Luiz Cent 🪙

Hire the top 1% of talent in LatAm in less than 21 days

I'm Luiz Cent, and it's great to meet you. 

If you landed here, I invite you to pause. LinkedIn is full of people trying to sell you something, and I am one of them, but only if you are buying. 

For over a decade I've been hiring talent internationally, as a hiring manager, as a business owner and as a consultant. Building top performing teams, fully remote has been a passion of mine for years and now it's our business. 

If you are looking to hire top talent, consider LatamCent, a nearshore staffing agency I founded helping USA-based companies discover the top 1% of talent in Latin America. We've helped VC backed, PE backed, and bootstrapped b2b companies find top talent in less than 21 days at 50-70% less than prices in the USA.

Taking the learnings from thousands of hires, our talent partners understand your business and goals. We've helped over 17 b2b tech companies hire Go to Market (Sales, CS, Marketing) and Engineering Talent in LatAm.

Previously, I led sales at Quolum, as a player-coach in the SDR/AE function. In less than 3 months we tripled our conversations and pipeline with half the resources. Through those conversations we re-positioned ourselves in the market, testing pricing strategies, and eventually pivoted from selling fintech to the CFO to selling cybersecurity to CISO. 

The 6 months at Quolum was a mini MBA, from board reports to Nexus/Sequoia, to selling ideas internally, it was as fast-paced as it could be taking early morning calls with India and late night calls with Australia. At Quolum I learned I never want to be a VP of sales again lol. 

Before joining Quolum, I led and grew the customer success and sales team at Mailshake, a product-led sales org that achieved over 100% YoY growth and 5+ million ARR. 

I also have a background in e-commerce growth, conversion rate optimization, SEO, and behavioral email marketing, having worked with 30+ eTailers and leading CRO programs for Optimizely's enterprise clients.

But my passion is entrepreneurship, having built eCommerce agencies, eCommerce stores, and hundreds of websites, keep shipping until one of them hits Product Market Fit. 

If you're in Miami Beach, come co work.

VP of Sales

Quolum is on a mission to save companies BILLIONS of dollars in unused SaaS applications.

Quolum is a full-stack SaaS Procurement product. We have created something out of thin air that sits at the intersection of Finance + IT + Procurement. 

To achieve responsible SaaS buying, we:

* Track feature-level utilization of SaaS apps
* Tame long tail spend via our own SaaS Card and accounting systems integrations
* Reduce FinOps drudgery by aggregating contracts and invoices
* Apply AI, Fintech, and IT workflow to reduce organizational friction.

Luiz Cent 🦉

Everyone says AI engineers are impossible to hire right now.

The real problem isn’t supply.

It’s misidentification.

We recently helped a company hire an AI engineer in LATAM, and the outcome came down to how he was evaluated, not where he was located.

He wasn’t hired because he “knew AI.”

He was hired because he had shipped models into production.

• He could explain tradeoffs in plain English.
• He cared about data quality more than model hype.
• He understood how ML fits into a real product, not just notebooks.

Most AI hires fail because teams optimize for signals instead of outcomes.

• Degrees don’t deploy models.
• Benchmarks don’t solve edge cases.
• And a flashy GitHub doesn’t guarantee product judgment.

The best AI engineers I see behave like product engineers who happen to be great at ML.

If you’re hiring AI or ML engineers this year, screen for:
• production experience
• communication
• business context
• willingness to push back when the model is the wrong answer

Filtering is the bottleneck, not geography.

DM me if you’re planning an AI hire and want a quick sanity check before you start.

#LatamCent #AiHiring #AI #SaaS #Nearshore

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Founder & CEO

Executive Member

President

I help VC backed SaaS orgs build nearshore teams in Latin America

English

Portuguese

Most founders ask the wrong question when hiring in LATAM.

They ask:

“What’s the best country to hire from?”

The better question is:

“What problem am I trying to solve with this hire?”

Because country choice doesn’t fail teams.

Misaligned expectations do.

If you’re hiring engineers but optimizing only for cost, you’ll struggle at the senior level.

If you’re hiring GTM talent without prioritizing English and US-market exposure, deals will stall.

If you’re hiring support or finance without thinking about process maturity and compliance, quality drops fast.

I’ve seen teams hire in the “right” country and still miss targets.
Not because the talent wasn’t there.

But because the hiring model didn’t match the outcome they needed.

