April 2, 2025 • 29 mins
In this episode of The Nearshore Café Podcast, host Brian Samson sits down with Evan Greenberg, Director of Client Solutions at Plug Technologies (PLUGG.tech), to explore what traveling to 47 countries taught him about global culture—and how that experience shapes his approach to building remote tech teams in Latin America.
🚀 Whether you're passionate about world travel, hiring international talent, or scaling your engineering team with cost-effective solutions, this episode is packed with value.
🎙️ What you’ll hear:
- Unfiltered travel stories from Venezuela, Peru, Italy, Cook Islands, and Bolivia
- How to hire high-level developers in LATAM for up to 60% less than U.S. rates
- Tech hiring trends: ServiceNow, Salesforce, MuleSoft, AI, and more
- Why companies are shifting toward nearshore solutions in Colombia, Costa Rica, Brazil, and beyond
- What makes Latin America a powerhouse for remote work: time zone alignment, strong English, and world-class universities
🎧 Tune in for insights on both culture and code — and walk away with practical knowledge on building diverse, global tech teams that work.
📢 Like what you hear? Don’t forget to follow, rate, and share The Nearshore Café Podcast!
🔗 Guest: Evan Greenberg
🔗 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/evan-greenberg
🎙️ Host: Brian Samson
🌐 Podcast Website: www.nearshorecafepodcast.com
📢 Don’t forget to LIKE, SUBSCRIBE, and TURN ON NOTIFICATIONS for more insights on Latin America’s growing tech scene! 🎧🔥
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome.
Welcome to another episode ofthe Nearshore Cafe podcast.
(00:31):
I'm Brian Sampson, your host.
Before I get into our show, letme thank our sponsor, plug
Technologies.
Pluggtech a great way toconnect talent from all over
Latin America with US companies.
This is going to be a funepisode.
We're going to go all over theworld.
(00:54):
Usually, we'll gethyper-focused on, you know,
argentina or Peru, or Mexico,and so on.
Today we're going to talk toEvan Greenberg, who's been to 47
countries, so you want a littletaste of the world.
This is the show for you,without further ado.
Evan Greenberg, director ofClient Solutions for Plug, it's
(01:17):
great to have you on the show.
Yeah, thanks for having me.
I really appreciate it.
47 countries, a lot of theworld.
How did this travel bug evenget ignited Like?
Was this something thathappened when you were a kid?
Speaker 2 (01:36):
It was, yeah.
So my mom actually traveled alot for work.
She traveled Singapore,thailand, you know, all over and
, you know, brought her family.
So from at a young age, youknow, I was in Bangkok,
singapore, places like that, andreally just loved new cultures.
Also, in fourth grade my dadbought me a geography book and I
(02:03):
read it in like, I think, a dayand memorized every country
flag and just about all thecapitals.
So from a very young age Ialways had a passion for Amazing
.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
I think you had said something about a family trip to
Venezuela as well.
Was that?
Yeah, Are you sure about that?
Speaker 2 (02:23):
We did.
Yeah, that was an interestingone for sure.
So my mom's very adventurous inin travel selection and we went
to.
So we went to Caracas, I think,for a day or two, and then we
went to an island in Venezuela,margarita Island.
Then we, then we decided to gointo the Amazon, which was was
(02:43):
awesome.
We actually took a riverboat ona five or six day adventure to
Angel Falls.
So that was really cool.
We slept in hammocks each night, monkeys were crawling around
our feet.
It was a lot of fun.
I think I was very skinny, butI think I lost like 10 pounds.
So, when I left I was evenskinnier.
(03:04):
So, yeah, it was, it was agreat time Having been back back
to Venezuela but woulddefinitely love to but really
got a real cultural appreciationfor the people in Kanaima, that
where we, where we went, and itwas just, it was just a great
experience.
And remind us how old were youwhen you did that trip
(03:26):
experience and remind us how oldwere you when you did that trip
.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
I was probably like between 12 and 14.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Yeah, so you know I wasn't at that point, I hadn't
been to a ton of places, but itwas.
It was still a place that Ireally appreciated going and
just loved the culture and justhad a great time.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Now we hear a lot about Venezuela in the news.
You know, with inflation andlike worthless money and so
forth.
But you went, maybe at adifferent time, right, and it's
sometimes hard to forget or hardto remember that countries
evolve and you know, just likeArgentina, you know, 100 years
ago was one of the wealthiestcountries in the world, what was
(04:04):
Venezuela like when you werethere?
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Yeah, so when I was there I'm pretty sure I was they
were under Chavez.
You know, there was always likea pretty strong military
presence everywhere at theairport, a lot of businesses
pretty much everywhere.
I never really felt unsafe, butyeah, there was, there was
definitely a huge presencepretty much everywhere.
We went Well, except for therainforest of course, but yeah,
no, I never really felt unsafe.
(04:28):
And you know, we traveled withmy whole family, so my brother
and my sister and my parents, wehad a big crew of us and yeah,
we just again, that's kind ofwhere, like my travel
springboarded and you knowthat's kind of where a lot of it
started.
Since then I've probably beento you know 40-something
(04:50):
countries.
It was definitely one of thefirst ones.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Yeah, that's amazing.
I think travel really canignite.
And you know, 25% of Americanshave a passport and many of
those they're only using it togo to Cancun or something.
And here you are, you know,preteen teenager going to
Venezuela not a very commondestination.
(05:18):
How did that even come up, likethe discussion come up.
I mean, was it okay, we caneither go to Cancun or we can go
to the rainforest in Venezuela?
You know, how did that evencome up in the family
conversation?
Speaker 2 (05:30):
yeah, no, great question.
I'm trying to remember backbecause it's been a while.
But again, my mom's superadventurous.
She usually picks off thebeaten path places, so she knew
she wanted it.
Margarita island is essentiallyan extension of the caribbean,
so it's it's a little bit northof it's an island north of
caracas, so it was.
(05:53):
It was similar to going to thecaribbean, essentially, so I
think that's why she picked ityeah, yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Um, so then you know, fast forward us a little bit,
when you were, I guess, on yourown, an adult, you know, fast
forward us a little bit, whenyou were, I guess, on your own,
an adult, you know what weresome of the first places you
went to.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Sure In Latin America or just anywhere, Anywhere in
the world.
Yeah, I'd say some of the moreunique ones.
I've been to Cook Islands.
