KGCI: Real Estate on Air - Boost Your Profits! Four Big Benefits of Latin American Developers and Coders, with Roger Eintross

Episode Date: January 10, 2025

Welcome back to the Realty Funnels podcast. I'm Kevin Cahill, and I'm delighted to welcome Roger Ainstas with braintly.com to the podcast today. Roger, welcome. Hey, thank you so much for having me. Well, it's my pleasure. I'm so delighted to talk with you and just to get to know you a little bit better during our time together. Tell everyone about yourself, where you're situated. Tell us about Braintley, what you do, who you service, and give everybody a sense of how. how you might be a real resource to them. Cool, thanks. Well, I'm Roger Ainsos. I'm 35.

I'm based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I was born here in Buenos Aires, Argentina. I co-founded Brangley 12 years ago. In Brangley, we are a software development company that connects top talent from Latin America with projects in the United States. So our main goal is to make working with talent, in Latin America as Sisi as it is working with them in the US.

So that's a pretty quick resume of my company of my life. And you started coding at a very young age. What got you into coding when you were just 15 years old? Well, I received as a gift my first computer when I was 10. And I started playing some games like Carmen San Diego and different kind of games. And from the very first time I been in touch with a computer, I realized that I wanted to do something with computers. I didn't know anything about coding or about software, but a couple of years later, I went to a high school here in Argentina, that is really well-known technical school here. and they have like a branch when you are at high school,

a branch to choose like a software development or software engineering orientation. So that was the moment where I started coding at high school. And 15 years old, you realize this is something that I enjoy and then this is something that could also be lucrative. It could really provide for your future as well. Tell us a little bit more about your journey from when you were 15 to 12 years ago when you created Brantley. Well, after graduating from high school, I knew that the next step was going to the university for getting my software engineering degree.

That was pretty simple, not getting the degree, but the decision. So I joined one of the public universities here in Argentina, which, by the way, are completely, free in Argentina. So I went to the university. Five years later, I got my degree in software engineering and I started working for software factories or different kinds of companies, first as a developer and then I was promoted to project leader, project manager. So I've been in most of the parts of the life cycle of a digital product. So I was developer, QA, I worked as a designer. I did pretty much of everything.

I know that from my experience, creating realty funnels, which is a software that I built simply to solve my own problems as a top-level real estate agent, finding talent is a real challenge in that space. You know, we often will start with something very simple, like a small little project. We might go to Fiverr or Upwork, and we find somebody who can do it. And then they're not expensive, but they may not be fast,

or they may not be that experienced, or they may not be able to sort of navigate you through the path that you're really trying to navigate, with your notions of creating a software or just creating systems that would make a real estate agent's life easier, for example. Or if you're a real estate developer or a real estate investor, you're looking for systems that are going to make all aspects of your business easier. I know that it was a real challenge for me to find talented people. That's a challenge. people put themselves out there, you give them a little small project, you realize they're not that

reliable, they're not that sophisticated, they don't actually have the chops that they tell you that they have. Tell us a little bit about how you're making all of that easier for those companies and people that you're servicing here in the United States. Yeah, well, that's why we started the company, because we saw that opportunity. Getting access to developers was difficult in those times and it's still difficult. So coming back to these days, we work with a proven process that we have been developing all over these years. So it's simple, it's pretty simple, and it allows us to place developers in no time, maybe three weeks or four weeks. So we have our databases and we have our challenges and our knowledge, hiring and vetting engineers.

So something important to remark is that we are not a recruiting agency. We are also engineers. So this is engineers, vetted by other engineers. So that gives us something really different. understand them so we can handmatch and understand which is the best engineer for your company, for your product. So that's something we develop over the years, working with more than 150, 150 startups and hiring tons of people and interviewing even more. It's a gymnastic that you learned over the years. When you're vetting these people, I mean, you're really making

certain that they're going to be able to deliver. Yeah, that's the most important thing because when a company come to us, they hire us because we are experts hiring and vetting engineers. So they expect from us that the first candidate that we face them, it would be the right fit. So we usually don't work presenting maybe four or five candidates. We know that if we look for the first one, that will be the correct fit. Obviously, if we present it to the client and the client say, hey, I don't like him because feedback, we will change it and we will keep looking for the right one because that's our job. But our main goal is to allow you to focus on your business. If we take care of hiring, retaining, culture, payroll, taxes, administrative staff, you can

focus on your business. So tell me about those four distinct benefits that Brantley brings to the entire scenario, why Brantley might be a really incredible opportunity for people looking for software developers and coders here in the United States. You said there are four distinct advantages that you bring to the table. Yeah. Well, first, all the advantages that we talked, this thing of we have been doing this for more than 12 years. We have a proven process in varying different kind of roles and engineers. When it comes to Latin America and Argentina, you have several reasons and advantages if you want to hire your team here in Latin America.

