WHO We Hire

Luiz Cent
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WHO We Hire is built on a simple premise: no great company gets built without great people. Luiz Cent talks with founders, CEOs, CTOs, CPOs, COOs, and executives at technology companies to unpack how they hire, where they've gotten it wrong, and what they've learned scaling teams from the ground up. Topics include hiring strategy, talent acquisition, team building, leadership, company culture, scaling startups, and building high-performance teams in SaaS and tech. If you're a founder, operator, executive, board member, or VC, this show is for you.

  1. 6d ago

    The "Savage" Reference-Check Hiring Tactic Most Recruiters Are Missing

    Evan Walden is the Founder in Residence at Findem, where he takes new AI recruiting products from zero to one for venture capital and private equity portfolios. Before this, he spent nine years building Getro, the talent network behind roughly 1,000 job boards for the world's top VC and PE funds, which Findem acquired in November 2025. Earlier, he cofounded ReWork (acquired by Koya Partners) and started his career running a recruiting agency in the social impact space. In this episode, Evan breaks down the exact outreach script that turns passive candidates into advocates, the IQ vs EQ framework for using AI in recruiting, and why "we treat everyone well" is a terrible company value. What you'll learn: - The 15-minute feedback outreach script that turns passive candidates into advocates for your search - Why the "savage" reference-check tactic can quietly become your best senior-hire pipeline - The IQ vs EQ rule for deciding which recruiting tasks to hand to AI and which to keep human - Why hybrid teams (part remote, part in-office) break down and what to do instead - How to know if someone is actually built for remote work before you hire them - Why your company values should be a polarity ("we do this instead of that") not a platitude - The "go up the mountain" cadence for making values a living document instead of wall art - Why one misaligned early hire creates outsized cultural damage in a sub-10-person team Chapters: 00:00 The 15-minute outreach script that creates advocates 00:51 Meet Evan Walden, Founder in Residence at Findem 01:20 From recruiting agency to Getro: the accidental origin story 06:00 What VCs actually taught him about hiring networks 08:00 The "savage" reference-check hiring move 10:50 Building a global remote team since day one 12:35 Why hybrid work quietly breaks your context 14:08 Should new grads take remote jobs? 16:10 IQ vs EQ: where AI belongs in recruiting 18:06 Replacing LinkedIn Recruiter with Claude and MCP 21:17 What acquisition taught him about culture 29:00 Why founders skip values (until it's too late) 32:23 Making values a living document, not wall art 34:43 The "polarity test" for real company values 35:53 Where to find Evan and Findem Where to find the guest: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/evanwalden/ Findem: https://www.findem.ai/ Where to find Luiz Cent: Website: https://latamcent.com/ Who We Hire: https://whowehire.org/

  2. Sep 22

    How This CEO Hires for the AI Era

    Joe Walsh is the Chairman and CEO of Thryv, where he leads a global company serving hundreds of thousands of small businesses. Before Thryv, Joe spent over 20 years as President and CEO of Yellowbook, scaling U.S. revenue from $38M to $2B, and later served as Executive Chairman of Cambium Learning Group, where he took the stock from $0.70 to $14.50 per share. Across his career he has completed 77 acquisitions, launched into 250+ new markets, and expanded companies into 46 countries. In this episode he reveals his frameworks for finding hidden talent inside acquisitions, restructuring executive teams, and building a global culture that survives transformation. What You'll Learn: - Why Joe elevates internal talent instead of hiring external CEOs during turnarounds - The "honeypot of talent" rule for spotting upper-middle managers inside acquired companies - How to build a "perfect cocktail" of legacy employees and new hires without creating a Tower of Babel - Why closed-minded employees "self-select" out of transformations (and why that's a feature, not a bug) - The back-to-back Zoom method: how a CEO stays close to customers with five 25-minute calls in one afternoon - Why nearshore hiring in the Dominican Republic beats offshore contractors in India or the Philippines - The President's Achievement Award: how Thryv uses quarterly cash rewards to drive 300% productivity gains - The "Done 3" core value that shapes every customer interaction at Thryv Chapters: 00:00 Trailer: Who We Hire Episode 22 01:00 Restructuring Talent in the AI Era 03:00 Building an AI-Native Platform for Small Business 04:29 What Joe Looks For When Investing in Teams 06:16 The Back-to-Back Zoom Customer Method 08:53 Studying at the Feet of the Master: Yellowbook Origins 11:10 The $0.70 to $14.50 Cambium Turnaround 14:26 Restructuring Executive Teams: Elevate From Within 16:07 The "Honeypot of Talent" Acquisition Rule 20:05 How to Get Legacy Employees Bought Into Change 23:03 President's Achievement Award: Rewarding AI Adoption 25:03 Core Values That Live on Your Mouse Pad 27:03 Why 88 Hires in the Dominican Republic Became 788 30:00 Advice for CEOs Hiring Internationally for the First Time Where to find Joe Walsh: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-walsh-8551a83a/ Website: https://www.thryv.com/ Where to find Luiz Cent: Website: https://latamcent.com/ Who We Hire: https://whowehire.org/

