Growing a tech startup from Argentina to Miami

Welcome to the Nearshore Cafe podcast, home to the most interesting stories and people doing business in Latin America.

Welcome everyone to the Nearshore Cafe podcast where we talk with business leaders doing business in Latam. I'm your host, Brian Sampson. Our podcast today is sponsored by Plug Technologies, that's Plugg Tech. Plug provides software engineers all over Latin America for growing US Companies. I am really excited about our guest today, Juan Barrero. Juan, welcome to the show. It's so nice to have you.

Hey Brian, nice to meet you. Nice to see you. Very happy to be here in the show and I really enjoy listening the previous podcast too. So congrats on what you're building here.

Oh, thank you. Thank you very much. Well, Juan, this one's special for me because you are from Argentina. I've spent a lot of time in Argentina and I think we're going to have a lot of fun talking about it. But not all of our guests have been there and there's nothing like hearing from a native on what it's like. So can you first just give a sense for where it is in the world? You know, geography, climate, stuff like that.

Great. Yeah. I love talking about my country. Like when I was 17, I, I the first, I came here for a senior year to the United States as an exchange student and I my first pitch. You know, in the United States they teach you how to pitch and the first pitch that I did is what about my country? So that's remind me to what I'm I have to tell today, but Argentina is the, is a country in South America, is the eighth largest country in the world, which is very, very, very long country where you have like all type of nature, like mountains for skiing, for hiking, lakes, sea beaches, waterfalls, glaciers, wineries. You have all these kind of different weathers, all these kind of different atmospheres. So you have the pampas and from the pampas where like the agribusiness and the cows and the meat from Argentina comes from. So Argentina also has 40 million population, is a democratic country, of course. And what else? It has 23 provinces which I've been in 22 of them. So I'm pretty much about it, very passionate about my country and I love my country. I left my country more for like professional challenges and business challenges more than because I, I wasn't happy there. So I still like with my wife thinking about going back one day. We don't know but we consider that always because we love our country and we still like have our family also there, so. Well, yeah, Argentina is a, I Don't know. It's a Latin country with a mix of also European. 40% of our Argentinians are comes from Spain, 30 comes from Italian. So we have that mix of food, a quality of life and. And things that like the Spanish people normally had. And then we have this crazy attitude and yelling about Italians and hey, what you want, you know, like so Argentina, I say like it has a lot of immigrants also is a. The third largest Jewish community in the world. Like also. So yeah, it's a like a very fun country. Like with a lot of culture, with a lot of different things to do. So. Well, I love Argentina and I'm not from Buenos Aires originally, but as a person that I've been in the most important cities in the world. Buenos Aires for me is top three. So yeah, I love my country even and I love Buenos Aires even. I'm not originally from there.

Yeah, I remember when I was setting up a business there, we were working with an attorney and he said God is everywhere, but his office is in Buenos Aires.

Yeah.

I think that was.

Sorry. It has a one third of the population and it is the almost international airport. So everybody like if you want to be connected to the world, it's always Buenos Aires. Cordova is the second largest city, important city. But still Buenos Aires is like the main cities. Like doesn't happen the same in Brazil. It doesn't happen probably the same in Mexico because Mexico has more like more Monterrey, Guadalajara and Brazil has Rio, San Pablo, Brazil. Like other cities in. In Argentina, Buenos Aires is very, very the main city.

Yeah, it really is a mega city. I think there's like 14 million people in the surrounding area. Something like that. And how it like, you know, it's called the Paris of South America. It also kind of feels like New York sometimes. Like how. How would you describe it and what. What is it most.

Most.

What other city in the world is it most like to you?