Nearshoring works best when you start with:

• the outcome you need in 6–12 months
• the roles that actually move the needle
• the level of risk your company can absorb

Country selection comes last, not first.

If you’re planning your next LATAM hire and want to pressure-test the model before you commit, my DMs are open.

#LatamCent #NearShore #Hiring #SaaS

Despite everyone saying developers are going to be replaced by AI, the most popular engineering role we hired for in 2025 was full stack devs!

Closely followed by AI/ML engineers, full stack devs are still in hot demand. 

Candidates who weren't AI curious, were definitely disqualified, and the candidates who stuck out are those that are vibe coding apps on their free time and weekends, and learning how to be more productive with AI.

If you are looking to build in 2026, slide in the DMs and we can share some profiles of top devs in market.

#NearShore #FullStackDev #LatamCent #Hiring

Every week, a SaaS founder asks me:

“What country should we scale in Latin America?”

The honest answer:

It depends.

It depends on the function.

Engineering, GTM, customer support, and finance all optimize for different things.

It depends on your goal.

Speed, cost efficiency, seniority, timezone overlap, or long-term leadership bench.

It depends on your model.
• Fully remote?
• One country hub?
• Building an office?
• Or starting distributed and centralizing later?

There is no “best country in LATAM.”
There is only the right country for what you are trying to build next. 

The top 3 countries we are hiring from are Colombia 🇨🇴, Brazil 🇧🇷 and Argentina 🇦🇷

Most hiring mistakes in nearshore come from choosing a country first and a strategy second.

Flip that order.

If you want a clear, practical nearshore plan based on your roadmap and roles,
DM me.

I help founders get this right before they make expensive hiring bets.

#LatamCent #GlobalHiring #HiringStrategy #Nearshore

Every week, a founder comes to us asking for a “Senior” hire.

And almost every time, what they actually want is something else.

This week’s call was with a fast-growing consumer app with millions of users.

They thought they needed:
• A Senior Product Designer
• 7+ years of experience
• Strategic design leadership

After 30 minutes of asking hard questions, the truth came out.

What they really needed was:
• Someone fully dedicated (not splitting time with side projects)
• Strong UI execution, not abstract UX theory
• Taste aligned with modern consumer apps 
• Zero micromanagement
• High autonomy and ownership
• Hunger to learn from other apps and trends

Seniority wasn’t the problem.

Titles weren’t the problem.

The gap was delivery + autonomy.

One line from the call stuck with me:
“We don’t need someone to make it look pretty. Millions of people actually use this product.”

This is where most hiring goes wrong:
Founders optimize for resumes instead of outcomes.

If you’re hiring designers (or engineers, or GTM roles), ask yourself:
• Do I need strategy, or do I need execution?
• Do I want leadership, or do I want ownership?
• Do I want years of experience, or current taste?

Clarity here saves months of mis-hires.

If you’re scaling a product team and unsure who you actually need, DM me.
Happy to help you pressure-test the role before you hire the wrong “senior” again.

#Hiring #Designers #LatamCent #Nearshore

A talent leader at a $100M+ organization said something on a call last week that more companies need to hear:

“I’m not willing to make a decision on one role. We have to think about the bigger strategy.”

That one sentence changed the entire conversation.

Because this was never about “what country has engineers.”

It was about how to build a long-term talent hub without creating risk.

She wasn’t trying to fill seats.

She was trying to build a brain trust. A team with depth that compounds over time.

And when we started talking about location, the nuance mattered.
Some countries can support junior and mid-level roles well, but senior talent in regulated fields like security gets much harder to find.

Not impossible. Just harder, and more expensive, faster.

Then compliance entered the picture.

When you serve government or regulated customers, cost alone does not get a vote.

Certifications, contractual language, audit requirements, and entity structure all shape where you can actually hire.

This is where most teams go wrong.

They treat country selection like a sourcing problem.

In reality, it’s a risk, compliance, and operating model decision.

The simplest framework I’ve seen looks like this:

• Why do we want a hub at all?
• What does success look like in 12 to 24 months?
• Which roles move first, and which roles should never move?
• What constraints does compliance introduce?
• At what seniority level do costs start to compress versus the US?

If you are looking at LATAM after trying India, or after building in India without a clear transition plan, you’re not alone.

The companies that get this right define the endgame before they hire the first person.

If you want a country-by-country breakdown for engineering and security-adjacent roles, including where costs start to spike at senior levels, DM me and I’ll share it.

