November 13, 2025 • 27 mins
In this episode of The Nearshore Cafe Podcast, host Brian Samson sits down with Agustín Guerra, CEO & Co-Founder of Vangwe, to explore one of the fastest-growing sectors in the region: Latin America’s fintech and wealthtech ecosystem.
Agustín shares his global journey from Montevideo to China, Germany, Poland, London, and the Netherlands, and how living across continents shaped his perspective as a fintech founder. He discusses the early days of LATAM fintech, the rise of digital payments, and how countries like Uruguay, Argentina, and Brazil are shifting from cash-based systems to modern digital finance.
The conversation dives deep into how second-generation fintech startups are now being built on top of the first wave, unlocking innovation in investing, digital wallets, cross-border payments, and wealthtech solutions. Agustín also explains why Latin American consumers—long focused on homeownership as their only “investment”—are finally embracing public markets, fractional investing, and financial education.
Agustín gives a behind-the-scenes look at Vangwe, the company he co-founded to help fintechs scale with engineers who truly understand payments, banking, and financial infrastructure. He shares insights on hiring top tech talent in Uruguay and Argentina, navigating hardware and customs challenges, and why Uruguay remains the “Switzerland of Latin America” for building global tech businesses.
Whether you're a founder, investor, or operator in fintech or nearshoring, this episode reveals what’s coming next for LATAM fintech in 2026, how new rails and platforms are accelerating innovation, and why the region is becoming a global hub for fintech engineering.
🎙️ Watch the full episode: https://youtu.be/ilid7jOosTM
Sponsored by Plugg Technologies (PLUGG.Tech) — connecting top Latin American talent with U.S. companies.
🎧 Host | Brian Samson – Founder of 💻 Plugg Technologies
🔗 https://www.linkedin.com/in/briansamson/
🎙️ Sponsored by Plugg Technologies – Connecting U.S. companies with top-tier software developers across Latin America.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_01 (00:12):
Welcome everyone to another episode of the Nearshore
Cafe Podcast.
I'm Brian Sampson, your host.
And if you're interested infintech, near shoring, how the
whole intersection collides,this is going to be the episode
for you.
We have Augustine Guerra fromVangwi, a really interesting
(00:34):
company that is in the fintechecosystem.
Before we say hello toAugustine, let me thank our
sponsor, Plug Technologies,plugg.tech, a great way to
connect talent from all overLatin America with U.S.
companies.
Augustine, so great to have you.
SPEAKER_00 (00:51):
Thank you very much, Brian.
It's a pleasure.
Thank you very much for havingme today.
SPEAKER_01 (00:55):
Absolutely.
Augustine, where are you dialingin from?
SPEAKER_00 (00:57):
Right now I'm back home in Montevideo, Uruguay.
I came back for the holidays tovisit family, but usually I'm
based out of a combination ofLondon and the Netherlands
coming back and forth.
SPEAKER_01 (01:07):
Yeah, that's an interesting place to start in
itself.
You know, there's not a lot ofpeople that are going back and
forth and in those countries.
How did that happen for you?
SPEAKER_00 (01:16):
It's a very long story.
I first left Uruguay 10 yearsago.
I was fresh, I was still incollege actually, actually.
And I started, I landed this jobin the local, uh, which is a
Uruguay-based uh cross-borderpayments platform.
And basically what happened isafter working there for a year,
they were opening uh an officein China, in Shanghai, China,
and they were looking for acouple of young people willing
(01:39):
to go and try.
And I said, yes, why not?
That's a bit of my attitude witheverything in life.
Yes, why not?
And 10 years ago I moved toChina working for the local.
And there are a couple of yearsuh when you live abroad for the
first time, that opens your yourmind, right?
The whole the whole world opensfor you.
I spent a couple of years there.
In total, in the local, I wasfor about four years, covering
(02:02):
different areas.
And then after spending a coupleof years in China, I wanted to
change the scene a bit and Imoved to Germany.
Uh, I spent in Germany a coupleof years.
I spent another year in Poland,and then uh it was when being a
digital nomad became started tobecome trendy.
Yeah.
I spent a couple of yearstraveling around while uh I was
(02:22):
uh we were building Vanguy.
Uh and then at some point Ineeded to settle down.
I was too much traveling, I wasuh getting older.
So that's I was looking for aplace to do it, and uh London
was the first, uh, the placethat I chose the first, and then
I just started to be around uhLondon and the Netherlands.
SPEAKER_01 (02:39):
Yeah.
Well, I have a lot of questions,but I think you know, for those
that are familiar with LatinAmerica, you know, familiar,
especially with countries likeUruguay, Argentina, you know,
there's a lot of Europeaninfluence.
So it's one thing to, you know,I think go back and forth to a
country like Germany wherethere's some German influence or
Spain, Italy, but China is awhole other world.
(03:03):
Tell us just about like theculture clash and maybe also
there's similarities that maybewe're not thinking about, you
know, and people are people.
You know, what was that like assomeone from Uruguay in
Shanghai?
SPEAKER_00 (03:16):
I still have this very clear memory.
Uh, the first time I went there,I actually went for a couple of
weeks for one project.
This was before the decision wasmade to move there.
So I have this very clearpicture of me leaving the hotel
lobby for the first time.
It was I went to Guangzhou,which is in the south, for those
first two weeks.
I have this very clear memory ofwhere am I.
(03:36):
Um everything is very, verydifferent.
Food, culture, people, howbusiness is made.
Um, um, it was the first timenot leaving the country, but the
first time doing somethingmeaningful outside of the
country besides just traveling.
So there was a cultural shockwith everything.
Food, people, transportation,the language as well, especially
Chinese, a place where Englishis not that common.
(03:58):
It's a place where you reallyneed to learn at the at least
the basics of uh mandarin to getaround.
So, yes, it it was not thateasy, but I mean it's part of
the process, right?
SPEAKER_01 (04:07):
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, starting witharchitecture, you know,
Montevideo has these kind oflike beautiful traditional, you
know, uh buildings.
From my my memory, correct me ifI'm wrong, but not a lot of like
giant skyscrapers, you know.
Yeah, yeah, and then you gothere, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (04:24):
Yes, Uruguay has a lot of influence mainly from
Spain and Italy.
The people come from Spain andItaly, Italy, and then the
architecture is mainly Spanish,so we don't have a single
skyscraper in the country.
Yeah, we have a couple of whatwe consider tall buildings, but
they are not really.
Imagine Paris or or Madrid.
Also, Buenos Aires is verysimilar.
(04:45):
So I know that a lot of peoplehave been to Buenos Aires, but
not Montevideo is not is a lesspopular place.
So imagine a smaller version ofBuenos Aires when it comes to
architecture.
SPEAKER_01 (04:54):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.
And then even Buenos Aires, youknow, one of the oldest uh
subway systems and you know railsystems.
Um, and then you step into aplace like China where it seems
like everything was builtyesterday, you know, like robots
and you know, uh super highspeed and infrastructure.
Were your what were some of yourfirst impressions?
SPEAKER_00 (05:15):
So many things.
Coming from a country, Uruguay,where we don't have a subway
system, our transportationworks, but it's not the most
modern.
Everything works in China whenit comes to infrastructure.
