Why I started ExecTech Labs
Juan Molina ยท
Twice, a company I worked for decided the Colombian market wasn't enough. So I started a firm that helps US and European companies hire from the US, Europe and Latin America, choosing the pool by what the role needs.
My last job ended because the company decided to close most of its Latin America operations. It was the second time a company I worked for decided the Colombian market wasn't enough.
I don't hold that against anyone. Companies make these decisions for their own reasons, and after twenty years in recruiting I know how many things go into them. But the second time, I saw a pattern. Latin America was treated as something a company could take or leave. And my work depended on that decision, made by someone else.
There was a second reason. I'm 53. In tech, most of the people I work with are younger than forty, and I know how much harder it is to get hired at my age than it should be. Building my own firm meant I no longer had to wait for someone else's decision about my career either.
So I started ExecTech Labs. It helps companies in the US and Europe hire from three talent pools: the US, Europe and Latin America. Those closures are why I started it, and they are part of why I care about how Latin American talent is seen. But the work itself comes down to one question for every role: where is the right person?
Twenty years of hiring
I have worked in recruiting for more than twenty years. I've done it in-house, at agencies and in outsourced setups. I've run senior and C-suite searches. I've hired across several Latin American countries, and I've hired for North American companies.
I'm Colombian and Italian, and I speak English and Spanish natively. For most of my career I've worked between those worlds. From there you see how much good talent there is in all of them, and how often companies look in only one place.
Three pools, chosen by fit
I recruit in the US, in Europe and in Latin America, for companies in the US and Europe. I don't start with a favorite. I start with the role.
Some roles need someone in a specific city, or someone who knows a local market, its customers or its rules from the inside. Some need a person who can work the same hours as a team in New York or in Madrid. Some need a language, or experience at a certain stage of company. Once those needs are clear, the right pool usually follows. Sometimes it's the US, sometimes Europe, sometimes Latin America, and sometimes the best shortlist has people from all three.
I also don't see any of this as one pool replacing another. A strong hire adds to a team, wherever they live.
How I talk about Latin America
I do want to change one thing about how Latin America is seen.
The region is usually sold to US and European companies as a way to save money. I understand why that pitch works on a spreadsheet. I don't want to make it.
When you hire someone because they are cheap, you tend to treat them as cheap. They get the tasks nobody else wants. They are kept away from decisions. They are the first to go when budgets change. Nobody does their best work under those conditions, so the company gets less from them too.
Over twenty years I have met a great many people in Latin America who could do the work as well as anyone I've interviewed anywhere. When one of them is the right person for a role, they should be hired for that, paid for that, and given the responsibility that goes with it. The same goes for a candidate in Boston or in Milan.
Yes, it's a business
I want to be straight about this. ExecTech Labs is a business, and I want it to make money. Recruiting is what I have done for more than twenty years, and it's what I know how to do well.
I don't think earning a living from this takes anything away from the reasons above. It keeps me honest. The business only works if the people I introduce are excellent and the companies are glad they hired them.
What I learned by teaching myself to build
In the last two years I taught myself to build software with AI tools. I came to it as a recruiter, and I have since built my own recruiting tools and my own websites.
The biggest one is the site you're reading. I built www.exectechlabs.lat myself, including the market intelligence I use to map talent across the US, Europe and Latin America. I'm also building a second site for a travel business. Not everything I've built has lasted: my first market-intelligence dashboard is offline now, and I rebuilt it, better, inside this site.
The tools matter, but what changed most was me. After two decades of being the experienced person in the room, I had to be a beginner again. I got things wrong, fixed them and kept going. I'm a better recruiter for it, and I think I'm a better colleague too.
That is why I believe in people using these tools to improve themselves, at work and outside it. For me that has meant learning things I couldn't have learned before, and learning them faster. A person who keeps growing is a better boss and a better employee. I want the articles I write here to show that growth in my own work, including the parts that are still in progress.
Why this matters for your hiring
If you run a company or lead a team in the US or Europe, here is what I'd ask you to consider.
Start with the role, then choose the pool. Write down what the role needs: location, hours, language, market knowledge, stage. Then look wherever people who meet that bar are. If you start with cost, you will hire for cost and manage for cost.
Hold everyone to the same bar. Use the same interview process, the same expectations and the same path to leadership for every candidate, whether they are in the US, Europe or Latin America.
Hire for how people learn. Ask every candidate, wherever they are, how they are using AI tools in their work and outside it. You'll learn a lot about their curiosity and how they will grow in the role. That applies to your leaders as much as to anyone.
Think in terms of adding. A hire from another country can strengthen the team you already have. You don't have to frame it as a trade-off with your local hiring, and your team will notice if you do.
Where ExecTech Labs is today
ExecTech Labs is new. I won't pretend it has a long record behind it. What it has is my twenty years of recruiting, tools I built myself, and a clear idea of how I want to do this work.
If you're hiring and want help finding the right person, whether they are in the US, Europe or Latin America, you can register the role or send a short brief at www.exectechlabs.lat. I'll tell you honestly how I would approach it.