Well, the social life is a city that never sleeps, I think. But the social life, theaters, cinemas, restaurants, bars, like all that thing of like it's amazing how many restaurants, how many theaters, how many cinemas and how many activities for socialize. For everything is is kind of the identity of Burnsides that a lot of things happening all the time. So that I think I. It feels like a little bit like New York and it has like this Recoleta neighborhood with more French style. Like that's why you call it the Paris of. Of South America. But for me is that as a foreign. Because I was a foreign in. In Buenos Aires. The, the. What I like is the climate is. Never gets too cold and never get too hot. Of course in January a little bit in our summer gets a little bit more. More hot. But. But it's still like the weather is perfect. The, the nightlife, the, the restaurant, the food and, and it has the connection to the world. I, I've been always like a person who, who see in the world. So for me has like a lot of tourist people coming. Even it's really far for. For everyone because it's a south. I think Usua is the southest city in the world. One of the. The cities in. In Argentina. So Argentina is really south. So it's really far away from every. From. For European, for American, for Asian, from African, from. For everyone. So it comes, it has a lot of tourists, it has a lot of things to do. You know, you never, you never end like, is what. Sometimes it's the same. Like when you go to Paris or you go to New York, you never end. And like knowing the full city, you know, you never know. You never know everything. So I don't know everything in Buenos Aires probably. So that's, I think that vision about.

Buenos Aires, that's a great way to tell it. Well, it's particularly interesting because you come from an agricultural province and Argentina is known throughout the world as, at least in my opinion, the best beef in the world. Could you share a little more about what that looks like and maybe why the meat is so good?

Well, I think the culture of how we first of all the grass and the, and the, the. The tradition that we have of cattle and breeding and all these industry. About the, the cattle industry. I think it gives like a sense of. A sense and a real knowledge about how to breed the cattle. And, and also Argentine beef is also more on the grass. And I'm very famous about how we cook it. You know, we don't. We take like we leave the meat in the. In the fire for two, three, four hours and we leave it there. Not just. We don't cook it. Like we just leave it down in the, like above the fire there and, and we don't cook it. And that's probably the most special things that probably people get surprised because the time we spend. And for us, the time we spend like doing the asados is more like the cultural thing that we really love. Like, you know, just okay, I'm going to do an asado. It's going to be my time, you know, like, it's going to be my time. For me, like it's going to be the time that I can spend with a friend, drinking something while we. Whereas the meat is cooking. Right. So it is also like a very important cultural. The asados. Actually I organize in Miami a dinner every month that is called Parisha con amios. Like barbecue, barbecue with friends. And we cook it like that. Two, three, four hours. Normally depends, but sometimes we've been four hours sometimes because we didn't have that much time, two hours. But I invite people for this Parisha con amigos to try the Argentine way of cooking the beef. And the people love it. And I think people love about Argentina, go to see how we do it. And the best way people ask me, hey, where I should go and eat the best beef in Buenos Aires or in Argentina. And I always try to. When people comes that and I really know them and try to do myself a barbecue for them and asado for them because it, it's the, it's different like going to a restaurant, going to parisha versus doing it in a. At home. Right. So the, the experience of about joining like a group of friends, a group of people that is going to go for an asado and once brings the salad or other ones, brings a wine and people are starting to come to the house and so. And then you ended up like with a long after dinner, like talking. And so the culture about doing it at work is always different. And I've done it many times for foreign people who say, hey, I want to try and I don't want them to don't experience that, that part because I think it's the one which is really different.

Yeah, I really want to echo what you're saying, Juan, about just the time together. Right. And for me, my experience, there was a lot of Sunday asados when I was there. And you kind of spend the whole day together and know it's not like the States. The States is very like rush. You know, you're. You're in, you have the meal and you're out.

Yeah, there.

So there's this anticipation with the fire. You know, it takes, you know, some hours to get going, but you're, you're present, you're not on your phone the whole time. You're. You're talking with each other, you're laughing, you're building connection, community, which I think is a huge part of the culture there. But even when you go to a restaurant, it's really designed for a long experience. Maybe you finish the meal in an hour, but you're there for another three. Your phone is not out, you're drinking wine, you're talking. Can you maybe just talk a little more about the importance of that and just that cultural element that makes Argentina so unique.

