The Brutal Truth About Scaling a Tech Company: How Giuliana Corbo Took Nearsure to 22 Countries by 32 Years Old

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[00:01:21] I knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur since I was five years old. I remember the day I told my mom, hey, I want to be an entrepreneur. So I just went to, I'm an accountant. I'm not in tech. That decision was based on, hey, I've been an accountant. I have many doors open in any company and I can like move once I'm in some industry.

[00:01:47] So when I was 23, I actually was hired for being the CFO for a company, tech company of about 60 people in Uruguay. And back then, the founders of the company used to take responsibility for the accountant of the company and they were engineering. So it was funny because it was really easy for me to show them some value. It was fun back then.

[00:02:22] This is William Tinkup and Ryan Leary. You're listening, hopefully watching Inside the C-Suite podcast. We've got Juliana on today. We're going to learn about her career and all that fun stuff. Ryan, how are you doing? I'm fantastic. You are fantastic. Yeah, you are. You are fantastic. Juliana, how are you doing? I'm doing great as well. Not as good as Ryan. Never as good as me. The shenanigans are beginning.

[00:02:47] It tells us, it tells me like every other day, I've never had a bad day in my life. I'm like, I actually keep track of the bad days. Yeah, I've never had a bad day in my life. So tell us a little bit about yourself. What are you doing these days? Hey, okay. Thanks for having me here. I'm Juliana. I live in Uruguay, which is a really small country in South America. I'm 32 years old and I lead a software company. We are based in Latin America, so we have presence in 22 countries.

[00:03:16] And we deliver service to all of our clients that are in the States. I've been doing this for seven years. I founded Nearshure seven years ago, but I've been in tech for almost 15 years now. Sexually, I mean, I travel a lot. I love traveling. I have a really lovely dog, which is kind of my son. And that's me. What kind of dog do you have?

[00:03:40] It's a poodle. Yeah, it's a poodle. I have to leave him aside because otherwise he's going to be over me all the time. Is it like the standard poodle? Yes. No, not really big. It's a small one. The standard poodles, they scare me. Really? I don't know why, but they do. I know. He's nice.

[00:04:00] I think, you know, I've never been extended time around a poodle, so I don't know much about them because I always had large dogs, mastoos, bulldogs, boxers, stuff like that. So I wouldn't know what to do with a little dog, so I'd have to learn. Well, a standard poodle is big, though. They're big.

[00:04:20] So big. They are really sweet. That's the thing. And they want your attention. So you really don't like them. You really don't like them, right? I'm going to let you introduce you to my dog so you can have an impression. Bring them on. Bring them on. Let's see. Like toy poodles, I'm good with. But they're tall. They've got this furry fur, bushy fur. I don't know. They just freak me out for some reason. They scare you a little bit. Yeah. But enough about me. We're not here to learn about my fears.

[00:04:49] Yeah. Tell us about the software company. What does the software company do? It's called Nearsure? It is called Nearsure. What we do is we solve business problems through technology, and we build teams in Latin America just making sure that we are exactly in the same time zone than the States. So our team feels exactly the same as another team member in the States. But as we are in Latin America, we are able to provide a cost-effective solution.

[00:05:18] Our main focus, like Nearsure, is just to show the world the talent that we have in Latin America and just be able to be close to our clients when it comes to take every tech decisions that they have to take. So, yeah, that's what we do. What are the business problems that you guys are solving? Well, it's a really wide range of technologies. It's now a really wide range of problems. So we have 70 clients at the moment. Most of them are in healthcare space.

[00:05:45] So, for instance, we have a client which is actually building a lot of data in terms of cirugies. So they have kind of this assistant in every cirugie that is going to be like alarming the professional doing the operation and like based on all the data that it has over the past year. So that's an example.

[00:06:05] We also work with companies like Bloomberg. We work with companies like Tony Robbins or ServiceNow, and we help them build all the technical products that they have inside. Many AI projects, for instance, are what is normally nowadays. And the software is theirs, so it's outsourced development?