I've been to Faroe Islands.
I would say Malta is prettyunique.
Been to Italy several times,that's still one of my favorites
.
Actually got married in Italyas well.
I would say those are some ofmy favorites.
I mean they're kind of all myfavorites because they're all a
(06:31):
little bit different.
You know different foods,different cultures.
You know if you love traveling,you have an appreciation for
everyone because they're alldifferent.
Yeah, so I try not to pickfavorites, but I would say one
of the rarer ones was probablyCook Islands.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Yeah, yeah, we hear about we get ads here in Hawaii
for the Cook Islands all thetime.
I've never been but it lookstotally unspoiled, untapped,
pristine.
Was that your experience?
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Yeah, cook Islands is unique.
There's actually no stoplightson the island.
There's a couple.
I'm not even sure that there'sstop signs.
There might be a couple, butCook Islands is super unique
because it is probably whatHawaii was maybe 10,000, 20, 30,
maybe 30 years ago.
There may be longer.
(07:24):
There's no chain hotels, it'sjust very.
It's also the main island.
Baratonga is actually lagoonprotected.
I'm someone that is prettyfearful of sharks, just to be
honest, and so I kind of likethat clarity of being in a
lagoon protected area, which isnice.
But yeah, it's nice becausethere's actually a direct from
(07:46):
LA.
I think it's once a week.
So I actually got a free flightto LA on points and then I paid
the difference and I think theflight was like 50% off.
So it was very economical toget there, which is usually not
the case.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Amazing.
How about Italy?
You've been there quite a fewtimes.
Where'd you go?
What was your experience there?
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Yeah, Italy is definitely.
Again, I said I don't likefavorites, but it's kind of a
favorite just because of foodand culture.
But yeah, so I got married inPuglia, which is the boot of
Italy, opposite Amalfi Coast.
That's a special region, youknow.
They're known for wine, oliveoil.
It's more of an agriculturalkind of area but it's got some
of the most unspoiled beaches.
(08:29):
It's got limestone cliffs.
The place that I got marriedactually does a Red Bull cliff
diving championship every year.
So that's pretty cool.
Other places I've been in Italy.
You know it's funny, I haven'tbeen to all the you know, quote
unquote touristy cities in Italy.
I think I spent, maybe I thinkI spent like one day in Rome.
(08:50):
I try to, you know, go to otherplaces.
One of my favorites wasactually, uh, Sicily, Love
Sicily.
Just, you know it's close toAfrica, so that's a place that
you know the, the food is alittle bit different than other
parts of Italy.
Yeah, that's definitely aspecial place.
I spent a little bit of time inVenice and kind of northern
(09:13):
Italy.
I went to Trento, which is upnear the border with Austria,
Took a train around Italy,actually More like Venice in the
northern part.
That was super fun.
But, yeah, I definitelyrecommend Puglia to anyone
that's trying to go a little offthe beaten path, and the price
is right as well, and there'salso a direct flight from New
York that started like actuallyI think it starts in May or
(09:35):
something this year, soAmericans cannot go to Puglia
without going to Rome or otherplaces in between very cool.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
You mentioned the food just a little bit.
Can you tell us more?
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Yeah well, I'm you know, again, like I'm a pasta
lover and you know I like I likegood wine as well, so you
really cannot go wrong with withthat in Italy.
I would say the seafood inPuglia was really, really
special.
They also did the orchieri uhpasta, which is the ear-shaped
(10:05):
pasta that's unique to thatregion.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Just a lot of local vineyards and a lot of local
farms which kind of make it, youknow, super, super unique yeah,
let's uh, um, maybe switch alittle bit to as when in Asia
have you been besides Singaporeand Thailand as a kid?
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Yeah, those are the only ones that I've been to was
Singapore and Thailand.
I was probably 15, 16,something like that.
I think I was in high schoolactually.
But actually, fun fact, thereat the time I was on the world's
longest non-stop flight and I Ithink I got like a plaque or
(10:51):
something, which is pretty cool.
The flight was like 19, 20hours, uh, something like that,
and it was uh, yeah, it wasdefinitely a long one was that
the new york to sing Was.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
That is that what that was.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
It was, yeah, it was Newark.
It was actually it was.
I think it was Newark toSingapore, yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Yeah, and so, yeah, that was unique.
You know I I don't really likesleeping on planes.
Uh, I think I played videogames about 12 hours, um, and
then got sick of it and maybe,maybe, maybe, that caused me to
go to sleep, but, uh, that wasdefinitely my longest.
That was definitely the longest.
Uh, that was definitely thelongest flight for me.
No, singapore, singapore wasgreat.
(11:32):
Singapore's got some very goodrestaurants.
Even the street food is supergood.
Obviously, it's a huge hub forfor businesses now, banking and
just about everything else underthe sun.
But, yeah, singapore, singaporewas great.
Thailand was also great.
Went to a Muay Thai match.
Um, that was super cool.
You know, it's superinteresting like somebody got
(11:53):
knocked out and they just lefthim in the lobby.
That that was a littlestartling.
But, yeah, I would say that.
I would say the overallexperience, thailand was great.
The scenery is great, great,the temples are really nice.
Obviously, the food's reallygood.
I'm into spicy food, sodefinitely a good place for me.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
So this is the Nearshore Cafe podcast.
We do talk a lot about LatinAmerica.
You touched on Venezuela.
Where else in Latin Americahave you been to?
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Yeah, sure, so I've been to Peru Again.
The reason I went to Peru Ifound a flight deal on Scott's
Cheap Flights I think theychanged their name to Going
recently, but I found a flightdeal from Charleston to Peru for
like 200 bucks round trip and,yeah, I just that was pretty
(12:42):
rare, so I had to go.
So I went with my wife.
I think it was in the last likefive, you know I just that was.
That was pretty rare, so I hadto go.
So I went with my wife.
I think it was in the last likefive, six years, something like
that.
We had a great time.
We love seafood.
It was a great time.
So we did.
We did Lima.
I think we stayed in Mirafloresand then it was my idea, we
skipped Machu Picchu.
Like, machu Picchu is still onmy list, but you know you have
(13:07):
to make like extra preparationsand things like that.
So we actually went to thePeruvian Amazon interesting and
so near the border with Brazil,it.
It was very interesting.
At our hotel we stayed at somesort of like eco lodge situation
.