One thing that probably I really like about Miami is that I still have some time. That part of the Latin American culture that I think is more like, yeah, friendship, family. And as you mentioned, like, we don't have like any starting hour. Like, like, if you ask in a WhatsApp group, hey, we are going like to do a barbecue with friends, and you ask what time I should go, because just. You don't have a time. You don't have. Like you. Normally people here will send, like, first of all, we will do it in the same day. We decided in the same day. And will probably a lot of people join. And here in the United States, you have to like, set up two weeks in advance at least if you're gonna invite someone and within a starting hour and an ending. Ended hour. So. And that's a. That's a. That's a big difference there. And I don't miss that much. One of the things that I like about Miami is that I still have a little bit of that sometimes with a mix of the US with the part of the US That I really like too. But yeah, for us, the friendship, the family is really important. I think Latinos in general, but the culture also this Italian, the familia is really important. And every Sunday we go to, for example, to our parents or like to. To a barbecue. And we all come with our, like depending when. In which stage of the family you are. But if you already have kids, like all the. All your brothers and sister comes with their kids. Everyone meets in. In the house of the grandparents. And so it is that culture. Like, people sometimes don't want to leave the country because they said, I don't want to miss this in my life. And it's so important was like at the end for me that I'm always been living abroad. Like, at the age of 17, I left my hometown. I never came back because I was living in a small hometown. For me, it's more like a natural, like living abroad or living in another city. So I don't miss that that much. But I still, like I'm in Miami, I still build that family kind of. So I'm very intentional because in Miami, I still meet Sundays with friends that I like, try to build a relationship, like family with them. For me, it's really important having that connection about just a stay in, sitting in and laying my body in the couch of of them. You know, like, if I, if I'm like, like I'm not having like a real connection with them, I can, I can lay off in, in the, in the couch of their house, you know, like, like I want to fall asleep after a siesta after they. I eat a, a good beef and, and a. A good glass of wine. Right. So yeah, for us, that connection is, is really important. And you build it that way. You build it that way. If you're like running, you don't have time to build it. You don't have time to. To talk. And that's one of the things that I do with the dinners in Miami is just, I don't let people talk about work and who they are because in, in their companies, I'm asking them to introduce themselves about who, who they are in the personal way. So get real connection because you are not like, hey, I sold three companies or I have this investor, or I'm an investor. Like you don't know. Everyone is in the same level, right? And that's happens when you are in the Sundays or in those barbecues. Everyone is in the same level. No one is. So that's also making that momentum is really important. So you can still do that in the US but you have to be very intentional. Like, I do that.

That's great. Yeah. Great answer. Before we jump off of food, I wanted to ask you about your favorite steakhouses, both in Miami, because I think coming from an Argentine, that's a big recommendation. Your favorite steakhouse is in Miami. And then also when you return to Buenos Aires, ones that you might recommend for others to check out.

Okay. For Buenos Aires, I think Don Julio is the best one. And yeah, it's very popular, but they are really good. And even like, if you want to buy their meat to cook it in in your house, you can buy it also. So. And they have like this amazing presentation. You can. You still, you think like when you're buying a beef, you think you're buying it like a barberry box of th. Some. Something like a very luxury thing, which is. And it's not like if you go to Argentina, it's not that expensive. Like, if you like, I don't know, probably you can do a barbecue buying the. The for, I don't know, for eight people buying the barbecue in Don Julio. And you still spend hundred dollars only. So for eight people. So it's not that. It's not that expensive at all. And it comes like in a box. Like if you like buying like a. I don't know, a luxury leather or any brand. Luxury brand. Right. I don't want to mention anyone, but. But Don Julio is really good. And. And here in Miami, I like. What I like is a lot is Fiorito because it has more like. Probably it's not the. My favorite beef, but the atmosphere. Like every time I want to feel Argentina, I go to Fiorito because in fury, like in Fiorito, like the night before Argentina was playing the World Cup, I went with friends to Fiorito because we were so excited about what is going to happen in the next day that we wanted to keep feeling the Argentinian. And even we. There were. There was a drum there, like. And we still like, I got a drum and we still like, I started to sing songs and we feel at home, you know, just. And that's why I like Fiorito because it makes me feel a little bit like home. It's more like a bodygone. I don't know how to translate that. Like a bodygone. Bodygon is more like a old. I don't know. You know what I mean? I don't know. Probably you. You can help me to translate what is more like a bodyguard. It's like an restaurant, right? Like a old fashioned restaurant. I don't know how to. Okay. It's more like a very casual place. And. And so I like Furito, which is. It's good. But Miami like has a lot of La Cabrera also, which is good and which is important in Miami. And Miami brings a lot of brands from Argentina. So a lot of Argentinians. We are really always as. As the market is so small, we are always thinking how to explore what we do, what. What. What we have learned. So I think a lot of brands from Argentina are based in Miami. So you have La Cabrera, which is really good.