[00:06:26] Exactly. So it can be both. It can be they already have the product and they want just us to help them with one part of the product or they want us to help them just have more capabilities within the team. Right. Or they can say, hey, we really want to build this new product. We can work for a startup, for instance, or we can just start a new product from scratch and just deliver the final product.

[00:06:53] One MVP, which can be kind of the minimum valuable product that you can test on the market. So project management to me is where things go well or get sideways. And when I've done projects that are outsourced in this way, I'd have somebody stateside being the project manager and I'd have somebody in that country and they would talk. And so you keep everybody, all the other people out and it's just project manager to project manager.

[00:07:22] And you're not talking to the team. You're not talking to the rest of the folks. And that's just been my experience. It could be completely incorrect. So how do you all manage projects? So normally we try to avoid that. So we're just going to take everything you said and throw it away and we're going to do it the right way. No, I mean, I think it's like... William, you're wrong. I love it. Yes. That's why I asked the question. I think that's a great idea. Mainly if you have teams who doesn't speak the same language.

[00:07:52] But we put the focus on hiring people who has high skill on English communication. Our team is the most exposed to everyone at the company. So that way our team feels exactly as another team member. But also we can be involved in the decisions. We don't want to be just a partner who is outside of the company. We want to understand, hey, which is your business problem and how our tech product are helping that business product.

[00:08:18] So it's more about, hey, which KPIs are going to be impacting by this? And let's track that KPIs with you. So as much as all of us have the interaction with many players on the customer side, it's going to be the best. It happens. Love it. Okay, good. All right. So this is always a tricky question, but can they hire those folks? No. But it's always not bad. You know where I'm going, right?

[00:08:47] When it comes to a staffing firm at a certain point. There are some companies who actually do that type of services. There are both in which you can have a staffing company in which they can find you the specific talent. Then the company can hire directly. And you can have a company who has a BOT. So they build a team, they operate the team for some time, and then they transfer the team. So for Nearsure, we build a strong culture in our team.

[00:09:15] And we have the knowledge after the amount of projects that we've been involved for the last seven years. So the idea is that we take that knowledge and it's part of the main asset that we can put over the table for our clients. So that's the reason. Yeah. And that's part of the value that we add to the client. Got it. Well, Juliana, I want to go back and start learning about you and how you've gotten to where you are today. So what was the dream?

[00:09:44] You're young Juliana, high school, coming out of high school, going into college, university. What was the dream? That's a really good question. I knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur since I was five years old. I remember, yeah, I remember the day I told my mom, hey, I want to be an entrepreneur. So I just went to, I'm an accountant. I'm not in tech.

[00:10:08] That decision was based on, hey, by being an accountant, I have many doors open in any company and I can like move once I'm in some industry. So when I was 23, I actually was hired for being the CFO for a company, tech company of about 60 people in Uruguay. And back then, the founders of the company used to take responsibility for the accountant of the company and they were engineering.

[00:10:36] So it was funny because it was really easy for me to show them some value. It was fun back then. But once everything was settled and once you put everything, you clean the house, like we say in Spanish, when you're an accountant, you have to repeat every process every month. So I'm saying, hey, now is the time. I want to just go ahead and take my opportunity. I took a trip around the world. It took me about seven months and I visited foreign countries.

[00:11:05] It was like really good, but really frustrating because when I got back home, I didn't have the idea to go and have my own company. So I was like going through this crisis and the founders of my previous company called me and said, hey, Julie, why don't you just be an entrepreneur with us? Because, yeah, it was really good. We want to keep you in the team and we have an idea. We can build a spin-off company. And that's actually how I ended up by being the CEO of Nearsha.

[00:11:34] And it was, if I have to say this, Nearsha is like my baby. I love my work. I went through every process within the company from building the first website to selling for the first time to recruiting the first person. So I highly encourage everyone that has this feeling inside of them to go and do it. So, yeah, go ahead. So a question on that, and I don't know where William was going to go, but I was looking at your LinkedIn profile.