For instance, time zone is amazing. in Argentina, we are only one hour ahead of Eastern time. So you will share almost the full of the day, working side-valis with your team in the States and in Argentina. We also have an amazing talent for give you some metrics. We rank top one when it comes to English skills, according to Coursera. And we rank in the top 10% of the best universities in the world. and as I told you, university in Argentina is totally free.

And we are the country in Latin America that won the most number of Nobel prices. We have the most number of unicorns per person. We are the country number 10 when it comes to presence in space. So a lot of great things are happening here in Argentina due to the macroeconomics context and the challenges that we always faced. But all of those things combine make us an excellent choice when it comes to being resilient, creative, willing to be a problem solver. Well, I find it very compelling when you can have top talent like this.

I mean, you're talking about comparable coding skill sets as you might find in Seattle or San Francisco or, you know, Washington, D.C. or New York City. and at a significant price savings simply based on, you know, the various factors coming into the economies of Argentina and South America versus cost of living in the United States. But then you also have that amazing time zone where if I'm in New York or currently I'm in Seattle, I know that at the beginning of my day, my people in Argentina, are already up at work. And they're going to be working nearly my whole day as well.

So we can really collaborate and we can really get a lot of things done compared to when I'm dealing with people in Pakistan or dealing with people in the Philippines or India or Eastern Europe where the time zone, their work day is nearly over when I'm just sort of getting up and getting going. And then my whole day is lost while I'm waiting for them to sleep, wake up and get going. That's a huge, huge factor as well. And then, you know, you're talking about the cultural alignment.

You know, what we have going on in the Western Hemisphere, we all pretty much know what's going on in the Western Hemisphere. And so we're sort of feeling those same ripple effects in culture and in the economies as well. So there's a huge opportunity for American companies to really benefit from Bratley. Yeah, yeah. That's why we are working hard in telling American companies that we as a country are here. And we are ready to help them go through building their teams. And for instance, today, the day we are recording this episode or new president is going to San Francisco. and he will have, he will be meeting Mark Zuckerberg, Apple's CEO, Tim Cook, Google CEO, Sam Altman.

So he's trying to show the world that Argentina is a good source of talent, even for AI, software development, designers. I mean, not only engineers. We have so many careers, so many professionals that can work for the States or for any country. You have plenty of people here in Argentina that works for Europe or for Colombia, Mexico, or wherever. And you had mentioned to me before we started recording that you have companies that you service throughout the United States over 150 different companies, startups, small, lean, new companies that are just coming on to the horizon. and you mentioned that you had people in my hometown, my childhood hometown of Cleveland, Ohio as well. So you're having a major impact already.

What are your growth goals? What are you looking to accomplish in the next five years? That's a good question. It's a vision that we have really clear, but it changed every year because we always want more and want to keep growing. So my vision for the next five years, it's split in two things. One is the industry that I think it will definitely change with AI. We can talk about that if you want. And the other thing, it's my company.

When it comes to my company, I know that we will keep growing. We will keep helping more and more companies in the States to build their teams in Latin America. Because I'm completely sure, I truly believe. that this is the time for Latin America because coast of living in the States are growing. And I know so many people that went to Asia or Philippines, they didn't like the cultural alignment or the Times Zone or other things. So this is a time where they are starting to take a look to Latin America. Because they realize that, hey, we are almost in the same time.

time zone, we have almost the same culture. They are great. They build so many unicorns. So I think next five years will be amazing for the region in general and obviously for my company. I think it's also a real consideration when somebody might have a need to really connect with you. we're just a short five-hour flight away from Buenos Aires, say, to Miami or New York or Washington, D.C. or Atlanta or Houston. Yeah. This is a part of the world that is very much within reach of American corporate leaders. And it makes a big difference when you can connect personally as well. You know, everybody's getting used to doing business virtually and working on Zoom and that type of thing.