Uh, in in puerto maldonadothere's a uh, you know, there
were like sloths outside ourwindow, monkeys, all sorts of
(13:30):
things like that I think we dida night, uh, crocodile tour.
That was pretty cool.
Um, we had a great time.
It was a little bit.
We went during rainy season andit rained a lot, so that was
was a little downside, but yeah,it was a great time.
And Peru is special becausethere's so many different kind
(13:50):
of micro areas of Peru that makeit special, like, obviously,
cusco, then you have rainforest,then you have sea, so I thought
that was super special.
Outside of Peru, yeah, I've beento Colombia.
I went to Colombia about twoyears ago.
I just went to bogota, lovebogota a lot.
Again, awesome food.
Colombia is unique because youhave, you know, pacific ocean,
(14:12):
uh, caribbean influence, thenyou have rainforest influence,
so it was neat trying food from,like, all those different areas
.
That was a lot of fun for me.
I used to watch like tons ofepisodes of anthony bourdain
yeah.
And so I'm very influenced by alot of the places that he
traveled as well.
I think I've watched like everysingle episode actually, so so
(14:34):
he's kind of like a hero for me.
Other places I've been probablythe most unique would be
Bolivia.
Yeah, we went there afterColombia.
That was very unique in termsof, well, geographic landscape.
You know it's in the Andes, Ibelieve the elevation's like
(14:54):
13,000 feet.
At the time I lived in Santa Fe, so I lived at 7,300 feet, so I
was already about halfway there.
So I was pretty well, I waspretty well prepped.
Yeah, 13,000 was a bit was wasa bit tough going for a jog.
So you know, even walking, evenwalking was, was tough yeah,
(15:19):
that's almost three miles of sealevel.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Wow was it?
Speaker 2 (15:22):
it was just hard to breathe, yeah it was, yes, and
the food was really good there.
It was so interesting.
We actually had really goodpizza there, which not sure why
they had great pizza, but it wasamazing, actually really good
Bolivian wine.
Fun fact, bolivia has a winecountry close to the Argentina
border, interesting, which youprobably know because you spent
(15:44):
many years in Argentina.
Yeah, bolivia was super unique.
The other place we went to wasLake Titicaca.
It's the highest alpine lake inSouth America.
The border is Peru.
That was interesting because wehad to take two boat rides.
We had to drive for hours andhours and take two boat rides.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Did you start in La Paz and work your way there?
And yeah, tell us about that.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Yeah, yeah, we did so .
We had a travel guide.
I don't really like driving inother countries, just a personal
thing but we had a guide and wedrove to a certain point and
there was a very narrow stretchof water but not a bridge, so we
had to get on this little kindof like dinghy boat, I guess,
(16:32):
just to take us maybe like twominute boat ride, and so it
probably took an hour becausethey had to like load the car
and everything.
So that was interesting, andthen after that we had to drive
again for, like I would say,another hour or two and so, and
then so that we got to.
We got to a city calledCopacabana in Bolivia and it's
(16:55):
actually modeled after the onein Brazil because it kind of
looks the same, it looks similar.
I mean, obviously we're talkingbeach versus lake.
It's modeled after that one.
Yeah, it's super interesting.
So once we got there, I went toan island called Island of the
Sun and it's actually famous'sfamous in like mayan culture and
(17:18):
whatnot.
Yeah, but yeah, it was.
It was, it was a long day, butbut it was a lot of fun.
Yeah, like titty caca was supercool.
It's a huge, huge lake.
Definitely some some greatmemories, even bought like an
alpaca jacket from a local.
Yeah, that was super cool.
I just support local as well.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Now, is that the normal, like Lake Titicaca is
known.
I mean personally I don't knowanybody who's been there besides
you, but is that the common wayto get there?
Is it normally that arduous?
Speaker 2 (17:53):
I think it is.
Yeah, because you pretty muchhave to go over that narrow
stretch of water, yeah, so onceyou get over that stretch again,
you got to drive maybe an houror two to Copacabana and then
you're basically at the start ofTiticaca on the Bolivia side.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
But then you still have to.
If you to go to close to thePeru side or go go to the island
, you have to take a, you haveto take a boat.
So it was definitely prettyarduous but super fun experience
, just glad.
My wife also enjoyed it.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
So well, you said La Paz is about 13,000 feet above
sea level.
Uh, how about Lake TiticacaLake?
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Lake Titicaca.
Don't quote me on it, but Ithink it's.
Yeah, I actually don't know theanswer.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
Yeah, but I mean I'd imagine if it's the highest
alpine lake, it's pretty high upthere, yeah.
So this is interesting.
You know Bolivia, you're upthere.
You're up there in Bolivia.
You know other people mighttalk about the salt flats.
Did you get a chance to seethose?
Speaker 2 (18:58):
I wish I did.
Yeah, I'll have to go back.
Yeah, I actually just did someresearch.
12,500.
Pretty close to La Paz actuallyWow, Wow, Amazing.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
How about, just like the culture, the people you know
?
What do you remember about youryour time in Bolivia?
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Yeah, again, you know the people were super friendly,
locals, travel guides.
One of the places was cash onlyand I I don't usually carry
cash and they were so nice thatI came back the next day and
paid them in cash, like inAmerica.
No one would do that, honestly.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
So you know, again, I thought the people were awesome
, I thought you know it's funny,a lot of the places that I
travel to maybe two, three yearslater they're on like top
places to visit kind of lists.
Bolivia is actually one of them.
I think they were recently onCondé Nast or Travel and
Leisure's you know place tocheck out this year, and
actually the hotel that I stayedat was was on that list as well
(19:56):
.
So that was.
That was also pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Yeah, it's not.
Uh, it's not talked about a lot, or nearly as much as it should
be.
You know, sometimes I think thelandlocked countries get
forgotten about.
Um, for, sure.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
And it's funny cause we usually we usually try to
pick unique places or go tosomewhere that has a beach, but
for this one it was definitelymore about cultural appreciation
and it was not a beach vacation, as you mentioned, being
landlocked, but it was awesomeseeing the Andes, it was awesome
going to a new country.
It's also fun traveling with mywife because she's super open
(20:34):
to new countries and lovestravel as well, so it's
definitely fun that we can bothdo that together.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
Yeah, and maybe if we go back to Colombia for a
second, if you were just to givesome tips to somebody visiting
Bogota, what are your?