It's very, very well done, it'svery well planned as well.
Also, when it comes, nowspeaking about FinTech, when I
went there for the first time,they have been already using
digital wallets for a very longtime.
(05:35):
And back in 2018, when when thiswas happening, it was not
popular in the rest of theworld.
So it was uh a paradigm change.
How they pay, how how they movemoney around, they were already
not using cash almost.
It was a cashless society payingwith their phones.
Yeah, it was a big change.
SPEAKER_01 (05:51):
Yeah.
I definitely want to get intothe fintech in a second, but you
know, I often think of likeSteve Jobs, you know, who uh
when you think about like uhtypography like typography and
you know, he took all theseinteresting classes and they all
came together.
And for a fintech founder likeyourself, you know, who's had
exposure to Asia, Europe, howdid how did all that maybe shape
(06:17):
your perspective and vision as afounder?
SPEAKER_00 (06:21):
Massively.
The fact that when you exposeyourself to different cultures,
different people, you learn howthey think, you learn how they
like to do things, you learn howcomfortable they are doing
certain things.
So then when you're on the otherend, when you're trying to
approach them, when you'retrying to work with them, it
changes a lot if you understandthem.
Uh so that's something I'm verythankful for actually, that I
(06:43):
had the opportunity to go veryyoung across Asia, Europe, South
America, North America.
And uh it's a lot of personalgrowth, but that also is applied
to the professional life.
SPEAKER_01 (06:53):
Yeah.
You know, and something yousaid, just like everything
works, and uh a lot of ourlisteners have been to
Argentina, some have been toUruguay.
I was very impressed withUruguay, and it felt like, wow,
this is like the Switzerland ofLatin America, you know, the
banks work, everything works.
Meanwhile, you have these two,you know, loud, crazy neighbors
(07:13):
in Brazil and Argentina, andthere's always like a crisis,
you know, every moment.
And, you know, I'm curious how,you know, maybe somebody from
Argentina where you're just kindof used to stuff being in chaos.
It's almost normal.
And then you have, you know,obviously Uruguay is is much
more stable, and then you have aplace like China where like it's
just the expectation that thingswork.
(07:36):
Can you talk about that a littlebit more?
And you know, I'm not picking onUruguay, but maybe maybe it's
it's it's neighbors that I'mpicking on.
Yeah, if you could talk aboutthat.
SPEAKER_00 (07:45):
Absolutely.
Actually, most of us will see itas a blessing, not as a curse.
We have this joke amongUruguayans that live abroad.
Whenever you come back home,once a year, once every two
years, the joke is how iseverything exactly the same as
it was when I left?
Because it's true.
I've been uh I've been livingabroad for the last 10 years and
not much changed.
Every time I come back, I don'thave to adapt.
(08:07):
Things are in the same place,everything is in the same place.
So we actually see it as ablessing.
Stability, especially nowadayswhere things are changing in not
so good ways in a lot of places.
We are very happy with where weare.
We have very stable governments,they change, but they are all
stable.
Very stable economy.
Maybe it's not the fastestgrowing one, but it's stable,
uh, doesn't go down.
(08:27):
And then also you mentionedabout uh banks, complete
financial freedom.
You can do business from here.
That's why a lot of companieslike ours and companies from
abroad, they come to Uruguay toinvest here.
Why?
Because uh we have goodrelationships with everyone,
that's part of this being theSwitzerland of South America.
We are in good system witheveryone, and it's a very fair
(08:47):
playing field.
If you come, you can dobusiness, and yeah, it's going
to be it's going to go verywell.
SPEAKER_01 (08:52):
Yeah.
I love that about Uruguay.
You know, as someone who starteda business in Argentina, and you
know, my attorney at the timewas his expression was always
like, you know, can we, youknow, could we do this, Mariano?
Can we figure this out?
And his response is like, by thegrace of God.
And the whole time I'm like,man, I should have started in
(09:13):
Uruguay because it's likepredictable, black and white,
you know, the rules are clear.
Whereas Argentina it was by thegrace of God, you know.
So um but anyway, tell us moreabout uh the fintech world, the
ecosystem that you see in LatinAmerica and abroad.
SPEAKER_00 (09:32):
Yeah, uh so I believe that right now in Latin
America, we already are pastthrough the stage of early
disruption.
Uh meaning over the last maybe10 years, the first players in
the market came and they builtthe rails, they built the core.
And nowadays we're actuallyseeing, and also a lot of our
clients, we're actually seeingfintechs that are building on
(09:53):
top of other fintechs.
So this second layer of fintechswhere the core plumbing is
already done, the rails arethere, and now it leaves a lot
more space to differentiationand innovation.
Why?
Because the effort that now youneed to launch a new product is
slower because you can alreadyuse the leverage of the first
fintechs that were around.
(10:14):
So I do believe that in LatinAmerica now we're we're on this
stage where fintechs are beingbuilt on top of fintechs and
they are trying to showsomething different or bring
something new.
SPEAKER_01 (10:23):
Yeah, I think that's an interesting point because
that first level of fintechs wasreally disrupting things that
traditional banks did fairlymediocre.
Um, do you see the secondgeneration of fintechs uh
disrupting what the firstgeneration did or building on
top of that?
How how might you see that?
SPEAKER_00 (10:41):
I see it uh building on top of that.
I see the new fintech using whatthe first fintech created, which
is very useful.
We need it, but the new fintechsare coming to build on top of
that, meaning that both areequally as valid.
The rails are needed to thebasic things, but now the new
fintechs are bringing newproducts to the general public.
Interesting.
SPEAKER_01 (11:00):
Tell me more about the Latin America consumer of
some of these products.
You know, what are theyexpecting?
What are they what are theylooking for?
SPEAKER_00 (11:09):
That's a very good question.
So, not so long ago we were cashsocieties, um, and there has
been a lot of disruption withthe first layer of fintech in
order to uh teach the generalpublic how to do things in a
more modern way.
So nowadays, the thing that uhI'm seeing the most over the
last couple of years withfintechs in Latin America is
(11:30):
mostly around investments.
While banking is already verypopular, most of the countries
are already highly bankarized,so almost everyone has a bank
account.
There are neo banks that arearound that make things slightly
easier and they are growing.
But I think the thing that I'vebeen seeing the most is when it
comes to investments and wealthtech.
Because for a very long time, asLatin Americans, we thought that
(11:52):
that was reserved for higherincome countries.
We thought that we just need tosurvive and save a couple of
dollars here and there to thentake a massive loan, a massive
mortgage on a house and spendthe rest of our lives paying a
mortgage, and that's it.
That was our our finances.
But now I'm seeing that there'sa lot of new fintechs making it
easier to the general public toinvest and teaching the public
(12:15):
how to invest.
Especially also when the pensionsystems of of our countries they
are not so strong, so no onereally knows what's going to
happen in in the future.
So I think a lot of thisdisruption and new things I'm
seeing around is mostly arounduh investments.
Interesting.
SPEAKER_01 (12:29):
You know, I think I read a stat the other day that
um Americans from the states,about 50%, 5-0, own one single
share of stock, you know.
So and that's just like thefirst level of public investing,
right?
Like investing in Microsoft andmutual funds and relatively safe
companies.