  3. Sep 15

    Shark Tank Investor Reveals Why LinkedIn Was Never Built To Solve Recruiting

    Alex Torrenegra is the founder and CEO of Torre.ai, a global job network automating recruitment with real-time, super-intelligent AI. Previously, he bootstrapped Voice123 and Bunny Studio to $100M+ in revenue, holds multiple patents in job marketplace dynamics, and served as an investor on Shark Tank Colombia and Shark Tank Mexico. MIT named him an Innovator Under 35, and the World Economic Forum tapped him as a Young Global Leader. In this episode, he breaks down the 112 hiring factors his team identified, why personality tests barely predict fit, and the flat team structure he's betting his unicorn on. - Why LinkedIn was never built to solve recruiting, according to a direct conversation Alex had with former CEO Jeff Weiner - The 112 hiring factors Torre identified by studying thousands of recruiters, and why only 80 are deployed so far - Why personality traits like Big Five and HEXACO failed as predictors, and what candidates were already doing to make them redundant - The professional genome concept, where the platform learns from what you apply to and what you ignore - Why Alex plans to cap his company at roughly 20 people even at unicorn scale, all reporting directly to him - How Torre replaced traditional squads (designer, QA, tech lead, engineers) with technical product managers who each manage AI - The data-backed reason mission-driven companies pay lower salaries and still recruit better talent - Why two AIs negotiating a candidate match takes 2-3 minutes, while Torre's centralized system does it in under 100 nanoseconds 00:00 From Voice123 to the global job network 03:30 Why Torre isn't Latin America focused, despite the arbitrage 05:45 Preventing North Korean impersonation and the reputation solution 09:30 Why LinkedIn was never built for recruiting 14:20 Systematically eliminating interviews with AI screening 18:45 5,000 AI interviews per day and radical transparency in rankings 22:00 The Nasdaq of jobs vision and why AI-to-AI matching fails 26:30 The 112 factors and why personality tests barely predict fit 31:00 Professional culture vs personality: what actually predicts fit 34:00 The 20-person unicorn: flat structure and no board 38:30 Mission-driven hiring and why impact companies attract talent cheaper Alex Torrenegra: Website: https://torre.ai/ Website: https://me.torrenegra.com Twitter: @torrenegra Email: alexander@torre.ai Where to find Luiz Cent: Website: https://latamcent.com/ Who We Hire: https://whowehire.org/

  4. Aug 25

    REtokens Broker-Dealer CEO: "You Can Know AI, We Still Won't Hire You"