You know top two or threetravel tips, or you know things
that they should check out or bemindful of, or whatever.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Yeah.
So in Bogota again, I wasprobably there about five days.
I mean, for one, I love thecoffee, that I'm a super coffee
nerd.
I would say the coffee.
Definitely go to like a localcoffee shop, do a coffee tasting
, try all the coffee, I wouldsay.
The other, the other thing Ireally liked the food was great.
So there was a restaurantcalled Mesa Franco or Mesa
(21:16):
Franca.
Actually that was one I reallyliked.
There's a restaurant called Leo.
That's really good.
A lot of these are, you know,supporting like local food in
Columbia, where you know it'snot just you know, some sort of
like fried food or something.
It's super local to like aspecific region of Colombia.
(21:39):
I thought that was really cool.
Let's see what else I mean.
The other thing I really likedin Colombia I would say it was
really easy to get around.
A lot of Uber, like Uber wassuper easy.
Airport was super nice.
I never felt unsafe in Colombia.
I know certain countries kindof get certain images and
(22:02):
whatnot, but again, I never feltunsafe in Colombia.
I had a great time.
You know, we did some touristythings.
We went to like a nice churchup on the mountain in Colombia.
But yeah, if I were to do itagain.
I'm not sure I'd change toomuch.
I mean, we fit in a lot and uhyeah, we, we had a great time.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
I think that's great.
Well, uh, this is the nearshore cafe podcast and we um, we
love talking to people like youwho've we love talking to
people like you who'veexperienced it firsthand.
Knowledge, you know, kind ofseen it, maybe for business
people that are learning aboutthe talent in Latin America.
(22:42):
What should they know?
Like?
Speaker 2 (22:52):
from your experiences .
Why would somebody want to lookat Latin America for talent?
That's a great question.
So, yeah, this is something youknow.
We hear a lot in terms ofuniversity systems being really
high level.
Again, like in Monterey, theyhave a really great university
that is similar to like MIT,where a lot of engineers
graduate.
Where a lot of engineersgraduate, obviously, brazil has
(23:12):
like half a million developers.
Argentina's got a ton of reallygood talent for developers.
But you know, even othercountries, right, like Latin
America is super big and there'sa lot of opportunity.
We've seen a lot of companiesmove operations and certain jobs
to Guatemala, nicaragua, evenBolivia a bit.
My wife's company, their wholeinside sales division is
(23:39):
actually out of Costa Rica andI've seen some other big
companies move things toColombia and other places as
well.
But, yeah, I would say ingeneral that that talent pool is
super.
You know, it's huge.
A lot of companies in the uslike, uh, time zone alignment,
right, they don't want to dealwith um, people being 12, 15
(24:00):
hour difference, just, it's justbetter for collaboration,
communication.
Uh, there's a lot of culturalsynergy that is aligned with
latin america.
Uh, talent.
I would say the other thingagain is kind is kind of the
cost-effectiveness right.
I was reading something theother day where you know Seattle
, there was kind of a debatearound Seattle versus San
Francisco, for engineers andpeople are saying now that
(24:22):
Seattle is like maybe more, like, better, more prominent for
certain reasons.
I think in Latin America theadvantage is definitely the
cost-effect effectiveness of thetalent You're going to get a
highly skilled resource for youknow, potentially 40 to 60
percent cheaper than you knowsomeone in the US Right Without,
(24:48):
without the, without thequality that you're giving up
right.
So I've definitely seen that alot.
Yeah, I think that's it forthat.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
Yeah, yeah, Evan, tell me more about you know, in
your role as director of clientsolutions, you're talking to a
lot of different companies.
You're seeing differenttechnologies that are hot right
now, you know.
Tell us a little more aboutwhat you're seeing, and then
maybe even the opportunity forleveraging talent in Latin
America.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
Yeah, sure.
So again, here at Plug, we seea lot of different technologies
and including technologies androles, but definitely ServiceNow
, definitely SAP MuleSoftSalesforce, servicenow,
definitely SAP MuleSoftSalesforce.
(25:38):
There's a lot of.
Obviously, ai is super hot, butwith AI being super hot,
servicenow just bought an AIcompany in the last week.
There's a huge talent gap andtalent shortage of ServiceNow
implementers and developers, sothat's definitely something that
we are seeing in the market Interms of overall jobs.
You know we're seeing a bit ofeverything right, most are
probably engineering, but a loton the non-IT side as well.
(26:00):
So, yeah, it's definitely superinteresting and you know,
there's a lot of companies thatmight have operations in India
or other countries but theydon't have recruiting prowess in
Mexico or Colombia or Brazil,and we're definitely seeing a
lot of that, where people,companies or their clients are
(26:23):
really asking for skill sets andtalent in countries across
Latin America like Brazil, chile, colombia.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
You know, all over, it's definitely been, it's
definitely been a really I wouldsay those have been really hot
areas yeah, Evan, for somebodywho's been to 47 countries,
you've got a kind of a pulsethat countries are unique,
people are unique, culture isunique.
(26:54):
How you might lead a team inIndia might be totally different
than Vietnam and Africa and soforth.
How about if a company islooking to build a team in Latin
America?
Do you have any like just acouple of tips or advice on?
You know they can get the bestout of their investment and best
(27:17):
out of their team.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
Sure, yeah, you know, I've definitely seen that Latin
American talent is superhardworking.
Obviously I touched on theuniversity systems being really
strong.
I would say another thing youknow English has been really
strong with a lot of the talent,so there's not really that
communication gap.
I would say those are kind ofthe main things that I've seen,
(27:43):
you know.
Yeah, yeah, I think those arekind of the main things, okay
okay, great.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
Last question here, Evan, as somebody who's been to
47.
What are the other ones on yourlist?
You know, like if you were toget to 50, what are the next
three that are jumping out ofyou right now?
Speaker 2 (28:00):
So I would say definitely Argentina.
It's just it's one I've beentalking about for a long time.
I would say Uruguay, and youknow, those can, those can be
combined, which is nice.
They're kind of close.
Outside of that, I've notreally been to Africa.
I do have a baby that's alittle bit older than one years
(28:22):
old, so I don't know that I'mgoing to Africa anytime soon or
anywhere too far, but SouthAfrica is definitely on my list
as well.
I've always been intrigued withanimals, and my parents got to
go to Kenya and Tanzania in thelast 10 years and they really
liked that, so I would say thoseare definitely some top ones
(28:43):
for me.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
Good Around the World with Evan Greenberg.