Yeah, yeah. I was going to say usually when I would have guests to. Or when I was there and I would have guests come visit, we would go to La Cabrera because that's like a kind of a easy transition in, you know, it's also very, very good. And it's the only place I knew that served at Western times.

Right.

Like you could eat, you could eat at 6pm you didn't have to wait until 10pm, right?

Yeah, I think so. I think I heard about that. Okay.

Yeah. There were two other places that I were personal favorites of mine. I'm just curious if you had been to Campo Bravo and then Calden, soho. Do you know either of those?

I've been in Campo Bravo. I like it. And in the other one, I know. I don't know when do you go to that one?

Oh, it was like in like kind of like right by Plaza Armenia, kind of around that area. Yeah. Called in SoHo. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Maybe next time. Let me know. And I'm a big fan also of the Patagonian lamb. My family, we.

We really enjoyed that. Yeah, the.

The. My family has like a. Like a farm in the Patagonia. And. And I'm like, I'm a very fan of. Of the. That Patagonian lamp. So also, whenever you come to Argentina, if I there, we will. We will do a lamp too.

Yeah, I'll let you know. When I was in both Shelton and Calafate, oh my gosh, like, the lam was incredible. It was so good. I never had anything like it. And maybe never, never will. This is fun. So the other thing I wanted to talk before we get into business.

Because.

I know from our prior conversations how much soccer, football, you know, matters to you. And tell me in our audience just a little more about how important that is to Argentina as a country. Culture, the World cup experience. Can you talk more about that?

Yes. I think. I don't know how many countries probably Brazil, Argentina. But in Argentina, soccer is like. You have to play soccer. Like your parents all. All of them are gonna send you to play soccer. So it is in your blood from. Since you used. You are kid. I think it's changing a little bit, but still, like, the people are like crazy about soccer. And then there is like, everybody is fun about one team. And it's not like in the US you have baseball, NBA football, you have MLS now with Messi here, but we can talk about that too. But in Argentina we only have soccer. So like we have the. The other sports, but they are not professional and they are not that big. So basketball, we have other sports. Rugby, hockey, and. But in Argentina, football is like. And sorry, soccer, like we call it. Football in Spanish is like huge, huge, huge. And then you have these big two teams, river and Boca. And it's like a Democrats versus like a Democrats.

Yeah, yeah.

It's like a very, very rival. And people are more screen to the other team lose than their team win, you know? Right. Like, I'm a River fan, so I. I enjoy more seeing Boca losing than river winning. Like, everybody's like that. No. Sometimes probably a lot of people are not gonna tell you the truth. The truth, but the people is like very, very, very rival. And then you have in all like Russian Independiente Estudiantes Gymnasia. You have all the teams like very rival and they all think the same way. And it's. Yeah, it is like the conversation in everywhere. You know, just if you don't. If you're not watching soccer, you. You miss the conversation. You are not there in the conversation in those barbecues. You're not there because sometimes you don't talk about football. Soccer always. But he always comes to the table. Always. And now like everybody is watching the mls. It's incredible in Argentina because Messi now is playing in the mls. Everybody is now watching the MLS that never, never, never, never, never. No one knew any team about a US MLS team. So now people are watching them and this. And everybody is with the messy jersey. So it is a. It is amazing how people get crazy. And I don't know if you've seen the. The images when. When we won the World cup, but they were like, oh, incredible.