    Tyler Vinson is the Co-Founder and CEO of REtokens USA Inc. and REtokens Capital LLC, a FINRA-member broker-dealer and SEC-registered Alternative Trading System building the first real estate–exclusive digital asset marketplace in the United States. He's personally closed over $100M in investment real estate transactions and driven roughly a quarter billion in tokenized real estate volume, all while holding Series 24, 7, and 63 licenses as a #1 best-selling author. In this episode, Tyler breaks down how he went from traditional real estate operator to essentially an investment banker, why he fired and rehired every one of his first licensed hires, and the exact partner-vetting questionnaire that saved him from a near-disaster co-founder deal. What You'll Learn: - Why Tyler parted ways with every one of his first licensed hires (Series 24s, compliance officers, FinOps) and what he replaced them with - The near-miss co-founder story that taught him partnerships are "like a marriage" and the questionnaire he now uses before signing anything - Why the front-end/back-end complementary split with his 30-year friend became the foundation of REtokens - The hard rule for hiring in 2026: "You can fill a seat and know AI — we're still not going to hire you" - Why REtokens is not refilling roles when people turn over, and how AI proficiency became a full tool belt in the last 6 months - How scaling in tokenization looks less like traditional hiring and more like M&A across ecosystem segments - The regulatory hiring stack you're forced to build for a FINRA/SEC-licensed company (Series 24s, CCO, FinOp, cybersecurity, SOC 2) - Why Tyler says "go with your gut" is cliché but non-negotiable and the real cost of a wrong hire beyond salary Chapters: 00:00 The AI hiring shift that started in early 2026 01:05 From $100M in real estate to $250M tokenized 02:14 Why real estate hiring profiles completely changed 04:32 Do you need a technical co-founder? 06:36 The near-miss partnership Tyler walked away from 08:07 Partnerships are marriages the questionnaire that vets them 10:29 How to actually leverage coaches (and when not to) 12:19 Staying current on roles that didn't exist 3 years ago 14:36 AI proficiency: fewer people, more output 20:14 The regulatory hiring stack nobody prepared him for 24:24 Why he fired and rehired every licensed role 29:31 Scaling through M&A instead of org-chart hiring 32:17 The one hiring lesson for founders in a new category Where to find Tyler Vinson: Website: https://retokens.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/realestateinvestment/ Where to find Luiz Cent: Website: https://latamcent.com/ Who We Hire: https://whowehire.org/

  5. Aug 18

    How This 5x CEO Knows When A Senior Leader Has Hit The Ceiling

    Douglas Braun is the CEO of eProductivity Software (ePS), a global software company serving thousands of packaging manufacturers across more than 100 countries. A five-time CEO with a 40-year career in enterprise software, Doug has led teams from Stockholm to São Paulo, promoted internal talent into executive seats, and grown the ePS India office from 60 to 170 people in 18 months. In this episode, he shares the exact frameworks he uses when inheriting a team, promoting from within, running acquisitions as mergers of equals, and deploying AI without cutting headcount. What you'll learn: - The 90-day rule Doug uses every time he inherits a company (and why "what you did yesterday is what I want you to do tomorrow" buys him time) - How to tell the difference between an executive who needs coaching versus one who has hit the ceiling - Why Doug spends 60-70% of his time on the road and three-quarters of that with employees, not customers - The 24-hour response promise he makes to all 400 employees (and why he's 98% good at it) - Why every one of his nine executives personally owns customer accounts, including the CFO and Chief Legal Officer - The "human in the loop" AI hiring philosophy and why AI is not about cutting 20% of staff - The M&A rule Doug learned from a Fortune 500 CIO: acquisitions are "slow and painful or fast and painful, pick fast" - Why he took 17 people from an acquired 28-person company and 11 from his own team (and what that signals) - The 85/15 to 70/30 tactical-to-strategic shift every founder must make at the $10M mark Chapters: 00:00 Cold open: coaching vs. hitting the ceiling 01:04 Intro and Doug's 5x CEO journey 02:16 Inheriting a team and managing fear and uncertainty 03:53 When a shared vision is impossible 06:22 The 90-day rule for retaining top talent 07:47 Promoting from within: the UK chief product officer story 10:02 Doug's superpower: getting people on board 11:20 The 24-hour employee response promise 15:49 Leading across Sweden, France, India, and Brazil 17:11 "You won't last": the 5th CEO in 10 years 20:19 Sitting in cubes with the India team 23:09 Hiring in the age of AI 26:51 Why every executive owns customer accounts 33:27 The merger-of-equals M&A hiring framework 40:18 Advice for founders scaling 50 to 150 46:32 Where to find Doug Where to find Douglas A Braun: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/douglasabraun ePS (eProductivity Software): https://epssw.com/ Where to find Luiz Cent: Website: https://latamcent.com/ Who We Hire: https://whowehire.org/