This has been a really funconversation.
It's a podcast sponsored byPlug Technologies pluggtech a
great way to connect talent fromall over Latin America with US
companies.
Evan, thanks so much for yourtime today.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
I enjoyed it.
Thanks for having me.
Let's do it again.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
All right, Thanks everyone.
Welcome.
Welcome to another episode ofthe Nearshore Cafe podcast.
(00:31):
I'm Brian Sampson, your host.
Before I get into our show, letme thank our sponsor, plug
Technologies.
Pluggtech a great way toconnect talent from all over
Latin America with US companies.
This is going to be a funepisode.
We're going to go all over theworld.
(00:54):
Usually, we'll gethyper-focused on, you know,
argentina or Peru, or Mexico,and so on.
Today we're going to talk toEvan Greenberg, who's been to 47
countries, so you want a littletaste of the world.
This is the show for you,without further ado.
Evan Greenberg, director ofClient Solutions for Plug, it's
(01:17):
great to have you on the show.
Yeah, thanks for having me.
I really appreciate it.
47 countries, a lot of theworld.
How did this travel bug evenget ignited Like?
Was this something thathappened when you were a kid?
Speaker 2 (01:36):
It was, yeah.
So my mom actually traveled alot for work.
She traveled Singapore,thailand, you know, all over and
, you know, brought her family.
So from at a young age, youknow, I was in Bangkok,
singapore, places like that, andreally just loved new cultures.
Also, in fourth grade my dadbought me a geography book and I
(02:03):
read it in like, I think, a dayand memorized every country
flag and just about all thecapitals.
So from a very young age Ialways had a passion for Amazing
.
Speaker 1 (02:15):
I think you had said something about a family trip to
Venezuela as well.
Was that?
Yeah, Are you sure about that?
Speaker 2 (02:23):
We did.
Yeah, that was an interestingone for sure.
So my mom's very adventurous inin travel selection and we went
to.
So we went to Caracas, I think,for a day or two, and then we
went to an island in Venezuela,margarita Island.
Then we, then we decided to gointo the Amazon, which was was
(02:43):
awesome.
We actually took a riverboat ona five or six day adventure to
Angel Falls.
So that was really cool.
We slept in hammocks each night, monkeys were crawling around
our feet.
It was a lot of fun.
I think I was very skinny, butI think I lost like 10 pounds.
So, when I left I was evenskinnier.
(03:04):
So, yeah, it was, it was agreat time Having been back back
to Venezuela but woulddefinitely love to but really
got a real cultural appreciationfor the people in Kanaima, that
where we, where we went, and itwas just, it was just a great
experience.
And remind us how old were youwhen you did that trip
(03:26):
experience and remind us how oldwere you when you did that trip
.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
I was probably like between 12 and 14.
Speaker 2 (03:29):
Yeah, so you know I wasn't at that point, I hadn't
been to a ton of places, but itwas.
It was still a place that Ireally appreciated going and
just loved the culture and justhad a great time.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
Now we hear a lot about Venezuela in the news.
You know, with inflation andlike worthless money and so
forth.
But you went, maybe at adifferent time, right, and it's
sometimes hard to forget or hardto remember that countries
evolve and you know, just likeArgentina, you know, 100 years
ago was one of the wealthiestcountries in the world, what was
(04:04):
Venezuela like when you werethere?
Speaker 2 (04:07):
Yeah, so when I was there I'm pretty sure I was they
were under Chavez.
You know, there was always likea pretty strong military
presence everywhere at theairport, a lot of businesses
pretty much everywhere.
I never really felt unsafe, butyeah, there was, there was
definitely a huge presencepretty much everywhere.
We went Well, except for therainforest of course, but yeah,
no, I never really felt unsafe.
(04:28):
And you know, we traveled withmy whole family, so my brother
and my sister and my parents, wehad a big crew of us and yeah,
we just again, that's kind ofwhere, like my travel
springboarded and you knowthat's kind of where a lot of it
started.
Since then I've probably beento you know 40-something
(04:50):
countries.
It was definitely one of thefirst ones.
Speaker 1 (04:54):
Yeah, that's amazing.
I think travel really canignite.
And you know, 25% of Americanshave a passport and many of
those they're only using it togo to Cancun or something.
And here you are, you know,preteen teenager going to
Venezuela not a very commondestination.
(05:18):
How did that even come up, likethe discussion come up.
I mean, was it okay, we caneither go to Cancun or we can go
to the rainforest in Venezuela?
You know, how did that evencome up in the family
conversation?
Speaker 2 (05:30):
yeah, no, great question.
I'm trying to remember backbecause it's been a while.
But again, my mom's superadventurous.
She usually picks off thebeaten path places, so she knew
she wanted it.
Margarita island is essentiallyan extension of the caribbean,
so it's it's a little bit northof it's an island north of
caracas, so it was.
(05:53):
It was similar to going to thecaribbean, essentially, so I
think that's why she picked ityeah, yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Um, so then you know, fast forward us a little bit,
when you were, I guess, on yourown, an adult, you know, fast
forward us a little bit, whenyou were, I guess, on your own,
an adult, you know what weresome of the first places you
went to.
Speaker 2 (06:09):
Sure In Latin America or just anywhere, Anywhere in
the world.
Yeah, I'd say some of the moreunique ones.
I've been to Cook Islands.
I've been to Faroe Islands.
I would say Malta is prettyunique.
Been to Italy several times,that's still one of my favorites
.
Actually got married in Italyas well.
I would say those are some ofmy favorites.
I mean they're kind of all myfavorites because they're all a
(06:31):
little bit different.
You know different foods,different cultures.
You know if you love traveling,you have an appreciation for
everyone because they're alldifferent.
Yeah, so I try not to pickfavorites, but I would say one
of the rarer ones was probablyCook Islands.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Yeah, yeah, we hear about we get ads here in Hawaii
for the Cook Islands all thetime.
I've never been but it lookstotally unspoiled, untapped,
pristine.
Was that your experience?
Speaker 2 (07:03):
Yeah, cook Islands is unique.
There's actually no stoplightson the island.
There's a couple.
I'm not even sure that there'sstop signs.
There might be a couple, butCook Islands is super unique
because it is probably whatHawaii was maybe 10,000, 20, 30,
maybe 30 years ago.