Yeah.

In the same place.

Yeah.

I don't know how many. It was crazy. And. And Argentina said like we have like a very poor currency and Argentina is always in the World Cups. One of the countries that take the most funds to the World cup people sell everything to go to the World cup. And. And Argentina is having like a real, like the, the valuation and people are losing a lot of. How do you say when you. In the country in the international you have to travel. They. You can buy less dollars. Right. So people are in Qatar in the last World cup there was like always half of the stadium was Argentinians. Like, it was amazing. 20,000, 40,000 people in the stadium. And you can believe how Argentina is doing that bad and how many people are there. You know, it's just. Is really crazy. And of course if you go to Argentina, you have to go to a River or Boca game. And yeah, you can see videos on YouTube. You will see River Stadium right now is amazing. Like people. Yeah, they, they did. They did some refreshment and they rebuild a little bit the stadium and now the. The atmosphere and river play. Boca Stadium used to be I think more fun, but it probably a little bit more dangerous. But River Stadium now is really, really, really cool. And it's even. I think it's good to go with family. You can still go with family and that. And you know in Argentina is like six years ago they start like not allowing any more the visitors, the guest. Yeah fans. You only can go the locals and the. You don't you like you people from other teams can go to the River Stadium. You have to be from river to go there. And of course, there are always people who are from the other team who goes without the jersey and. And they go to see the game. So, like, is that crazy that people like. And of course, the difference, for example, you here in the US you can, you can drink, buy a beer in, in the stadium and have like a. An important moment with your friends and go with family or whatever and like, relax. And you cannot sell alcohol at all in those stadium because the people get crazy.

Yeah, yeah. Don't. Don't hate me, but I went to Boca, not River, when I was there, but it was, what an experience. I mean, now when I go to sports in the States, it feels so boring, right? Like, it's quiet. Like, what's, what's, you know, you need like the, like the, the scoreboard to, you know, tell you what to do, like clap your hands, you know. But when you're, when you, when you're in, when you're. When I was at Boca, like, it was like a musical and everyone's shouting and yelling and little kids are shouting insults and it was what.

What an experience.

Yeah, yeah, it was so fun. By the way, it's funny what you said about the IDs. So my wife and I went and we had to use like fake IDs, you know, like I was, you know, Margarita or something from, you know, I had my, my VOCA id and it was, it was hilarious.

Yeah, it's fun. I also, I, I really, I. I appreciate how Americans are so good building shows, right? Like, you go to an NBA game and then you have people dancing, people like, cheering, like the. The. So I think that is also cool. So it makes like more a show. But I think that's why Argentine's soccer is so different. Because the show is something totally natural. Right? It's not like.

Yeah, yeah.

And that's. Yeah. But I really admire how Americans are good building shows too. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks.

So let's talk about business a little bit, Juan. So I appreciate you representing with your T shirt, Lazo. Tell us, what does Lazo do and how did you. And a little bit about your journey to come up with this.