I don't know if I've ever uhlooked into that in Latin
(12:52):
America, or maybe we could talkabout Uruguay specifically.
What does that look like today?
You know, that makes sense aboutuh the big investment was your
house, your primary residence.
What does it look like today?
Is that you know 10% owner own apublic company, 50%, you know,
what does that look like?
SPEAKER_00 (13:09):
It's even much lower than 10%.
Okay.
There are different reasons.
The first reason why it has beeninaccessible for so long is
because uh the barrier of entrywas too high.
Meaning, in order, if you wantedto buy any stock in the US
market, you need to perform aninternational Swift transfer.
And imagine that you have save$100 per month, which is normal
(13:30):
here.
A lot of people say that or evenless, then the SWIFT cost of the
transfer is going to be almostwhat you wanted to invest.
So the entry barrier was superhigh, and it's still actually
quite high.
And the fintechs nowadays, whatthey are trying to do is to
bring that barrier lower, tomake it easier to the general
public to access, and also toteach the general public, uh,
(13:51):
because people usually are quiterisk adverse.
That's why they took mortgagemortgages on houses, right?
Um, yeah.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (13:59):
In a way, we're kind of talking about like a Robin
Hood for Latin America.
Exactly.
Yeah, yeah, interesting.
Well, tell us more about uhVangui.
What are you what are youbuilding?
What's your vision and how faralong?
SPEAKER_00 (14:13):
Yeah, for sure.
Uh we co-founded the companyfive years ago, a bit over five
years ago.
I started my career in the localin payments, and then I stayed
in the fintech industry.
We're a team of fourco-founders, and we all come
from very similar backgrounds.
Um we got this opportunity, wesaw this gap where in fintech
it's actually more important tounderstand the business than the
(14:34):
technical part.
Uh, because engineers, there's alot of engineers everywhere, but
engineers that understandfintech, not so many.
And if you're a company, afintech company, and you need a
team of five engineers to buildsomething across a couple of
months, and you need to hire acompany and train those
engineers to understand whatyou're building, that's really
not efficient.
You're going to waste a lot ofmoney and time from your team as
(14:57):
well that you need to tradethem.
So we saw this gap in to providefintech companies with
consulting and engineering anddevelopment power, and that's
our mission.
We are a team of around 40engineers, mostly based off of
Montevideo, Uruguay, but also inArgentina.
We are a small market, so we weneed to seek talent somewhere
(15:18):
else.
And our mission is to helpfintech companies, mostly
payments and wealth tech, to beable to scale in an efficient
way with engineers that theyknow what they are doing in the
fintech area.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (15:28):
Where do you usually come in?
Is it like pre-MVP, post-MVP,after it's you know in a scaling
stage?
SPEAKER_00 (15:36):
Yeah.
So we have two types of clients.
The first one is pre-MVP.
It's basically a couple, three,four co-founders that they have
an idea.
They're trying to raise themoney or they already raised the
money.
Um, they want to build an MVP.
It's usually much easier to goto seek help for that, not to
have an internal team becausethe risks associated are super
big.
(15:56):
So that's what one type ofclient, together with the
discovery process, for them tounderstand what we are going to
build, and then we spend somemonths building it.
And then the other one iscompanies that are scaling up,
let's say from 100 to 500employees, and they are actively
hiring, but it's not easy tohire and it's not easy to train
the people that you hire,because whenever you hire, that
(16:16):
will take time away from yourengineers to do the work to
teach these people.
So in those cases, uh, we alsocan to help and boost the
productivity of the engineeringteam.
SPEAKER_01 (16:25):
Yeah.
Are you usually building, areyou providing engineers on like
a time and materials basis thatjust understand fintech?
Or you know, you'll give like afixed bid price, you know, so
maybe if there's other fintechfounders that are listening,
they kind of understand yourpricing model.
SPEAKER_00 (16:44):
Yeah.
Usually time and materials isthe most flexible way to
approach it, is the way that weprefer to approach.
And it's usually also thecheaper one for everyone.
Why?
Because when you're trying tobuild something from scratch,
you really don't know, eventhough you go through a
discovery process, things changeand the market evolves.
And then if we come to a fixedprice and things change, of
(17:05):
course, we need to review thescope, and that takes time and
energy.
So the way that we prefer towork is we still do a rough
estimation of how much we thinkit's gonna take.
So we understand that a group offounders trying to build
something, they are not going tosay, yeah, let's go without even
knowing if it's going to be thescale, the magnitude of how much
you're going to spend.
So we still do a ballparkestimation for them to know how
(17:25):
much roughly this will cost, butthen we prefer to work in a
times and materials scheme.
We can work on a fixed price ifit's very concrete and the
requirements are very clear.
We are doing that and it works.
Sometimes, especially whencompanies are scaling up, they
want this very specific thingbuilt and the requirements are
very clear.
In that case, we can approach itwith a fixed price.
(17:45):
But in most cases, times andmaterials is the best both for
our clients and for us as well.
SPEAKER_01 (17:50):
Yeah.
Tell us more about the uh theclient location.
Are they mostly in the US?
Are they in Latin America?
You know, what percentages?
Help help us kind of do that,especially with this hot new
fintech world in Latin America.
SPEAKER_00 (18:05):
Yeah.
Yeah.
When we started the company, wethought that because of economy,
clients in Latin America werenot a good fit for us.
Uh why?
Because in our heads we thought,well, they can't hire you
locally, so why are you going tocome to us?
But we had come to therealization that that's not the
case.
They still use our services.
Still, nowadays it's mostly 40%US, 40%, 35% US, 35% Europe, and
(18:29):
then the rest Latin America.
So it's a combination of Europe,US.
When I say Europe, it's mostlythe UK, uh, because in Europe,
other countries they fair uhpeople that speak their own
language.
Uh it's very strange for aGerman company to hire someone
that doesn't speak German, orany country that the rest in
Europe is mostly uh the UK, theUS, and then I'll say a fifth uh
(18:51):
of our clients come from LatinAmerica.
Got it.
Interesting.
SPEAKER_01 (18:54):
With the the US market, are you mostly working
with New York and San Franciscocompanies, which is where
there's the highestconcentration?
SPEAKER_00 (19:01):
Yeah, yeah, it's mostly San Francisco and New
York.
SPEAKER_01 (19:04):
That's correct.
Yeah, yeah.
And then the engineers you saidare mostly in Montevideo.
SPEAKER_00 (19:09):
Yes.
Uh I would say nowadays 80% ofour engineers are in Montevideo,
and the other 20% spread acrossArgentina.
Argentina is very big, so theyare spread across.
The way we keep it this way,first of all, is time zones.
The time zone that we have inArgentina and in Uruguay is
very, very good to work with theUS.
We are just one hour away fromMiami, a couple of hours away
(19:29):
from New York, a couple morehours from the West Coast, but
still is it's very manageable.
So, yes, our talent comes mainlyfrom Uruguay, also significant
part from Argentina.
SPEAKER_01 (19:40):
Yeah.
I mean, hiring is so important,you know, to get that right and
you know, especially to properlysupport your customers.
Tell us what you've learned, youknow, about hiring, and then you
know, maybe maybe maybe we'llstart there and then we can dive
deeper into the talent pocket.