There may be longer.
(07:24):
There's no chain hotels, it'sjust very.
It's also the main island.
Baratonga is actually lagoonprotected.
I'm someone that is prettyfearful of sharks, just to be
honest, and so I kind of likethat clarity of being in a
lagoon protected area, which isnice.
But yeah, it's nice becausethere's actually a direct from
(07:46):
LA.
I think it's once a week.
So I actually got a free flightto LA on points and then I paid
the difference and I think theflight was like 50% off.
So it was very economical toget there, which is usually not
the case.
Speaker 1 (08:01):
Amazing.
How about Italy?
You've been there quite a fewtimes.
Where'd you go?
What was your experience there?
Speaker 2 (08:08):
Yeah, Italy is definitely.
Again, I said I don't likefavorites, but it's kind of a
favorite just because of foodand culture.
But yeah, so I got married inPuglia, which is the boot of
Italy, opposite Amalfi Coast.
That's a special region, youknow.
They're known for wine, oliveoil.
It's more of an agriculturalkind of area but it's got some
of the most unspoiled beaches.
(08:29):
It's got limestone cliffs.
The place that I got marriedactually does a Red Bull cliff
diving championship every year.
So that's pretty cool.
Other places I've been in Italy.
You know it's funny, I haven'tbeen to all the you know, quote
unquote touristy cities in Italy.
I think I spent, maybe I thinkI spent like one day in Rome.
(08:50):
I try to, you know, go to otherplaces.
One of my favorites wasactually, uh, Sicily, Love
Sicily.
Just, you know it's close toAfrica, so that's a place that
you know the, the food is alittle bit different than other
parts of Italy.
Yeah, that's definitely aspecial place.
I spent a little bit of time inVenice and kind of northern
(09:13):
Italy.
I went to Trento, which is upnear the border with Austria,
Took a train around Italy,actually More like Venice in the
northern part.
That was super fun.
But, yeah, I definitelyrecommend Puglia to anyone
that's trying to go a little offthe beaten path, and the price
is right as well, and there'salso a direct flight from New
York that started like actuallyI think it starts in May or
(09:35):
something this year, soAmericans cannot go to Puglia
without going to Rome or otherplaces in between very cool.
Speaker 1 (09:42):
You mentioned the food just a little bit.
Can you tell us more?
Speaker 2 (09:45):
Yeah well, I'm you know, again, like I'm a pasta
lover and you know I like I likegood wine as well, so you
really cannot go wrong with withthat in Italy.
I would say the seafood inPuglia was really, really
special.
They also did the orchieri uhpasta, which is the ear-shaped
(10:05):
pasta that's unique to thatregion.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
Just a lot of local vineyards and a lot of local
farms which kind of make it, youknow, super, super unique yeah,
let's uh, um, maybe switch alittle bit to as when in Asia
have you been besides Singaporeand Thailand as a kid?
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Yeah, those are the only ones that I've been to was
Singapore and Thailand.
I was probably 15, 16,something like that.
I think I was in high schoolactually.
But actually, fun fact, thereat the time I was on the world's
longest non-stop flight and I Ithink I got like a plaque or
(10:51):
something, which is pretty cool.
The flight was like 19, 20hours, uh, something like that,
and it was uh, yeah, it wasdefinitely a long one was that
the new york to sing Was.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
That is that what that was.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
It was, yeah, it was Newark.
It was actually it was.
I think it was Newark toSingapore, yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:10):
Yeah, and so, yeah, that was unique.
You know I I don't really likesleeping on planes.
Uh, I think I played videogames about 12 hours, um, and
then got sick of it and maybe,maybe, maybe, that caused me to
go to sleep, but, uh, that wasdefinitely my longest.
That was definitely the longest.
Uh, that was definitely thelongest flight for me.
No, singapore, singapore wasgreat.
(11:32):
Singapore's got some very goodrestaurants.
Even the street food is supergood.
Obviously, it's a huge hub forfor businesses now, banking and
just about everything else underthe sun.
But, yeah, singapore, singaporewas great.
Thailand was also great.
Went to a Muay Thai match.
Um, that was super cool.
You know, it's superinteresting like somebody got
(11:53):
knocked out and they just lefthim in the lobby.
That that was a littlestartling.
But, yeah, I would say that.
I would say the overallexperience, thailand was great.
The scenery is great, great,the temples are really nice.
Obviously, the food's reallygood.
I'm into spicy food, sodefinitely a good place for me.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
So this is the Nearshore Cafe podcast.
We do talk a lot about LatinAmerica.
You touched on Venezuela.
Where else in Latin Americahave you been to?
Speaker 2 (12:20):
Yeah, sure, so I've been to Peru Again.
The reason I went to Peru Ifound a flight deal on Scott's
Cheap Flights I think theychanged their name to Going
recently, but I found a flightdeal from Charleston to Peru for
like 200 bucks round trip and,yeah, I just that was pretty
(12:42):
rare, so I had to go.
So I went with my wife.
I think it was in the last likefive, you know I just that was.
That was pretty rare, so I hadto go.
So I went with my wife.
I think it was in the last likefive, six years, something like
that.
We had a great time.
We love seafood.
It was a great time.
So we did.
We did Lima.
I think we stayed in Mirafloresand then it was my idea, we
skipped Machu Picchu.
Like, machu Picchu is still onmy list, but you know you have
(13:07):
to make like extra preparationsand things like that.
So we actually went to thePeruvian Amazon interesting and
so near the border with Brazil,it.
It was very interesting.
At our hotel we stayed at somesort of like eco lodge situation
.
Uh, in in puerto maldonadothere's a uh, you know, there
were like sloths outside ourwindow, monkeys, all sorts of
(13:30):
things like that I think we dida night, uh, crocodile tour.
That was pretty cool.
Um, we had a great time.
It was a little bit.
We went during rainy season andit rained a lot, so that was
was a little downside, but yeah,it was a great time.
And Peru is special becausethere's so many different kind
(13:50):
of micro areas of Peru that makeit special, like, obviously,
cusco, then you have rainforest,then you have sea, so I thought
that was super special.
Outside of Peru, yeah, I've beento Colombia.
I went to Colombia about twoyears ago.
I just went to bogota, lovebogota a lot.
Again, awesome food.
Colombia is unique because youhave, you know, pacific ocean,
(14:12):
uh, caribbean influence, thenyou have rainforest influence,
so it was neat trying food from,like, all those different areas
.