Okay. Lazo is an all in one finance, legal and fundraising SaaS platform. Basically, I'm building a product after scaling to services companies. Just a little bit about me. I was born in this small city. I went to United States for Rhoda Youth Exchange Program. I was a exchange student. I was the only one speaking Spanish in Wisconsin, so people used to call me 1, 2, 3. They used to make me that. But I went back to Argentina. That year in the United States gave me like really the motivation to become someone to. To visit the world, to open the eyes and to. Because I was coming from this is more very small town in Argentina. So that year really changed my life and gave me that energy that I still like have since I. Since then. So I studied hard in university. I studied. My father was a CPA in the. A small town. So I study accounting, finance and business administration. And I. Then I got some scholarship. So I got to. I. I wanted to visit the world, right like after that year in Wisconsin, I wanted to visit everyone. I wanted to meet international people, other cultures, places and. And travel around the world. So I was. I didn't have money. My family wasn't wealthy or didn't have money to give me for traveling. So I was always looking for scholarships. So I got a scholarship to study in France. I get a scholarship to study in Germany. Then I. I got another scholarship to study in. In Taiwan. So I got this international experience like also traveling all the time. All my savings were always for. For traveling and to getting to know people to. To have more education, to have more resources for myself. And so I went basically I started to work in big corporations at the beginning, five years. And then I wanted to become an entrepreneur. I noticed that I didn't want to just have every six months like a evaluation of how was my development in the company. So I wanted to prove myself every day. So I want to feel like I want to build myself. I want to have liberty. I want to just keep traveling. I want to like I'm not gonna have money to keep traveling if I keep working here. So I need to build my own business. So I started. I started with my father the first business which was a. A Knowledge Basic Services which is serving these farmers. That was a. Farming and agribusiness is the number one active economic activity in Argentina. So we. I was seeing that no one was really solving the founders the. The. The farmers problems in terms of finance, administration, legal. And the farmers are really pro production people, but they are not a finance people normally. So I wanted to give that part. So we build a consulting thing with my dad. We got to like 60 people. We scared that business very fast. And one day my father said I don't want to have any more more problems. You're pushing too much. You're always going more forward and bringing more problems to the table. And. And I wanted to keep bringing more problems and he didn't want more. So we split the company and I decided okay, I think ag agribusiness is not going to give me this international thing that I had in my blood. So I started to work with the startups and I built another company which was like the first fractional CFO company in Latin America that is called CFO Startup. Very original the name. But I started building that service theme and it was my first time creating services for international customers. So with local talent, Argentine talent, so to other companies in the world by in Latin America. So we built this a consulting firm also for startup, venture backed startups and vc. So we provide like this fractional CFO valuation, fundraising support, tax support, legal support and then for vcs we, we were doing like deep dives and due diligence and those kind of activities. So always being an entrepreneur in this finance, legal industry. So basically one day I noticed that after like a scaling also this company, I realized that with people it was going to be hard to scale. And I had this always motivation of like and the curiosity to see the US market in my industry, how the market was changing. So I got a lot of knowledge about the companies that were operating in the us what they were doing. So I was, was a follower on the US market. So I decided okay, I wanted to build a product company I built already. I proved myself that I built, I can build services companies but I wanted to do something bigger, I wanted to transcend. And now that I'm here like building a product company more scalable than the ones before, I realized that also in my previous experience I had a lot of experience working with NGOs. Like I was spending a lot of time NGOs besides my company. So I, I was looking always for purpose, always to transcend to, to create something big. I always, I have the, the fortune that my father always told me that hey throw. Always think big, right? Like always think big because to go down you always will have time. So and I'm always a person that I believe that I was a lucky person and a very fortunate person. I. I always feel that, that way. So I always feel like okay, if I don't do the changes, if I'm not, I'm not gonna transform what I have in next to me who is gonna do it. Because I'm the one who has the opportunity not many other people like in Argentina, in Latin America, if you have education, if you have the opportunity to travel abroad and everything, you are like very rich and rich in your mind, reaching your, in your capabilities, in your skills. So I always thought that I was rich in a lot of things in a lot of way. So I always felt that responsibility of making an impact. So right now that I'm building like a scalable company, a product company, helping thousands of founders of startups, building this platform for founders, I feel like I don't need to go to politics, I don't need to go to NGOs. I feel like I'm going to have a lot of impact not only with all the founders that we are helping, also with the people that work for us and the people that we are hiding and people who are. We are giving a lot of opportunities to educate the people to work for the world which is what we're doing. And yeah, I'm very, I'm very experiencing one of my best moment in my life because I always like this is kind of the. After 12 years like being an entrepreneur in this industry, like I feel like I found my place and I think I'm going to have this. I really see it, I can see it. I can, you know when, when you have very clear in your vision, hey this, I can see the path here. So I'm very self motivated right now in this moment. But I also very thankful for and grateful for, for the, the this moment. And also I'm. I just had a daughter, my first daughter, seven months ago. So between this airport, this, this thing about my challenge is that I have personal challenge in my professional experience and my family experience is being like the greatest, probably one of the greatest moments in my life. So very happy also and I think it's good to share here too.