[00:12:03] I was stalking you on LinkedIn and you have a posting there about your first, yeah, research, your first business plan. Oh, yeah. And I read that. Tell us that story because I think a lot of people that listen to this, there are different parts of their career. But for someone who's in their 20s and thinking, hey, this is for me. Writing the business plan is a tough thing and emotional. And you did that and you went through a thing with that. Talk about that. Yeah, it was one of my worst days.

[00:12:32] I remember always that day. I actually had to just start building the first business plan. But the thing is, you are in front of a blank page and there is no starting point. You have everything to build, but there is no clear way to start. So I remember just starting like 20 or 25 times, going, trying to write something and just erasing everything and going once again with a different approach.

[00:13:00] So by the end of the day, nine hours after, I had my blank page exactly on the same place. And I was like crying. But I think that that's the thing, right? At the other day, I just woke up and had many ideas and it just came really natural. But that's the thing when you are in the first stages. There is some days in which you see everything so clear and you have many things to do and you don't have time.

[00:13:24] And there are times in which you don't know which is the next step and you feel like, hey, I'm not being productive enough. So that's part of also the magic. And I think that was actually my favorite part. So the software company... Thanks for remembering me there. It's awesome. The software company that you rejoined after your tour, they wanted you to work with them. Was that they spun you out?

[00:13:51] They kind of incubated the idea and then spun you out to a separate company? This is... Yes, exactly. So they say, hey, back then they had one business going on with a specific value proposition. But when talking to clients going to the market, they realized there was another need on the market that they were not fulfilling. So they say, hey, we can build this spin-off company just to fulfill that. And I started Nearshore.

[00:14:18] The good part of that was as they were my co-founders, they could give me really good advices on some shortage or like, hey, don't do this. You just go on this way. It's going to be easier. It makes us really easy to grow fast. On the first three or four years, we actually duplicate our size every year. We were like, we just want to go really fast.

[00:14:43] And one year and a half ago, the founders of the company decided that it didn't make any sense to have four. They also built two other spin-off companies on the way. And they say, hey, that doesn't make any sense because all of them provide a service that has something in common. So they decided to integrate four companies in only one. And back then they chose me to be the person leading and as the CEO.

[00:15:09] So it was a really proud recognition and really a lot of work as well. Yeah. And you guys are, how large is the company today? 600 people. And we had our revenue last year was 44 million. And our goal is to grow 20% this year. So we give it. Have you taken on outside investment? Sorry to interrupt. Oh, no, that's perfect. Yeah.

[00:15:36] It's all by bootstrap by the company owners. But we are seeing some investing opportunities because we want to continue going. And we are considering to do some inorganic growth at this point. Yeah. First steps. So we'll go back to the business plan because you've now merged four companies. You've integrated four companies. So two things there.

[00:16:03] One is where did the business plan change or how has it changed over this time after you just redid this whole thing? And second, your leadership. You're thrust into this leadership role. Where's the growth? How did you change? And how does that evolve for you? Well, it was a lot there. It was difficult. I'm being honest. I had several times in which I asked myself, hey, am I the person to take this challenge?

[00:16:29] And at some point, I realized that I was not the person who should be asking that question. I should put all my focus on being the best of me. And then the founders of the company could take the decision. And happily, it was really good. So we built another company. We used to be four companies with four value propositions, four cultural different aspects. People got to know each other, but in a really superficial way.

[00:16:58] So some business going on together, but not really deep relations. What we realized is that you have to start from day one, making a new company, making sure because you have a full compelling offering to your clients, but you have to be able to integrate it as only one instead of just selling four parts differently. And it's exactly the same with your team because your team used to have only one career path.

[00:17:25] And now that person can have four, but the idea is that they can find only one way. So it was a really tough work, but we learned a lot. And that's the reason why we decided that we are ready to start the inorganic growth process based on that experience. Two questions. One is, what's the hardest part of being a CEO of a 600-person firm? So think about that for a moment.

