech entrepreneur, with 10 years building successful nearshoring companies. Brian has helped to grow Plugg into one of the leading nearshoring agencies, connecting technical talent in Latin America; including Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Nicaragua and Colombia with top U.S. companies. Plugg consistently hires and places over 100 LATAM resources each year.
Plugg sponsors and Brian Samson hosts the leading podcast about doing business in Latin America with 70+ episodes, The Nearshore Cafe Podcast. In addition, Plugg brings insight and clarity to clients by supporting them with the details, big and small, to set their team up for success. Everything from currency, customs, hardware, and culture, Plugg provides advice and guidance based on first-hand expat experiences living and doing business across multiple Latin American countries. Plugg Technologies is a trusted partner for businesses seeking future-ready tech solutions including cloud infrastructure, cybersecurity, and digital operations positions
Brian holds an MBA from UCLA Anderson and prior, was an expat in Argentina and a VP of Talent for several San Francisco startups with multiple successful exits (IPO & acquisitions). In his free time he supports foster kids and is a dedicated family man.
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