SPEAKER_00 (19:55):
Yeah, it has been a journey, a lot of learnings over
these last five years.
Yes, hiring is a very big partof our business because in order
to provide a good service, weneed good engineers.
Of course, you can still dotraining, uh, you can, but it's
very important to hire the rightperson.
So it has been a bit of trialand error, to be honest, over
the last five five years.
What to ask, what not to ask,when to ask it, when to ask for
(20:18):
a technical test, when not toask for a technical test.
So it has been a lot of trialand error, but nowadays we we
have a very good uh hiring team.
Um, we have a constant pipeline,so that's also very important.
It's not we don't go to look forsomeone when we need it for
yesterday.
We are constantly updating ourpipelines with new candidates.
We never stop interviewing.
(20:38):
So I think that's also somethingvery important because sometimes
the client wants to you meetwith the client, everything goes
well in two weeks, and they say,Well, we want to start tomorrow
with a team of five people.
And if you don't have the benchof five people, hiring five
people straight away, if you areat zero, it's super difficult.
So it's very important to beconstantly updating your
pipeline with new strongcandidates.
SPEAKER_01 (20:58):
Yeah.
What are some of the commontechnologies or tech stacks that
you'd like uh the candidatesyou're talking to to have?
SPEAKER_00 (21:07):
Yeah, I would say in fintech, we have seen two
technologies as the main ones.
One company is that wants tostart something a bit quicker
and a bit more agile, it'susually anything around
JavaScript, TypeScript, node.
That's something very, verypopular.
It's the one that we actuallyprefer if we can choose a
technology.
Also, on in already moreestablished companies, uh, Java
is also quite popular.
It's very robust.
(21:28):
So I would say we have beenworking with over 50 clients
over the last five years, so wehave seen a lot of different
platforms, and a vast majorityis divided between JavaScript
and Java.
SPEAKER_01 (21:39):
Yeah.
Now, Uruguay is certainly agreat place for talent, but like
you said, it's not nearly as bigas Brazil and Argentina.
How do you how do you thinkabout that as you recruit, you
know, in Montevideo and outside?
SPEAKER_00 (21:52):
Yeah, it's a very small market, a very talented
and well-educated market.
Here education is free.
So a lot of people they go touniversity, they have degrees,
they are very smart, but it's avery small market.
We are already three millionpeople.
Argentina is 44 million people.
So so imagine uh the sizedifference.
So I think um at least ourcompany, we started in in
(22:14):
Uruguay, but then at one pointwe realized we want to keep
hiring in Uruguay, but we haveto hire as well in Argentina to
do it both things in parallel,because yes, uh the the talent
pocket here in Uruguay is quitesmall.
Uh we are not a big country.
So um Argentina also is verysimilar to us when it comes to
culturally.
So basically, for Argentiniansand Uruguayans, we can sit in
(22:34):
the same room and it's like thesame.
So that helps a lot as well.
SPEAKER_01 (22:37):
Yeah, yeah.
There's nothing like passing amate cup around.
Exactly.
SPEAKER_00 (22:41):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (22:42):
Yeah, there's no no no replacement.
Um, how about hardware?
You know, I have memories oftrying to smuggle, you know,
MacBooks and all sorts ofhardware into Argentina.
What's that like in Uruguay?
Do you is it easy to get whatyou need?
And maybe you could talk aboutthe customs policies there.
SPEAKER_00 (23:00):
Yeah.
Well, so first of all, it's easyto get what you need because the
market here is very open.
You can import whatever youwant, but it's extremely
expensive.
Mainly two reasons.
One of them is taxes.
There is a lot of taxes wheneveryou import something.
And also when you're a smallermarket and you're importing just
for your country, of course,it's more expensive to import a
smaller volume of things.
(23:21):
So that makes things moreexpensive.
On one hand, you can get almostanything you want, but on the
other hand, everything is quiteexpensive, especially
technology.
Uh but yes, there's no reallyworkaround around that.
Maybe if you're starting, youcan fly to the US and bring a
couple of computers.
That's good.
But once you're an establishedcompany and you need to buy
three, four computers per month,you need to do it the right way.
(23:42):
Uh and you just need to bite thebullets.
There's no way around it.
SPEAKER_01 (23:45):
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know, uh, a lot of myexperience is going to be
Argentina driven, but um Iremember credit wasn't really a
thing that existed.
You know, I couldn't buy 10laptops on credit.
It's all due, you know, rightaway.
How about Uruguay?
Is that does credit kind ofexist, you know, in
business-to-businesstransactions?
Could you get it now and pay in30 days?
SPEAKER_00 (24:07):
Well, there's a couple of ways you can do it
nowadays.
Here we have had uh installmentswith credit cards for a very
long time, no interestinstallments.
So almost anything that you buy,if you buy with a Uruguayan
credit card in a Uruguayanstore, you can pay it for up to
six installments.
So that's very handy.
And then, yes, there arebusiness credit lines that come
from banks, but with not thebest interest rates, if I have
(24:29):
to be honest.
So they are not they're mostlyused as a last resort in case
that you usually need something.
But the easiest way and thecheapest way to get credit is
just using credit cards withinstallments, which they are
interest-free.
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (24:44):
As we start to wind the show down a little bit, um,
what are your predictions for2026?
You know, especially on the uhfintech ecosystem in Latin
America.
What do you what do you seecoming down the road?
SPEAKER_00 (24:57):
Um, I expect a lot of growth.
Uh, it's not slowing down.
I remember some years ago peoplewere talking that fintech is
slowly dying.
Now we see the total opposite.
It's it's growing faster andfaster and faster.
So I expect uh a lot of growth.
I expect a lot of new uh LatinAmerican fintechs to come
around.
And also what I expect the most,we have seen it with NewBank,
(25:17):
for example, Latin Americanfintechs serving other
countries, meaning not doingthings just for Latin American
countries, but for the rest ofthe world.
So I I ex I expect moredisruption that way.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (25:28):
And then uh last question, we can have a little
fun here.
Um I know you don't permanentlylive in Montevideo, but for
those that are that arelistening that maybe have it on
their list to visit, what dothey need to see?
What do they need to experience?
Best times of the year to go.
Be be the the tour guide herefor the listeners.
SPEAKER_00 (25:49):
Yes, yes, definitely in summer.
Please do not come in winter.
It's a very great city inwinter.
We get a bit of sun, but that'sit, and it's cold.
I remember that we are quite oneof the most software capitals in
the world.
So it is a subtropical climate,so you need to come in summer if
you want warm weather.
And I'll say La Rambla.
La Rambla is uh the promenadealong the sea.
(26:10):
We have a beautiful coastline,beautiful beaches going all the
way up to the border withBrazil.
So if you want to come toMontevideo, just please come in
the summer.
You can get a car.
Everything is very close.
That's those are the benefits ofliving in a small country.
You can drive from corner tocorner of the country in four
hours.
So there's a lot to see, uh,very nice beaches.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (26:28):
Yeah.
I'll always remember.
I think I visited, it was abeautiful Sunday afternoon, and
uh my wife and I walked theRambla, and we saw um a lot of
couples just walking, and youknow.
I made uh it was a fun, funobservation, you know, where
like the guy would have one handaround his girlfriend and the
other hand around his matethermos.