#LatamCent #Nearshore #Hiring #Cybersecurity #Talent

Most hiring mistakes don’t come from bad interviews.

They come from skipping the hard thinking upfront.

In WHO, Geoff Smart says the best teams start with one thing:

A clear scorecard.

Not a job description.
Not a wishlist.
A definition of success.

Yet most founders still hire like this:
“Smart.”
“Culture fit.”
“Has done this before.”

That’s how you end up with impressive resumes and disappointing outcomes.

The teams that win do this instead:
• Define the mission of the role
• Lock 5–7 measurable outcomes
• Interview only to that scorecard

When someone fails, it’s usually not because they lied.
It’s because the company never agreed on what winning looked like.

Hiring isn’t about finding great people.
It’s about being precise about the job.

The clearer the scorecard, the fewer regrets you’ll have later.

#LatamCent #WHO #FindYourWHO #Hiring

Chairman and Founder at ghSMART

Most hiring problems aren’t talent problems.

They’re clarity problems.

Founders come to us saying:

“We need a senior engineer.”

“We need someone who can just own it.”

“We need them yesterday.”

But when we slow it down, the real gap is usually this:

• What outcomes does this role actually own in the next 6–12 months?
• What decisions should this person make without permission?
• What would failure look like after 90 days?

Until that’s clear, resumes don’t matter.
Countries don’t matter.
Even seniority doesn’t matter.

Great hires happen when the role is designed around outcomes, not titles.

If you’re struggling to hire right now, don’t ask:
“Where can we find this person?”

Ask:
“What do we actually need this person to change?”

That answer fixes more than any sourcing strategy ever will.

#LatamCent #Nearshore #Hiring

I love seeing Wade Foster waste no time in applying Claire Vo's feedback to his AI interview agents. 

In addition to evaluating candidates based on meeting notes and AI prompts, now they will give feedback to the interviewer as well on how they can improve their interview process. 

This is all gold. 

If you haven't invested time binge watching How I Ai w/ Claire you are missing out on generational wealth.

#HowIAI #AI #ClaireVo #Zapier #Hiring #InterviewTips

Co-founder & CEO at Zapier, YC & Mizzou Alum

Building ChatPRD.ai | 3x CPTO | Startups, Leadership, Product x Engineering, and AI | clairevo on X | chiefproductofficer on TikTok

AE @ Gong | Closed Won 🦙 | 5x President's Club

Creating raving fans @ Gong. Founder of Closed Won. Dad to Monty 🐾 

Brian LaManna

"If you keep your nose to the grindstone and work hard and you've got the right people, anything's possible."

You don't have to Google him anymore.

🌹 Rose Bowl
🍑 Peach Bowl
🏆 National Champions.

I debated whether or not to go to the last game. Grateful for the people that pushed me to 'take the trip.'

Will forever be one of the most special times in my life. 

We work to live, not live to work. 

Hoo Hoo Hoosiers!!! 🥹

AE @ Gong | Closed Won 🦙 | 7x President’s Club

Until further notice, this is an IU Football + Mendoza fan account.

We are here in Miami and ready for the National Championship.

I have never anticipated a game more in my life.

Full butterflies. Pit in my stomach.

But confident as ever.

Predictions?


P.S. No matter how it ends… I’m sad this season will be over. A magical run and some of the most fun I’ve had traveling + reuniting with college friends. But we don’t go to war with warm milk & cookies. Time to win.

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I now have 12 free resources built for 2026, all of them below.


𝟭. 𝗔𝗰𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗧𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲 - Organized way to keep track of all your prospecting efforts and people you're going after.

https://lnkd.in/gwjX9Nya


𝟮. 𝗦𝗮𝗮𝗦 𝗔𝗰𝗿𝗼𝗻𝘆𝗺 𝗚𝘂𝗶𝗱𝗲 - Terms I never knew existed until I got into tech sales. 

https://lnkd.in/g9R9WH53


𝟯. 𝗠𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗮𝗹 𝗦𝘂𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗣𝗹𝗮𝗻 - Template to keep you and your champion fully aligned through a deal cycle. Also, helpful to navigate security, legal, and who the signer ends up being.


https://closedwon.xyz/msp/


𝟰. 𝗙𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗖𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗗𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗙𝗹𝗼𝘄 - Top 12 discovery questions to follow a typical first call flow.