  6. Aug 11

    The Framework This 25-Year Entrepreneur Uses to Deploy AI Without Killing Jobs

    Brian Esposito is the founder of Esposito Intellectual Enterprises and CEO of Diamond Lake Minerals, a public company he grew from a $1 million market cap to nearly half a billion dollars in just three years. With over 25 years of entrepreneurial experience across more than 25 industries, Brian has never worked in the corporate world or had a boss. In this episode, he reveals his framework for identifying the wrong people before they damage your business, why he has an "allergic response" to AI replacing human capital, and how he helps founders avoid losing control of their own companies on the fundraising hamster wheel. What You'll Learn: - Why watching how someone treats a waiter instantly reveals if they're an opportunist you should avoid - The "golden rule" filter Brian uses to identify people who will put your business at risk for materialistic gain - How to reclaim equity from advisors who aren't performing their duties within 30 days - Why surrounding yourself with drama-filled people drains your ability to run 25+ companies simultaneously - The mindset shift from "raising money" to "earning money" that prevents founders from losing control - Why Brian never tries to replicate himself anymore after wasting years attempting it - How negativity in your inner circle runs your energy at "ten RPMs" and destroys what you can accomplish - The specific question Brian asks to identify if someone's god is money: do they brag about materialistic things? Chapters: 00:00 Episode 18 - Who We Hire: The Framework This 25-Year Entrepreneur Uses to Deploy AI Without Killing Jobs 02:30 Why Watching People Thrive Is More Rewarding Than Building Companies 03:54 Brian's Allergic Response to AI and Human Capital 06:28 Using AI to Enhance Jobs, Not Eliminate Them 08:25 Why Live Entertainment Will Explode as Human Connection Becomes Rare 11:06 Journey: The Platform Fighting Back Against Spotify's Data Hoarding 16:52 Finding the Right People by First Identifying the Wrong Ones 19:59 The Golden Rule Test for Spotting Opportunists 21:42 Why Negativity Is the Fastest Way to Drain Your Tank 24:29 From Nail Polish to Space: Building an Industry-Agnostic Career 29:26 Diamond Lake Minerals: $1M to $500M Market Cap in 3 Years 37:37 Rewiring Founders Away from the Raise Money Hamster Wheel 43:48 Being the Bad Guy Who Makes Advisors Accountable 45:08 Why Brian Stopped Trying to Replicate Himself Where to find the guest (Brian J Esposito): LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/brianj.esposito Social Media: @BrianJEsposito Where to find Luiz Cent: Website: https://latamcent.com/ Who We Hire: https://whowehire.org/

  7. Aug 4

    InEvent CEO Reveals The #1 Tech Role Every AI Company Is Hiring

    Pedro Góes is the CEO of Snapdat & Ziplit and founder of InEvent, a Y Combinator-backed (S19) event technology company that has generated over $20M in enterprise sales and serves Fortune 500 clients including Amazon, Coca-Cola, KPMG, and Santander. A 3x "Most Influential in Events" honoree and BizBash 40 Under 40, Pedro has scaled InEvent to 150 full-time staffers with 200-300 people working daily across the globe, and even produced live broadcasts from the International Space Station. In this episode, he breaks down the exact hiring ratios, internship playbook, and role shifts reshaping team composition in the age of AI. What You'll Learn: - Why every full-stack developer now requires 3 quality analysts on the InEvent team - The exact reason project manager roles are being killed and what's replacing them - How Pedro built an internship pipeline that gets 2,000 applicants in the first week - Why paying interns $25K to grow into $150K roles beats hiring senior talent cold - The counterintuitive interview tactic Pedro uses to filter out "hype" candidates - Why event industry roles are AI-resistant while radiologists and PMs are not - The 5% RSVP conversion rule for founders throwing their first in-person events - How to run a dinner strategy using your CRM heatmap instead of hiring an event manager Chapters: 00:00 The shifting roles in event technology 01:15 Pedro Gois background and building InEvent 02:00 The post-2020 boom and the shift back to in-person events 03:27 Launching Snap Data to solve post-event sales follow-up 05:08 Running massive scale events for the UN and US Presidents 07:35 Global remote hiring and the value of human connection 12:27 Reallocating dev budget: Why AI requires three QA engineers per full-stack dev 13:43 Removing project managers to connect CS directly with engineering 16:15 Achieving 100% pipeline coverage post-tradeshow with instant AI follow-up 28:00 Interviewing for high-responsibility roles and rejecting hype 29:20 Building a global remote internship program that yields company managers 33:20 The founder playbook for running high-ROI customer and prospect dinners Where to find Pedro: Pedro Góes: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pedrogoes InEvent: https://inevent.com Snapdat: https://snapdat.ai Where to find Luiz Cent: Website: https://latamcent.com/ Who We Hire: https://whowehire.org/