SPEAKER_00 (26:50):
Yes, yes.
We have this habit of carryingour mates everywhere, especially
the rambla.
Going to the Rambla to to drinksome mate and have some pastries
is yeah, it's a must-do,especially on a very nice
Sunday.
SPEAKER_01 (27:03):
Yeah, absolutely.
Uh well, Augustine, this hasbeen a really fun conversation.
Uh, thanks for educating us somuch on the Latin America
fintech ecosystem.
Uh, learned a lot.
SPEAKER_00 (27:12):
Thank you very much, Brian.
It was it was a pleasure, a verynice conversation, and yeah, the
best to you.
SPEAKER_01 (27:17):
Excellent.
Well, this is the Nearshore CafePodcast, and a podcast today was
sponsored by Plug Technologies,pl-g-g.tech.
Great way to connect talent allover Latin America with growing
US companies.
Thanks for listening.
We'll see you next time.
Welcome everyone to another episode of the Nearshore
Cafe Podcast.
I'm Brian Sampson, your host.
And if you're interested infintech, near shoring, how the
whole intersection collides,this is going to be the episode
for you.
We have Augustine Guerra fromVangwi, a really interesting
(00:34):
company that is in the fintechecosystem.
Before we say hello toAugustine, let me thank our
sponsor, Plug Technologies,plugg.tech, a great way to
connect talent from all overLatin America with U.S.
companies.
Augustine, so great to have you.
SPEAKER_00 (00:51):
Thank you very much, Brian.
It's a pleasure.
Thank you very much for havingme today.
SPEAKER_01 (00:55):
Absolutely.
Augustine, where are you dialingin from?
SPEAKER_00 (00:57):
Right now I'm back home in Montevideo, Uruguay.
I came back for the holidays tovisit family, but usually I'm
based out of a combination ofLondon and the Netherlands
coming back and forth.
SPEAKER_01 (01:07):
Yeah, that's an interesting place to start in
itself.
You know, there's not a lot ofpeople that are going back and
forth and in those countries.
How did that happen for you?
SPEAKER_00 (01:16):
It's a very long story.
I first left Uruguay 10 yearsago.
I was fresh, I was still incollege actually, actually.
And I started, I landed this jobin the local, uh, which is a
Uruguay-based uh cross-borderpayments platform.
And basically what happened isafter working there for a year,
they were opening uh an officein China, in Shanghai, China,
and they were looking for acouple of young people willing
(01:39):
to go and try.
And I said, yes, why not?
That's a bit of my attitude witheverything in life.
Yes, why not?
And 10 years ago I moved toChina working for the local.
And there are a couple of yearsuh when you live abroad for the
first time, that opens your yourmind, right?
The whole the whole world opensfor you.
I spent a couple of years there.
In total, in the local, I wasfor about four years, covering
(02:02):
different areas.
And then after spending a coupleof years in China, I wanted to
change the scene a bit and Imoved to Germany.
Uh, I spent in Germany a coupleof years.
I spent another year in Poland,and then uh it was when being a
digital nomad became started tobecome trendy.
Yeah.
I spent a couple of yearstraveling around while uh I was
(02:22):
uh we were building Vanguy.
Uh and then at some point Ineeded to settle down.
I was too much traveling, I wasuh getting older.
So that's I was looking for aplace to do it, and uh London
was the first, uh, the placethat I chose the first, and then
I just started to be around uhLondon and the Netherlands.
SPEAKER_01 (02:39):
Yeah.
Well, I have a lot of questions,but I think you know, for those
that are familiar with LatinAmerica, you know, familiar,
especially with countries likeUruguay, Argentina, you know,
there's a lot of Europeaninfluence.
So it's one thing to, you know,I think go back and forth to a
country like Germany wherethere's some German influence or
Spain, Italy, but China is awhole other world.
(03:03):
Tell us just about like theculture clash and maybe also
there's similarities that maybewe're not thinking about, you
know, and people are people.
You know, what was that like assomeone from Uruguay in
Shanghai?
SPEAKER_00 (03:16):
I still have this very clear memory.
Uh, the first time I went there,I actually went for a couple of
weeks for one project.
This was before the decision wasmade to move there.
So I have this very clearpicture of me leaving the hotel
lobby for the first time.
It was I went to Guangzhou,which is in the south, for those
first two weeks.
I have this very clear memory ofwhere am I.
(03:36):
Um everything is very, verydifferent.
Food, culture, people, howbusiness is made.
Um, um, it was the first timenot leaving the country, but the
first time doing somethingmeaningful outside of the
country besides just traveling.
So there was a cultural shockwith everything.
Food, people, transportation,the language as well, especially
Chinese, a place where Englishis not that common.
(03:58):
It's a place where you reallyneed to learn at the at least
the basics of uh mandarin to getaround.
So, yes, it it was not thateasy, but I mean it's part of
the process, right?
SPEAKER_01 (04:07):
Yeah, yeah.
I mean, starting witharchitecture, you know,
Montevideo has these kind oflike beautiful traditional, you
know, uh buildings.
From my my memory, correct me ifI'm wrong, but not a lot of like
giant skyscrapers, you know.
Yeah, yeah, and then you gothere, yeah.
SPEAKER_00 (04:24):
Yes, Uruguay has a lot of influence mainly from
Spain and Italy.
The people come from Spain andItaly, Italy, and then the
architecture is mainly Spanish,so we don't have a single
skyscraper in the country.
Yeah, we have a couple of whatwe consider tall buildings, but
they are not really.
Imagine Paris or or Madrid.
Also, Buenos Aires is verysimilar.
(04:45):
So I know that a lot of peoplehave been to Buenos Aires, but
not Montevideo is not is a lesspopular place.
So imagine a smaller version ofBuenos Aires when it comes to
architecture.
SPEAKER_01 (04:54):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.
And then even Buenos Aires, youknow, one of the oldest uh
subway systems and you know railsystems.
Um, and then you step into aplace like China where it seems
like everything was builtyesterday, you know, like robots
and you know, uh super highspeed and infrastructure.
Were your what were some of yourfirst impressions?
SPEAKER_00 (05:15):
So many things.
Coming from a country, Uruguay,where we don't have a subway
system, our transportationworks, but it's not the most
modern.
Everything works in China whenit comes to infrastructure.
It's very, very well done, it'svery well planned as well.
Also, when it comes, nowspeaking about FinTech, when I
went there for the first time,they have been already using
digital wallets for a very longtime.
(05:35):
And back in 2018, when when thiswas happening, it was not
popular in the rest of theworld.
So it was uh a paradigm change.
How they pay, how how they movemoney around, they were already
not using cash almost.
It was a cashless society payingwith their phones.
Yeah, it was a big change.
SPEAKER_01 (05:51):
Yeah.
I definitely want to get intothe fintech in a second, but you
know, I often think of likeSteve Jobs, you know, who uh
when you think about like uhtypography like typography and
you know, he took all theseinteresting classes and they all
came together.
And for a fintech founder likeyourself, you know, who's had
exposure to Asia, Europe, howdid how did all that maybe shape
(06:17):
your perspective and vision as afounder?
SPEAKER_00 (06:21):
Massively.