Yeah. Well congratulations on all your success. Congratulations on your daughter. Having kids is the ultimate startup. So I appreciate that. Well, I also wanted to hit on the labor. Right you're using a lot of really talented people from Argentina for your own startup which is the ultimate dog food, the ultimate validation for me for my experience. A lot of our listeners, the arbitrage opportunity, how I really explain that is senior people at junior prices is really the opportunity. Can you talk a little more about that and maybe the impact of the currency in Argentina coupled with the talent and their capabilities of moving your business forward. Can you hit on that a little bit?

Yeah. To talk about the currency we need to talk a little bit about the failures of the politicians because crypto has become kind of like a important currency also for Argentine people or for Venezuelan when the institutions are not very strong. Crypto comes like a good, like a second, second currency in the country. So people like today who have the skills to speak English or sometimes who have a skill that have been trained by free university in Argentina. But now those people are working and making an impact for companies in. In other. In other countries. Right? So there is a failure here of the system because it's great to have free education. I love it. I. And that's why Argentina has so great, great talent because of the education. But at the same time, most of the people who is more well educated are not working for Argentine companies. A lot of American companies, European companies, Mexican companies or Brazilian companies or other countries companies are hiring these people because they are really good. They normally. Well, with the US you have the same time zone which is very important to work directly. Then you have probably with Argentinians you have more cultural similarities versus Asia or Africa or other regions. Also the time zone and the cultural fit. But the problem today with the currency is that the. The currency is so devaluated than people who makes money in pesos Argentinos in Argentine pesos are every day more poor like compared to the. The average in the world. So what what people wants to do now is just hey, I want to have a job in, in the US I want to work for another company. So base. Sometimes you have like a. A guy who study. Like I'm gonna go to the top of of the people. Like people who study in Ivy League or in top universities in, in. In the US who had that opportunity in their life. Of course there are a few went back to Argentina there, there probably did like a 8 years investment banking in Goldman Sachs. And they are now leaving Argentina and they, they are rich, making $5,000 a month and they don't need more and they're rich and probably. And when you graduate from a lawyer, engineer or like something. Let's don't talk about software development. Let's talk to other professions. The rest of the professions you. You still make you. You graduate from university and you make probably 300, 400, 500 at most a month today. So that's why people wanted to work for the US because that people probably to work for the US or to work for other country they want to. They will make 1,000, 1,500, 2,000 and yeah, and the opportunity here is to have like all these kind of people that is already well trained, that probably speak very well English. Some of them are native or like bilingual. Some of them are proficiency and some. Some of them they understand and you can still work with them for some tasks. But there is a huge opportunity of hiring amazing people for by $2,000 a month. $3,000 a month. And they probably are 15 years of experience working for high tech startups, working for JP Morgan in Argentina, working for PwC, working for Accenture, working for. And those people have international standards, they speak English, they have internal. So the mindset is American mindset. So one of the opportunities that I found out when, when I was building Lasso is that a lot of us, American, 500 Fortune companies, Fortune 500 companies have delivery centers in Argentina. So specialized for finance like Standard and Pools, J.P. morgan, PwC. Accenture has 15,000 people trained, training, working for Europe and for the US 15,000. It's amazing how many, how much people they are. So imagine if I don't have the opportunity to build a new company, if I really find a market opportunity and hire those talent that has been like already trained by JP Morgan, by Accenture, by Disney, IBM, Chevron, Exxon, all, all of them have delivery centers in Argentina. They also saw that opportunity and they start, they actually, they are training those people. And this has been for more than 30 years. So it's a lot of people train. A lot of people trained by 500 companies.