[00:17:55] And the second question is advice that you would give your younger son. Wow. I think that one of the most difficult things is that you have to take really easy decisions, but you sometimes have to take tough decisions. And in that moment, you are responsible for 600 people, 600 homes. So that's what motivates me, what makes me take the best and say,

[00:18:22] hey, I just want to give my people the best projects and the best career path possible and the best ability they can have. So that's my main nurse and everyone on the team. And yeah, I have many advices to my younger me. We've got it. Stick with the business, the professional ones, because I'm sure there's a lot of other advice that you'd give yourself. Thanks for the clarification. Yeah, no worries. No worries. Trust me, I've made a lot of mistakes. I still do. Anyhow.

[00:18:51] But I feel like the best one is whatever seems like a huge problem today. It's not going to be huge in six months from now. It's going to be just another one problem and you're going to be thinking that another huge one problem is huge. So just try to think with that mindset and just tackle problems with that mindset. It's not going to be that big. It reminds me of middle school. Like for us, Ryan, in middle school, it's such a cesspool.

[00:19:20] And something, just something is major. Somebody kiss somebody and it's like, oh my God, it's the biggest thing ever. It's like in six months from now, no one's going to care. I wish I had those problems today. I wish that's what I would wear. Truth, truth. But Julie, on the back to the CEO question, I think the hardest thing for me was determining that I've outgrown somebody.

[00:19:45] You know, like coming to the realization either with a partner or with a key employee that they were great for a phase and I can't make them different from that phase. And then that tough decision of being able to put them on to their next greatest adventure. There's no easy way to do that. And you can't say I've outgrown you. Like, I can't. I probably would with my personality. Are you telling me you've outgrown me already?

[00:20:14] No, no, no, no. I'm just saying that. You're going to witness him telling me this. Go ahead. At a point, you just come to that realization. It's usually with key employees. And you're like, they're at their highest. They can't go higher. It isn't a question of training or learning or any of that other stuff. It's just they can't go higher, but we need them to go higher or we need somebody else to go. I think I've found that that's the, for me and my personality, that's some of the tougher things that I've had to deal with.

[00:20:43] Well, I agree. And because you, for me, it's not only a business. For me, it's about the relationships that we built. And I have many friends at my work. And that's part of what makes magic. So it's really hard to have that conversation. But what I have discovered is just keeping someone in a role that he is, it's not like fulfilling the expectation. It's really bad for the company. It's bad for the teammates because they feel like, hey, this person is not up to my level.

[00:21:12] The worst is for the person because that person in another role or at another company can be really much better than in a role that he actually feels the same. Hey, some way or another, you know that you are not delivering up to the expectation. So it's a tough conversation, but it's just about how you handle.

[00:21:39] It's one that needs to be had for sure with people. So I love talking about mentorship. It's a topic that for some reason fascinates me. I love to get your, I mean, and you've started fresh out of school. Like you were thrust into this. So you didn't really have two decades of experience coming into this role, right? I mean, you've been alive for two decades before you got to the role. So what's your take on mentorship?

[00:22:05] And what's that one piece of mentorship that's just kind of stuck with you and you hear that in the back of your head? Well, so I'm really young. When you are the CEO of a company, you have to be knowledgeable of, hey, what's the advantage of you and what's the disadvantage, right? So being young gives me a lot of power, a lot of pushing. I'm energetic. I travel.

[00:22:30] I spend like seven months traveling around and I can do that because I'm young, but I still, I'm lacking of seniority and experience is so important. So for me, liberating that with really good mentors has been critical and I particularly have one person who has been with me for the whole career and he has actually avoided me from many mistakes. But the best part of his type of mentorship is that he just let me go and do something.

[00:22:58] And like when I get back, it's like, okay, this is what happened. I knew, and this is going to happen to you if you just go ahead. So it's not that he prepends for everything. He has let me go and suffer a little bit, but then I am much more reasonable when taking risks, for instance, or you are more open to listen and understand the other person. So I highly encourage to have mentorships.

[00:23:25] Also like going on with the years, I have had added more people to that table and that's also pretty useful. Just hear different ways and different views. People from different industries that can give you advices. And you just can take the best and decide, hey, which is, which I can take after all these conversations.

[00:23:47] I can see, especially young women, I could see you getting tapped by a lot of young women to be a mentor to them because you're doing something that's regardless of gender. You're doing something just like you're running a 600 person firm, almost a $50 million firm. There's just not a lot of people that can do that period or just hard to stop. I could see that you could be an inspiration to a lot of people, male, female, doesn't really matter.