The fact that when you exposeyourself to different cultures,
different people, you learn howthey think, you learn how they
like to do things, you learn howcomfortable they are doing
certain things.
So then when you're on the otherend, when you're trying to
approach them, when you'retrying to work with them, it
changes a lot if you understandthem.
Uh so that's something I'm verythankful for actually, that I
(06:43):
had the opportunity to go veryyoung across Asia, Europe, South
America, North America.
And uh it's a lot of personalgrowth, but that also is applied
to the professional life.
SPEAKER_01 (06:53):
Yeah.
You know, and something yousaid, just like everything
works, and uh a lot of ourlisteners have been to
Argentina, some have been toUruguay.
I was very impressed withUruguay, and it felt like, wow,
this is like the Switzerland ofLatin America, you know, the
banks work, everything works.
Meanwhile, you have these two,you know, loud, crazy neighbors
(07:13):
in Brazil and Argentina, andthere's always like a crisis,
you know, every moment.
And, you know, I'm curious how,you know, maybe somebody from
Argentina where you're just kindof used to stuff being in chaos.
It's almost normal.
And then you have, you know,obviously Uruguay is is much
more stable, and then you have aplace like China where like it's
just the expectation that thingswork.
(07:36):
Can you talk about that a littlebit more?
And you know, I'm not picking onUruguay, but maybe maybe it's
it's it's neighbors that I'mpicking on.
Yeah, if you could talk aboutthat.
SPEAKER_00 (07:45):
Absolutely.
Actually, most of us will see itas a blessing, not as a curse.
We have this joke amongUruguayans that live abroad.
Whenever you come back home,once a year, once every two
years, the joke is how iseverything exactly the same as
it was when I left?
Because it's true.
I've been uh I've been livingabroad for the last 10 years and
not much changed.
Every time I come back, I don'thave to adapt.
(08:07):
Things are in the same place,everything is in the same place.
So we actually see it as ablessing.
Stability, especially nowadayswhere things are changing in not
so good ways in a lot of places.
We are very happy with where weare.
We have very stable governments,they change, but they are all
stable.
Very stable economy.
Maybe it's not the fastestgrowing one, but it's stable,
uh, doesn't go down.
(08:27):
And then also you mentionedabout uh banks, complete
financial freedom.
You can do business from here.
That's why a lot of companieslike ours and companies from
abroad, they come to Uruguay toinvest here.
Why?
Because uh we have goodrelationships with everyone,
that's part of this being theSwitzerland of South America.
We are in good system witheveryone, and it's a very fair
(08:47):
playing field.
If you come, you can dobusiness, and yeah, it's going
to be it's going to go verywell.
SPEAKER_01 (08:52):
Yeah.
I love that about Uruguay.
You know, as someone who starteda business in Argentina, and you
know, my attorney at the timewas his expression was always
like, you know, can we, youknow, could we do this, Mariano?
Can we figure this out?
And his response is like, by thegrace of God.
And the whole time I'm like,man, I should have started in
(09:13):
Uruguay because it's likepredictable, black and white,
you know, the rules are clear.
Whereas Argentina it was by thegrace of God, you know.
So um but anyway, tell us moreabout uh the fintech world, the
ecosystem that you see in LatinAmerica and abroad.
SPEAKER_00 (09:32):
Yeah, uh so I believe that right now in Latin
America, we already are pastthrough the stage of early
disruption.
Uh meaning over the last maybe10 years, the first players in
the market came and they builtthe rails, they built the core.
And nowadays we're actuallyseeing, and also a lot of our
clients, we're actually seeingfintechs that are building on
(09:53):
top of other fintechs.
So this second layer of fintechswhere the core plumbing is
already done, the rails arethere, and now it leaves a lot
more space to differentiationand innovation.
Why?
Because the effort that now youneed to launch a new product is
slower because you can alreadyuse the leverage of the first
fintechs that were around.
(10:14):
So I do believe that in LatinAmerica now we're we're on this
stage where fintechs are beingbuilt on top of fintechs and
they are trying to showsomething different or bring
something new.
SPEAKER_01 (10:23):
Yeah, I think that's an interesting point because
that first level of fintechs wasreally disrupting things that
traditional banks did fairlymediocre.
Um, do you see the secondgeneration of fintechs uh
disrupting what the firstgeneration did or building on
top of that?
How how might you see that?
SPEAKER_00 (10:41):
I see it uh building on top of that.
I see the new fintech using whatthe first fintech created, which
is very useful.
We need it, but the new fintechsare coming to build on top of
that, meaning that both areequally as valid.
The rails are needed to thebasic things, but now the new
fintechs are bringing newproducts to the general public.
Interesting.
SPEAKER_01 (11:00):
Tell me more about the Latin America consumer of
some of these products.
You know, what are theyexpecting?
What are they what are theylooking for?
SPEAKER_00 (11:09):
That's a very good question.
So, not so long ago we were cashsocieties, um, and there has
been a lot of disruption withthe first layer of fintech in
order to uh teach the generalpublic how to do things in a
more modern way.
So nowadays, the thing that uhI'm seeing the most over the
last couple of years withfintechs in Latin America is
(11:30):
mostly around investments.
While banking is already verypopular, most of the countries
are already highly bankarized,so almost everyone has a bank
account.
There are neo banks that arearound that make things slightly
easier and they are growing.
But I think the thing that I'vebeen seeing the most is when it
comes to investments and wealthtech.
Because for a very long time, asLatin Americans, we thought that
(11:52):
that was reserved for higherincome countries.
We thought that we just need tosurvive and save a couple of
dollars here and there to thentake a massive loan, a massive
mortgage on a house and spendthe rest of our lives paying a
mortgage, and that's it.
That was our our finances.
But now I'm seeing that there'sa lot of new fintechs making it
easier to the general public toinvest and teaching the public
(12:15):
how to invest.
Especially also when the pensionsystems of of our countries they
are not so strong, so no onereally knows what's going to
happen in in the future.
So I think a lot of thisdisruption and new things I'm
seeing around is mostly arounduh investments.
Interesting.
SPEAKER_01 (12:29):
You know, I think I read a stat the other day that
um Americans from the states,about 50%, 5-0, own one single
share of stock, you know.
So and that's just like thefirst level of public investing,
right?
Like investing in Microsoft andmutual funds and relatively safe
companies.
I don't know if I've ever uhlooked into that in Latin
(12:52):
America, or maybe we could talkabout Uruguay specifically.
What does that look like today?
You know, that makes sense aboutuh the big investment was your
house, your primary residence.
What does it look like today?
Is that you know 10% owner own apublic company, 50%, you know,
what does that look like?
SPEAKER_00 (13:09):
It's even much lower than 10%.
Okay.
There are different reasons.
The first reason why it has beeninaccessible for so long is
because uh the barrier of entrywas too high.
Meaning, in order, if you wantedto buy any stock in the US
market, you need to perform aninternational Swift transfer.
And imagine that you have save$100 per month, which is normal
(13:30):
here.
A lot of people say that or evenless, then the SWIFT cost of the
transfer is going to be almostwhat you wanted to invest.
So the entry barrier was superhigh, and it's still actually
quite high.
And the fintechs nowadays, whatthey are trying to do is to
bring that barrier lower, tomake it easier to the general
public to access, and also toteach the general public, uh,
(13:51):
because people usually are quiterisk adverse.