  8. Jul 28

    Pearl VP: Why Companies Laying People Off For AI Will Regret It In 18 Months

    Sam Mallikarjunan is VP at Pearl, where he's building out an entirely new business unit connecting experts with people who need real help not just AI answers. He previously served as GM at Agent.ai (Dharmesh Shah's AI marketplace that hit 1.5M users), CEO and co-founder of OneScreen.ai, CRO at Flock.com where he helped quintuple revenue, and Head of Growth at HubSpot Labs where he grew monthly recurring revenue 200x and built a community of 160k+ members. He also taught Advanced Digital Marketing at Harvard and served as Faculty Chair for Digital Marketing at USF. In this episode, Sam breaks down his frameworks for org design in the AI era, why laying people off for AI will backfire within 18 months, and how "shared custody agreements" are reshaping career development inside modern teams. What you'll learn: - Why standing out in the AI job market is like "applying for a chef's job by making them a meal" - The exact HubSpot LATAM playbook validate with a generalist first, then hire the specialist - Why laying off people because of AI will hurt companies in the next 18 months - The "shared custody agreements" framework for developing careers when org design breaks down - Why hiring people you've worked with before quietly creates a culture of insiders and outsiders - How to sell mission over brand when you have zero employer name recognition - The difference between translation and localization when building international teams - Why psychological safety matters more right now than hiring "AI-native" talent - How the only recruiter to crack Sam's AI screener actually did it Chapters: 00:00 Trailer: Pearl VP: Why Companies Laying People Off For AI Will Regret It In 18 Months 00:39 Meet Sam Mallikarjunan 01:26 The HireMe HubSpot story 02:43 Why every AI-powered applicant looks identical 04:11 Why Sam left AI agents to join Pearl 06:20 Will we have more entrepreneurs than employees? 10:23 Building HubSpot's LATAM team from zero 14:14 Translation vs localization when hiring globally 16:36 The roles Sam refuses to give to AI 19:04 Shared custody agreements: the new org design 26:08 Hiring for adaptability vs deep specialization 30:24 Recruiting without brand recognition 36:11 How one recruiter cracked Sam's AI screener 40:58 Where to find Sam Where to find the guest: Sam Mallikarjunan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mallikarjunan/ Sam's website: http://mallikarjunan.com/ Pearl: https://www.pearl.com/ Where to find Luiz Cent: Website: https://latamcent.com/ Who We Hire: https://whowehire.org/

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About

WHO We Hire is built on a simple premise: no great company gets built without great people. Luiz Cent talks with founders, CEOs, CTOs, CPOs, COOs, and executives at technology companies to unpack how they hire, where they've gotten it wrong, and what they've learned scaling teams from the ground up. Topics include hiring strategy, talent acquisition, team building, leadership, company culture, scaling startups, and building high-performance teams in SaaS and tech. If you're a founder, operator, executive, board member, or VC, this show is for you.

Information

  • Creator
    Luiz Cent
  • Years Active
    2026
  • Episodes
    23
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Luiz Cent
  • Show Website
    WHO We Hire