[00:24:14] My last question to you is, it's about growth. Let's just say a thousand employees, keep it simple, or 100 million in revenue, whatever, whatever. What keeps you up at night thinking about that next growth level? Well, for me, the culture of the company is the most important. And when you grow and when you grow fast, as Niazhar is doing, you have to be really careful not to destroy that culture.

[00:24:43] Because when you are a 100 people company, you are able to talk to everybody and you know everybody. But when you are a 600 people company, that's pretty much difficult. And you cannot think about 1,000. So how to be close and how to keep that feeling of, hey, I care about you and you are in the center of every decision that I'm making, no matter what size Niazhar has. That's what keeps me awake and my team. So we put all the focus on our team. I've got one more question for you as well.

[00:25:13] What is the one question that people don't ask you often that you really wish they would ask you? Wow, that's a really good one. That's a good one. I try my best to stump you. It's just a great question because it's based on reflection and you reflect, everyone reflects a little bit differently. It's like, I never get asked.

[00:25:42] Like, I never get asked. Actually, I'll speak for myself for just a second. I never get asked to be a mentor to people. An advisor, different. You know, because I give advice like it's a fire hose. But I've never been asked in my entire career, I've never been asked by someone younger or older, whatever, to be their mentor. Do you want to be my mentor? I don't know. I don't know. It sounds like a sad puppy. Like, no one asks you to be a mentor.

[00:26:11] I think people look to you as a mentor from afar. Yeah. But I've never been asked. Right and wrongly, they do. Point blank. Yeah. But point blank. Seriously, Ryan. I've never been asked. There's no one that's ever called me at any point in my career and said, man, dude. Well, now you're going to get a bunch of calls. Oh, yeah. Well, I'll deal with that.

[00:26:36] And I think it's because of my persona, either social or otherwise, or people that listen to me speak or whatever. And they're just like, I can't. I just don't want that in my life. Whatever. But I've never been asked. Anyhow, Jobella, this is about you, not me. I enjoy it. And you give me time. Yeah. There you go. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:26:58] I think that there's one question that people never ask because they assume that being the CEO of a company is something that you want and that you really like and you never challenge yourself on, do I want to be the CEO of this company? And I think that's a really good question. And it's not really about being the CEO. It's about being a leader. We always think that being a leader is good. But being a leader, if you are a good leader, is one of the hardest positions at the company.

[00:27:28] Well, if you... Go ahead, Julia. No, that's fine. Go. If you add all the other multifactors in there, you're a female leader of a high-growth company. And do you want to go through that phase? Like whatever all that's in front of you, do you want to go through that? I think some people would say yes and not know that they really don't want to do that. Exactly.

[00:27:54] Because it has a lot of benefits because mostly it's what William mentioned. You are the inspiration of a lot of young women who maybe didn't even think that they could be CEOs. And that's actually really, really good. But it takes a lot of effort as well. And you have to put all the focus on this.

[00:28:16] And you also have to know that you're going to be alone because being a CEO has a lot of being on your own and taking your decisions. It's a lonely and thankless job on some levels. Yeah. Exactly. I mean, it's great when things are great. But any time that things aren't great, and I should have added that you're a female, high-growth, and you care about culture. There's a couple other factors in there.

[00:28:43] But it's not like somebody's going to give you a parade because you made a right decision. It's usually highlighted the incorrect decisions strategically that get made that you take all the blame. And it stops with you. And so it can be thankless. So you've got to almost be so secure in yourself that it's like, I don't need that. I'll still make the decisions. Julia, I speak for Ryan. Fantastic episode.

[00:29:13] Thank you so much for carving out time for us. I know you're obviously super busy. So just thank you for your time and your wisdom. Thank you for having me. Thank you for the lovely questions that made me remember really good stories. And I hope to see you sometime. Why don't you stop here? Sure. Obviously. Obviously. We will make that happen. Thank you all for listening, and we'll see you next time.