That's why they took mortgagemortgages on houses, right?
Um, yeah.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (13:59):
In a way, we're kind of talking about like a Robin
Hood for Latin America.
Exactly.
Yeah, yeah, interesting.
Well, tell us more about uhVangui.
What are you what are youbuilding?
What's your vision and how faralong?
SPEAKER_00 (14:13):
Yeah, for sure.
Uh we co-founded the companyfive years ago, a bit over five
years ago.
I started my career in the localin payments, and then I stayed
in the fintech industry.
We're a team of fourco-founders, and we all come
from very similar backgrounds.
Um we got this opportunity, wesaw this gap where in fintech
it's actually more important tounderstand the business than the
(14:34):
technical part.
Uh, because engineers, there's alot of engineers everywhere, but
engineers that understandfintech, not so many.
And if you're a company, afintech company, and you need a
team of five engineers to buildsomething across a couple of
months, and you need to hire acompany and train those
engineers to understand whatyou're building, that's really
not efficient.
You're going to waste a lot ofmoney and time from your team as
(14:57):
well that you need to tradethem.
So we saw this gap in to providefintech companies with
consulting and engineering anddevelopment power, and that's
our mission.
We are a team of around 40engineers, mostly based off of
Montevideo, Uruguay, but also inArgentina.
We are a small market, so we weneed to seek talent somewhere
(15:18):
else.
And our mission is to helpfintech companies, mostly
payments and wealth tech, to beable to scale in an efficient
way with engineers that theyknow what they are doing in the
fintech area.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (15:28):
Where do you usually come in?
Is it like pre-MVP, post-MVP,after it's you know in a scaling
stage?
SPEAKER_00 (15:36):
Yeah.
So we have two types of clients.
The first one is pre-MVP.
It's basically a couple, three,four co-founders that they have
an idea.
They're trying to raise themoney or they already raised the
money.
Um, they want to build an MVP.
It's usually much easier to goto seek help for that, not to
have an internal team becausethe risks associated are super
big.
(15:56):
So that's what one type ofclient, together with the
discovery process, for them tounderstand what we are going to
build, and then we spend somemonths building it.
And then the other one iscompanies that are scaling up,
let's say from 100 to 500employees, and they are actively
hiring, but it's not easy tohire and it's not easy to train
the people that you hire,because whenever you hire, that
(16:16):
will take time away from yourengineers to do the work to
teach these people.
So in those cases, uh, we alsocan to help and boost the
productivity of the engineeringteam.
SPEAKER_01 (16:25):
Yeah.
Are you usually building, areyou providing engineers on like
a time and materials basis thatjust understand fintech?
Or you know, you'll give like afixed bid price, you know, so
maybe if there's other fintechfounders that are listening,
they kind of understand yourpricing model.
SPEAKER_00 (16:44):
Yeah.
Usually time and materials isthe most flexible way to
approach it, is the way that weprefer to approach.
And it's usually also thecheaper one for everyone.
Why?
Because when you're trying tobuild something from scratch,
you really don't know, eventhough you go through a
discovery process, things changeand the market evolves.
And then if we come to a fixedprice and things change, of
(17:05):
course, we need to review thescope, and that takes time and
energy.
So the way that we prefer towork is we still do a rough
estimation of how much we thinkit's gonna take.
So we understand that a group offounders trying to build
something, they are not going tosay, yeah, let's go without even
knowing if it's going to be thescale, the magnitude of how much
you're going to spend.
So we still do a ballparkestimation for them to know how
(17:25):
much roughly this will cost, butthen we prefer to work in a
times and materials scheme.
We can work on a fixed price ifit's very concrete and the
requirements are very clear.
We are doing that and it works.
Sometimes, especially whencompanies are scaling up, they
want this very specific thingbuilt and the requirements are
very clear.
In that case, we can approach itwith a fixed price.
(17:45):
But in most cases, times andmaterials is the best both for
our clients and for us as well.
SPEAKER_01 (17:50):
Yeah.
Tell us more about the uh theclient location.
Are they mostly in the US?
Are they in Latin America?
You know, what percentages?
Help help us kind of do that,especially with this hot new
fintech world in Latin America.
SPEAKER_00 (18:05):
Yeah.
Yeah.
When we started the company, wethought that because of economy,
clients in Latin America werenot a good fit for us.
Uh why?
Because in our heads we thought,well, they can't hire you
locally, so why are you going tocome to us?
But we had come to therealization that that's not the
case.
They still use our services.
Still, nowadays it's mostly 40%US, 40%, 35% US, 35% Europe, and
(18:29):
then the rest Latin America.
So it's a combination of Europe,US.
When I say Europe, it's mostlythe UK, uh, because in Europe,
other countries they fair uhpeople that speak their own
language.
Uh it's very strange for aGerman company to hire someone
that doesn't speak German, orany country that the rest in
Europe is mostly uh the UK, theUS, and then I'll say a fifth uh
(18:51):
of our clients come from LatinAmerica.
Got it.
Interesting.
SPEAKER_01 (18:54):
With the the US market, are you mostly working
with New York and San Franciscocompanies, which is where
there's the highestconcentration?
SPEAKER_00 (19:01):
Yeah, yeah, it's mostly San Francisco and New
York.
SPEAKER_01 (19:04):
That's correct.
Yeah, yeah.
And then the engineers you saidare mostly in Montevideo.
SPEAKER_00 (19:09):
Yes.
Uh I would say nowadays 80% ofour engineers are in Montevideo,
and the other 20% spread acrossArgentina.
Argentina is very big, so theyare spread across.
The way we keep it this way,first of all, is time zones.
The time zone that we have inArgentina and in Uruguay is
very, very good to work with theUS.
We are just one hour away fromMiami, a couple of hours away
(19:29):
from New York, a couple morehours from the West Coast, but
still is it's very manageable.
So, yes, our talent comes mainlyfrom Uruguay, also significant
part from Argentina.
SPEAKER_01 (19:40):
Yeah.
I mean, hiring is so important,you know, to get that right and
you know, especially to properlysupport your customers.
Tell us what you've learned, youknow, about hiring, and then you
know, maybe maybe maybe we'llstart there and then we can dive
deeper into the talent pocket.
SPEAKER_00 (19:55):
Yeah, it has been a journey, a lot of learnings over
these last five years.
Yes, hiring is a very big partof our business because in order
to provide a good service, weneed good engineers.
Of course, you can still dotraining, uh, you can, but it's
very important to hire the rightperson.
So it has been a bit of trialand error, to be honest, over
the last five five years.
What to ask, what not to ask,when to ask it, when to ask for
(20:18):
a technical test, when not toask for a technical test.
So it has been a lot of trialand error, but nowadays we we
have a very good uh hiring team.
Um, we have a constant pipeline,so that's also very important.
It's not we don't go to look forsomeone when we need it for
yesterday.
We are constantly updating ourpipelines with new candidates.
We never stop interviewing.
(20:38):
So I think that's also somethingvery important because sometimes
the client wants to you meetwith the client, everything goes
well in two weeks, and they say,Well, we want to start tomorrow
with a team of five people.
And if you don't have the benchof five people, hiring five
people straight away, if you areat zero, it's super difficult.