https://lnkd.in/g75tkxRM


𝟱. 𝗗𝗲𝗺𝗼 𝗔𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗮 𝗦𝗹𝗶𝗱𝗲 - Agenda slide to cut the 2 minutes and show a visual instead. Buyers love visuals. This is it.

https://lnkd.in/gD5vaXf7


𝟲. 𝗦𝗮𝗹𝗲𝘀 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗺𝗲 𝗧𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲 - Grab a Google Doc template of my exact resume. 2 pages on other best practices, tips, and dos/don'ts.

https://lnkd.in/gESuWPBW


7. 𝗖𝗼𝗹𝗱 𝗖𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝗢𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀 - 8 proven openers to get the call started hot.

https://lnkd.in/gdPP_D8J


8. 𝗡𝗲𝘄𝘀𝗹𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 - Actionable sales tips (and some B+ memes) delivered to your inbox every Monday. Trusted by 11,200+ sellers and counting. Read in 2-3 min.

https://lnkd.in/gjeVd_U8


𝟵.  𝗢𝗯𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗛𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗚𝘂𝗶𝗱𝗲 - Quick reverses for the most common objections and methodology on how to 'handle' them.

https://lnkd.in/g36efdAw


10. 𝗔𝗹𝗹 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝗼𝘂𝗿𝗰𝗲𝘀 on Closed Won.

https://lnkd.in/gVY8Xpxc


♻️ Please consider resharing if it'd help others in your network.

📌 Sellers - what (free) resource should I build up next?

Joined Gong in 2021 to sell a -hot- product that (it felt like) everyone already knew. Then June 2023 happened...

We launched Gong Engage with 0 customers.

Suddenly, I wasn't selling just the #1 conversation intelligence platform anymore. 

I was selling an unproven sales engagement tool in a crowded market.

Here's the problem we hit immediately:

Every prospect asked: "Who else is using this?"

We had no case studies. Very few Beta references.

And burning through our early adopters on every single deal? 

Not sustainable when you're trying to get to 1,000+ customers fast.

That's when we started using UserEvidence.

Instead of manually tracking down customers for references, UserEvidence automatically captures product reviews, pulls verified stats, and creates battle cards we can actually use.

Now when a prospect asks "who else uses Engage?" - I can instantly share:
* Real customer quotes
* Specific use cases
* ROI metrics from similar companies

No begging customers for time. No stale case studies from 6 months ago.

As we've grown into a true multi-product platform, UserEvidence has become essential. 

Different products, different personas, different proof points - all organized and accessible.

If you're scaling a new product or expanding your platform, you need proof at scale.

Give UserEvidence a look: https://userevidence.com/


P.S. Will be partnering with them closely in 2025 to share other ways I am leveraging them. Thanks all for the support!

Brand partnership • AE @ Gong | Closed Won 🦙 | 7x President’s Club

Tell tale sign of junior sellers is trying to avoid risk in their deals. 

And getting defensive about risk in forecast / pipeline reviews.

Risk is uncomfortable and junior sellers often try to ignore it and 'hope' that it doesn’t come to fruition. 

When in reality the opposite is best.

Get comfortable knowing risk exists in every deal and it doesn't mean it's your 'fault.'


I write out the biggest reasons why I will lose the deal. 

Then 'the action' of how I will get in front of it.

Here’s a (real) scenario of a deal I had earlier this year:
-12 month evaluation and we were named vendor of choice. Fit perfectly to their initiatives. Great critical event with a competitor renewal in 2 months but we aren’t speaking directly with the decision maker on it (CRO). Have 5+ champions advocating for us.

What most sellers would think:
- Wow, we are in a really strong spot! We have so many champions and fit perfectly with their goals. Bummer the CRO isn’t more directly involved but my champ will get it done.


Here’s how I’d approach it instead.

Risk:
- Work/effort to migrate over to a new platform
- CRO not having direct involvement
- Their current vendor will try to save this renewal with aggressive pricing.
 
Action:
- Call out the risk of both next call
- Recommend a 30 min call with implementation to discuss migration
- Recommend a 2nd, 30 min call with CRO and main POC to review one-pager exec business case we will build for them.


For any fans of the book 'The Obstacle is the Way.'

'The risk is the way' in your deals cycles.

Don't avoid it, go through it.


P.S. Closed Won Club goes live 1/26. Be the first to hear about it here: https://closedwon.xyz/

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Luiz Cent 🦉

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The Battle

Luiz Cent 🦉

Brian LaManna

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Posts

Engagements

Likes

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