Yeah, yeah. I'm really glad you said that because I think for a lot of people in the States, they're just starting to wrap their head around Latin America. And sometimes you view things with your own bias. Like if I'm just starting to discover it, it means that this is a new thing. It's not 20, 30 years of American companies training workforces, investing offices. And I love what you said there about the standards. That's probably the hardest thing to translate. If you're, and it's not just American companies. If you're an Argentine company, you're trying to do business in India, you know, just being on the same page with standards. Right. And India could have been any place, it could have been Portugal, it could have been Ghana. You know, just having the same level of standards and understanding, work ethic and quality, like all that matters. I'm so glad, so glad you brought that up, Juan. This has been an incredible conversation. Just thinking through the labor dynamics, the food, the culture, everything about Argentina. It's been awesome. I have a few questions here at the end that I wanted to wrap up with. The first is, you know, as you mentioned, English is prevalent in Argentina, but it's not your first, it's not your first language. And I'd love to hear if you have maybe a favorite English word or English phrase that you've picked up along the way.

I always have like a, I don't know if it's my favorite word, but it's the more intentional one that is called. One of the first words that got my attention when I was learning English and I came to the US without speaking English when I came to Wisconsin. So it took me just to do a little bit fun story. The host family that was taking me to their house to stay with them took me to a hamburger place and I knew hamburger the world, but I didn't know like. And people, like, I remember the people were trying to explain me cheese and doing a cow like simulation of a cow just to. If I wanted to be. To have a hamburger with. With cheeseburger. But just my favorite word was in that family. The same family that picked me up was one day they were taking me to school and they say shotgun. So it was the word that. What is shotgun? And they have to do like a draw a drawing. Yeah. To explain me what was a shotgun because I didn't know any translation and whatever. Like. And I still, I think I have still have that drawing that with the shotgun. With the, the guy in the shotgun. So every time I use that word and it feels like I'm more like American or more from Wisconsin, I don't know. But I love shotgun. That's my favorite.

That's great. That's great. How about your. When you go back to Argentina and like we talked about, the dollar gets you quite far aside from food, maybe best purchase for under $50 US I.

Think river book a game. Totally. Yeah. Good answer, good answer.

And then last question here. Your advice for other entrepreneurs, other business leaders in the states that are. Maybe they listen to this podcast. They're like, hey, I think Argentina sounds pretty interesting. I'd like to look into doing business there. What kind of advice would you have for those entrepreneurs who wants to do business in Argentina?

Hire them. The advice is just much about it. Like, just try it. Just try because. Or like, yeah, a lot of people like now that they know me and here in the US So I always try to connect them with headhunters because like, hey, you're gonna spend a lot of time like finding the way how to hire better. But oh, I always offer myself as a, hey, I can help you. Like, I can go with you a little bit just to get you around and to hire those people and to do business is hard in general. Like the doing business rate is not really good in Argentina. I think if you want to do agribusiness or if you want to do software development or like a knowledge basic thing a really good business, but the rest of the business are too risky and very short term. Yeah, unfortunately. Yeah, we are going to change that. I'm going to be part of making that change for Argentina.

Yeah. Well, this is the best part of the show is candid answers. Right. Leverage the talent. But the politicians haven't quite made it an easy place to do business just yet. I can also validate that. Juan, man, this has been so much fun. So much fun. I learned a lot, too. I really did. Thanks so much for making time and being on the show.

Thank you so much. It was a big pleasure. And stay in touch. Thank you so much.

Absolutely. Well, let me give another shout out to our sponsor. That's Plug Technologies. Plugg Tech Plug. Great way to find software developers all over Latin America, including Argentina. Thanks so much for listening, everyone. We'll see you next time on the Nearshore Cafe podcast.

Thanks for joining us at the Nearshore Cafe podcast. Tune in next week for a new episode featuring another special guest with exciting stories.

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