That was a lot of fun for me.
I used to watch like tons ofepisodes of anthony bourdain
yeah.
And so I'm very influenced by alot of the places that he
traveled as well.
I think I've watched like everysingle episode actually, so so
(14:34):
he's kind of like a hero for me.
Other places I've been probablythe most unique would be
Bolivia.
Yeah, we went there afterColombia.
That was very unique in termsof, well, geographic landscape.
You know it's in the Andes, Ibelieve the elevation's like
(14:54):
13,000 feet.
At the time I lived in Santa Fe, so I lived at 7,300 feet, so I
was already about halfway there.
So I was pretty well, I waspretty well prepped.
Yeah, 13,000 was a bit was wasa bit tough going for a jog.
So you know, even walking, evenwalking was, was tough yeah,
(15:19):
that's almost three miles of sealevel.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Wow was it?
Speaker 2 (15:22):
it was just hard to breathe, yeah it was, yes, and
the food was really good there.
It was so interesting.
We actually had really goodpizza there, which not sure why
they had great pizza, but it wasamazing, actually really good
Bolivian wine.
Fun fact, bolivia has a winecountry close to the Argentina
border, interesting, which youprobably know because you spent
(15:44):
many years in Argentina.
Yeah, bolivia was super unique.
The other place we went to wasLake Titicaca.
It's the highest alpine lake inSouth America.
The border is Peru.
That was interesting because wehad to take two boat rides.
We had to drive for hours andhours and take two boat rides.
Speaker 1 (16:04):
Did you start in La Paz and work your way there?
And yeah, tell us about that.
Speaker 2 (16:09):
Yeah, yeah, we did so .
We had a travel guide.
I don't really like driving inother countries, just a personal
thing but we had a guide and wedrove to a certain point and
there was a very narrow stretchof water but not a bridge, so we
had to get on this little kindof like dinghy boat, I guess,
(16:32):
just to take us maybe like twominute boat ride, and so it
probably took an hour becausethey had to like load the car
and everything.
So that was interesting, andthen after that we had to drive
again for, like I would say,another hour or two and so, and
then so that we got to.
We got to a city calledCopacabana in Bolivia and it's
(16:55):
actually modeled after the onein Brazil because it kind of
looks the same, it looks similar.
I mean, obviously we're talkingbeach versus lake.
It's modeled after that one.
Yeah, it's super interesting.
So once we got there, I went toan island called Island of the
Sun and it's actually famous'sfamous in like mayan culture and
(17:18):
whatnot.
Yeah, but yeah, it was.
It was, it was a long day, butbut it was a lot of fun.
Yeah, like titty caca was supercool.
It's a huge, huge lake.
Definitely some some greatmemories, even bought like an
alpaca jacket from a local.
Yeah, that was super cool.
I just support local as well.
Speaker 1 (17:39):
Now, is that the normal, like Lake Titicaca is
known.
I mean personally I don't knowanybody who's been there besides
you, but is that the common wayto get there?
Is it normally that arduous?
Speaker 2 (17:53):
I think it is.
Yeah, because you pretty muchhave to go over that narrow
stretch of water, yeah, so onceyou get over that stretch again,
you got to drive maybe an houror two to Copacabana and then
you're basically at the start ofTiticaca on the Bolivia side.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
But then you still have to.
If you to go to close to thePeru side or go go to the island
, you have to take a, you haveto take a boat.
So it was definitely prettyarduous but super fun experience
, just glad.
My wife also enjoyed it.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
So well, you said La Paz is about 13,000 feet above
sea level.
Uh, how about Lake TiticacaLake?
Speaker 2 (18:33):
Lake Titicaca.
Don't quote me on it, but Ithink it's.
Yeah, I actually don't know theanswer.
Speaker 1 (18:39):
Yeah, but I mean I'd imagine if it's the highest
alpine lake, it's pretty high upthere, yeah.
So this is interesting.
You know Bolivia, you're upthere.
You're up there in Bolivia.
You know other people mighttalk about the salt flats.
Did you get a chance to seethose?
Speaker 2 (18:58):
I wish I did.
Yeah, I'll have to go back.
Yeah, I actually just did someresearch.
12,500.
Pretty close to La Paz actuallyWow, Wow, Amazing.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
How about, just like the culture, the people you know
?
What do you remember about youryour time in Bolivia?
Speaker 2 (19:18):
Yeah, again, you know the people were super friendly,
locals, travel guides.
One of the places was cash onlyand I I don't usually carry
cash and they were so nice thatI came back the next day and
paid them in cash, like inAmerica.
No one would do that, honestly.
Speaker 1 (19:34):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
So you know, again, I thought the people were awesome
, I thought you know it's funny,a lot of the places that I
travel to maybe two, three yearslater they're on like top
places to visit kind of lists.
Bolivia is actually one of them.
I think they were recently onCondé Nast or Travel and
Leisure's you know place tocheck out this year, and
actually the hotel that I stayedat was was on that list as well
(19:56):
.
So that was.
That was also pretty cool.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Yeah, it's not.
Uh, it's not talked about a lot, or nearly as much as it should
be.
You know, sometimes I think thelandlocked countries get
forgotten about.
Um, for, sure.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
And it's funny cause we usually we usually try to
pick unique places or go tosomewhere that has a beach, but
for this one it was definitelymore about cultural appreciation
and it was not a beach vacation, as you mentioned, being
landlocked, but it was awesomeseeing the Andes, it was awesome
going to a new country.
It's also fun traveling with mywife because she's super open
(20:34):
to new countries and lovestravel as well, so it's
definitely fun that we can bothdo that together.
Speaker 1 (20:41):
Yeah, and maybe if we go back to Colombia for a
second, if you were just to givesome tips to somebody visiting
Bogota, what are your?
You know top two or threetravel tips, or you know things
that they should check out or bemindful of, or whatever.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Yeah.
So in Bogota again, I wasprobably there about five days.
I mean, for one, I love thecoffee, that I'm a super coffee
nerd.
I would say the coffee.
Definitely go to like a localcoffee shop, do a coffee tasting
, try all the coffee, I wouldsay.
The other, the other thing Ireally liked the food was great.
So there was a restaurantcalled Mesa Franco or Mesa
(21:16):
Franca.
Actually that was one I reallyliked.