So it's very important to beconstantly updating your
pipeline with new strongcandidates.
SPEAKER_01 (20:58):
Yeah.
What are some of the commontechnologies or tech stacks that
you'd like uh the candidatesyou're talking to to have?
SPEAKER_00 (21:07):
Yeah, I would say in fintech, we have seen two
technologies as the main ones.
One company is that wants tostart something a bit quicker
and a bit more agile, it'susually anything around
JavaScript, TypeScript, node.
That's something very, verypopular.
It's the one that we actuallyprefer if we can choose a
technology.
Also, on in already moreestablished companies, uh, Java
is also quite popular.
It's very robust.
(21:28):
So I would say we have beenworking with over 50 clients
over the last five years, so wehave seen a lot of different
platforms, and a vast majorityis divided between JavaScript
and Java.
SPEAKER_01 (21:39):
Yeah.
Now, Uruguay is certainly agreat place for talent, but like
you said, it's not nearly as bigas Brazil and Argentina.
How do you how do you thinkabout that as you recruit, you
know, in Montevideo and outside?
SPEAKER_00 (21:52):
Yeah, it's a very small market, a very talented
and well-educated market.
Here education is free.
So a lot of people they go touniversity, they have degrees,
they are very smart, but it's avery small market.
We are already three millionpeople.
Argentina is 44 million people.
So so imagine uh the sizedifference.
So I think um at least ourcompany, we started in in
(22:14):
Uruguay, but then at one pointwe realized we want to keep
hiring in Uruguay, but we haveto hire as well in Argentina to
do it both things in parallel,because yes, uh the the talent
pocket here in Uruguay is quitesmall.
Uh we are not a big country.
So um Argentina also is verysimilar to us when it comes to
culturally.
So basically, for Argentiniansand Uruguayans, we can sit in
(22:34):
the same room and it's like thesame.
So that helps a lot as well.
SPEAKER_01 (22:37):
Yeah, yeah.
There's nothing like passing amate cup around.
Exactly.
SPEAKER_00 (22:41):
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (22:42):
Yeah, there's no no no replacement.
Um, how about hardware?
You know, I have memories oftrying to smuggle, you know,
MacBooks and all sorts ofhardware into Argentina.
What's that like in Uruguay?
Do you is it easy to get whatyou need?
And maybe you could talk aboutthe customs policies there.
SPEAKER_00 (23:00):
Yeah.
Well, so first of all, it's easyto get what you need because the
market here is very open.
You can import whatever youwant, but it's extremely
expensive.
Mainly two reasons.
One of them is taxes.
There is a lot of taxes wheneveryou import something.
And also when you're a smallermarket and you're importing just
for your country, of course,it's more expensive to import a
smaller volume of things.
(23:21):
So that makes things moreexpensive.
On one hand, you can get almostanything you want, but on the
other hand, everything is quiteexpensive, especially
technology.
Uh but yes, there's no reallyworkaround around that.
Maybe if you're starting, youcan fly to the US and bring a
couple of computers.
That's good.
But once you're an establishedcompany and you need to buy
three, four computers per month,you need to do it the right way.
(23:42):
Uh and you just need to bite thebullets.
There's no way around it.
SPEAKER_01 (23:45):
Yeah.
Yeah.
You know, uh, a lot of myexperience is going to be
Argentina driven, but um Iremember credit wasn't really a
thing that existed.
You know, I couldn't buy 10laptops on credit.
It's all due, you know, rightaway.
How about Uruguay?
Is that does credit kind ofexist, you know, in
business-to-businesstransactions?
Could you get it now and pay in30 days?
SPEAKER_00 (24:07):
Well, there's a couple of ways you can do it
nowadays.
Here we have had uh installmentswith credit cards for a very
long time, no interestinstallments.
So almost anything that you buy,if you buy with a Uruguayan
credit card in a Uruguayanstore, you can pay it for up to
six installments.
So that's very handy.
And then, yes, there arebusiness credit lines that come
from banks, but with not thebest interest rates, if I have
(24:29):
to be honest.
So they are not they're mostlyused as a last resort in case
that you usually need something.
But the easiest way and thecheapest way to get credit is
just using credit cards withinstallments, which they are
interest-free.
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (24:44):
As we start to wind the show down a little bit, um,
what are your predictions for2026?
You know, especially on the uhfintech ecosystem in Latin
America.
What do you what do you seecoming down the road?
SPEAKER_00 (24:57):
Um, I expect a lot of growth.
Uh, it's not slowing down.
I remember some years ago peoplewere talking that fintech is
slowly dying.
Now we see the total opposite.
It's it's growing faster andfaster and faster.
So I expect uh a lot of growth.
I expect a lot of new uh LatinAmerican fintechs to come
around.
And also what I expect the most,we have seen it with NewBank,
(25:17):
for example, Latin Americanfintechs serving other
countries, meaning not doingthings just for Latin American
countries, but for the rest ofthe world.
So I I ex I expect moredisruption that way.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (25:28):
And then uh last question, we can have a little
fun here.
Um I know you don't permanentlylive in Montevideo, but for
those that are that arelistening that maybe have it on
their list to visit, what dothey need to see?
What do they need to experience?
Best times of the year to go.
Be be the the tour guide herefor the listeners.
SPEAKER_00 (25:49):
Yes, yes, definitely in summer.
Please do not come in winter.
It's a very great city inwinter.
We get a bit of sun, but that'sit, and it's cold.
I remember that we are quite oneof the most software capitals in
the world.
So it is a subtropical climate,so you need to come in summer if
you want warm weather.
And I'll say La Rambla.
La Rambla is uh the promenadealong the sea.
(26:10):
We have a beautiful coastline,beautiful beaches going all the
way up to the border withBrazil.
So if you want to come toMontevideo, just please come in
the summer.
You can get a car.
Everything is very close.
That's those are the benefits ofliving in a small country.
You can drive from corner tocorner of the country in four
hours.
So there's a lot to see, uh,very nice beaches.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_01 (26:28):
Yeah.
I'll always remember.
I think I visited, it was abeautiful Sunday afternoon, and
uh my wife and I walked theRambla, and we saw um a lot of
couples just walking, and youknow.
I made uh it was a fun, funobservation, you know, where
like the guy would have one handaround his girlfriend and the
other hand around his matethermos.
SPEAKER_00 (26:50):
Yes, yes.
We have this habit of carryingour mates everywhere, especially
the rambla.
Going to the Rambla to to drinksome mate and have some pastries
is yeah, it's a must-do,especially on a very nice
Sunday.
SPEAKER_01 (27:03):
Yeah, absolutely.
Uh well, Augustine, this hasbeen a really fun conversation.
Uh, thanks for educating us somuch on the Latin America
fintech ecosystem.
Uh, learned a lot.
SPEAKER_00 (27:12):
Thank you very much, Brian.
It was it was a pleasure, a verynice conversation, and yeah, the
best to you.
SPEAKER_01 (27:17):
Excellent.
Well, this is the Nearshore CafePodcast, and a podcast today was
sponsored by Plug Technologies,pl-g-g.tech.
Great way to connect talent allover Latin America with growing
US companies.
Thanks for listening.
We'll see you next time.
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