There's a restaurant called Leo.
That's really good.
A lot of these are, you know,supporting like local food in
Columbia, where you know it'snot just you know, some sort of
like fried food or something.
It's super local to like aspecific region of Colombia.
(21:39):
I thought that was really cool.
Let's see what else I mean.
The other thing I really likedin Colombia I would say it was
really easy to get around.
A lot of Uber, like Uber wassuper easy.
Airport was super nice.
I never felt unsafe in Colombia.
I know certain countries kindof get certain images and
(22:02):
whatnot, but again, I never feltunsafe in Colombia.
I had a great time.
You know, we did some touristythings.
We went to like a nice churchup on the mountain in Colombia.
But yeah, if I were to do itagain.
I'm not sure I'd change toomuch.
I mean, we fit in a lot and uhyeah, we, we had a great time.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
I think that's great.
Well, uh, this is the nearshore cafe podcast and we um, we
love talking to people like youwho've we love talking to
people like you who'veexperienced it firsthand.
Knowledge, you know, kind ofseen it, maybe for business
people that are learning aboutthe talent in Latin America.
(22:42):
What should they know?
Like?
Speaker 2 (22:52):
from your experiences .
Why would somebody want to lookat Latin America for talent?
That's a great question.
So, yeah, this is something youknow.
We hear a lot in terms ofuniversity systems being really
high level.
Again, like in Monterey, theyhave a really great university
that is similar to like MIT,where a lot of engineers
graduate.
Where a lot of engineersgraduate, obviously, brazil has
(23:12):
like half a million developers.
Argentina's got a ton of reallygood talent for developers.
But you know, even othercountries, right, like Latin
America is super big and there'sa lot of opportunity.
We've seen a lot of companiesmove operations and certain jobs
to Guatemala, nicaragua, evenBolivia a bit.
My wife's company, their wholeinside sales division is
(23:39):
actually out of Costa Rica andI've seen some other big
companies move things toColombia and other places as
well.
But, yeah, I would say ingeneral that that talent pool is
super.
You know, it's huge.
A lot of companies in the uslike, uh, time zone alignment,
right, they don't want to dealwith um, people being 12, 15
(24:00):
hour difference, just, it's justbetter for collaboration,
communication.
Uh, there's a lot of culturalsynergy that is aligned with
latin america.
Uh, talent.
I would say the other thingagain is kind is kind of the
cost-effectiveness right.
I was reading something theother day where you know Seattle
, there was kind of a debatearound Seattle versus San
Francisco, for engineers andpeople are saying now that
(24:22):
Seattle is like maybe more, like, better, more prominent for
certain reasons.
I think in Latin America theadvantage is definitely the
cost-effect effectiveness of thetalent You're going to get a
highly skilled resource for youknow, potentially 40 to 60
percent cheaper than you knowsomeone in the US Right Without,
(24:48):
without the, without thequality that you're giving up
right.
So I've definitely seen that alot.
Yeah, I think that's it forthat.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
Yeah, yeah, Evan, tell me more about you know, in
your role as director of clientsolutions, you're talking to a
lot of different companies.
You're seeing differenttechnologies that are hot right
now, you know.
Tell us a little more aboutwhat you're seeing, and then
maybe even the opportunity forleveraging talent in Latin
America.
Speaker 2 (25:18):
Yeah, sure.
So again, here at Plug, we seea lot of different technologies
and including technologies androles, but definitely ServiceNow
, definitely SAP MuleSoftSalesforce, servicenow,
definitely SAP MuleSoftSalesforce.
(25:38):
There's a lot of.
Obviously, ai is super hot, butwith AI being super hot,
servicenow just bought an AIcompany in the last week.
There's a huge talent gap andtalent shortage of ServiceNow
implementers and developers, sothat's definitely something that
we are seeing in the market Interms of overall jobs.
You know we're seeing a bit ofeverything right, most are
probably engineering, but a loton the non-IT side as well.
(26:00):
So, yeah, it's definitely superinteresting and you know,
there's a lot of companies thatmight have operations in India
or other countries but theydon't have recruiting prowess in
Mexico or Colombia or Brazil,and we're definitely seeing a
lot of that, where people,companies or their clients are
(26:23):
really asking for skill sets andtalent in countries across
Latin America like Brazil, chile, colombia.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
You know, all over, it's definitely been, it's
definitely been a really I wouldsay those have been really hot
areas yeah, Evan, for somebodywho's been to 47 countries,
you've got a kind of a pulsethat countries are unique,
people are unique, culture isunique.
(26:54):
How you might lead a team inIndia might be totally different
than Vietnam and Africa and soforth.
How about if a company islooking to build a team in Latin
America?
Do you have any like just acouple of tips or advice on?
You know they can get the bestout of their investment and best
(27:17):
out of their team.
Speaker 2 (27:19):
Sure, yeah, you know, I've definitely seen that Latin
American talent is superhardworking.
Obviously I touched on theuniversity systems being really
strong.
I would say another thing youknow English has been really
strong with a lot of the talent,so there's not really that
communication gap.
I would say those are kind ofthe main things that I've seen,
(27:43):
you know.
Yeah, yeah, I think those arekind of the main things, okay
okay, great.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
Last question here, Evan, as somebody who's been to
47.
What are the other ones on yourlist?
You know, like if you were toget to 50, what are the next
three that are jumping out ofyou right now?
Speaker 2 (28:00):
So I would say definitely Argentina.
It's just it's one I've beentalking about for a long time.
I would say Uruguay, and youknow, those can, those can be
combined, which is nice.
They're kind of close.
Outside of that, I've notreally been to Africa.
I do have a baby that's alittle bit older than one years
(28:22):
old, so I don't know that I'mgoing to Africa anytime soon or
anywhere too far, but SouthAfrica is definitely on my list
as well.
I've always been intrigued withanimals, and my parents got to
go to Kenya and Tanzania in thelast 10 years and they really
liked that, so I would say thoseare definitely some top ones
(28:43):
for me.
Speaker 1 (28:44):
Good Around the World with Evan Greenberg.
This has been a really funconversation.
It's a podcast sponsored byPlug Technologies pluggtech a
great way to connect talent fromall over Latin America with US
companies.
Evan, thanks so much for yourtime today.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
I enjoyed it.
Thanks for having me.
Let's do it again.
Speaker 1 (29:07):
All right, Thanks everyone.
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