And yet there are some occasions where it's really great to connect in person. And so you've got the president of Argentina visiting San Francisco. That's not a big, huge, around the world flight. That is a long flight, but a reasonable. Something doable, yeah. That's why I'm going to New York this next week for the Tech Week. and I've been in Miami in April for Emerge Americas. I went to Cleveland and Ohio last October.

So between four to five times a year, I usually go to the States to visit clients because I'm a truly believer that you have to develop those relationships. It's not the same even having this conversation virtually than having this conversation in a, in a coffee shop, having a coffee or a tea or whatever. So I usually go there because I understand that it's not enough to deliver an amazing team. It's important to be there to show that we really are like an American company based in Buenos Aires,

but we are an American company. And we also have one of four board members that lives in New York. we are split all around the world. It makes a world a difference, too, when you are connected in that kind of way. And you talk about relationships. And I know that for real estate agents and for real estate investors, having key relationships, just a few really good relationships can make a big difference on the bottom line each year.

You know, those relationships create new relationships. And those relationships create new business opportunities. And those business opportunities continue on. And the momentum just really starts to grow. Well, I have a little story about this. After working with three years with a client, I met him after the COVID for the very first time in Cleveland last year. And after meeting in person, he decided to come to Argentina to meet the team and to work with their team for. two months. So he came in January. He spent two months here. We went to It's a Salo and all the

things that we usually do in Argentina. It's a really like a funny country to be. And the chemistry, the things that happened face to face between us and between him and the team changed everything. Absolutely everything. I agree 100%. that that's all possible when you create real relationships. And you can't really have a handshake or toast a drink or share a pot of tea online. And I'm very hopeful that even though the world is getting smaller because of everybody's adoption of technology, everybody's getting more and more familiar with Zoom and connecting virtually, I think you're going to get back to those actual handshakes

and really collaborating at a much higher level. And then, of course, it's Archangina. I mean, I want to go there and just hear the music. Yeah, you should. I would love to. And, of course, that gentleman who was coming down from Cleveland in January, he was smart. He left Cleveland in January,

which would be summertime down in Buenos Aires. Yeah, I know. Yeah, winter in Cleveland. And it's tough too. It can be a lot of snow and it can be a lot of cold nights in a row. And he was smart to take two months and just smart person, obviously. So you're obviously working with smart people. Yeah.

So tell me a little bit more about your team. You're dealing with Latin American professionals, coders, developers, people with a ton of experience. And are you sourcing them primarily from Argentina? Are you reaching into Brazil? What other countries? Yeah, our main source of talent is Argentina, but we have people from Colombia, from Venezuela, from different countries of Latin America,

but our main source is Argentina. But we don't put the focus on the country. We put the focus on the technical skills, the hard and the soft ones, because it's very important when you work directly with a client, with a CTO or with a founder of a startup to have those soft skills. You can be the best developer in the world, but if you don't have any kind of soft skills,

you will probably fail. So it's very important for us to check and to vet those worlds, hard skills and soft skills. I agree. And I talk about the hard skills and soft skills all the time when it comes to real estate agents and the work that real estate agents do, the hard skills, in my experience, are those skills that need to be done with robotic precision correctly every time. And so, for example, in residential real estate, that might be making certain that a home

buyer contacts the utility companies in order to get the water and the sewer and the trash and the electric lined up for their day of closing so that when they own the home, all the utilities are turned on. Well, that needs to get done. It needs to be done correctly, but it's not a soft skill. Yeah. The soft skills in residential real estate are negotiating the purchase price, dealing with the home inspection issues, welcoming people to an open house, inviting and encouraging offers so that you're getting the highest and best price for the seller, or if you're working with a buyer, you're making certain that your offer is properly presented in its very best light. I think it's very important that you look at both the hard skills, which are the skills,

the chops, but then also those soft skills, which are a little less tangible, but in my opinion, even more important. Yeah. And besides, we are all people. We are all human beings. So we need soft skills to interact with other teammates. So it's a must. It's something you have to have.

Yeah. It's critical. Absolutely. I know that people are going to want to connect with you. And we've got your website up on the screen for those people who are watching our video. It is www.brently.com, and that's spelled B-R-A-I-N-T-L-Y. And then also people can email you.

Go ahead and share your email address as well. Cool. And so that is R-E-at-Braintley.com. And then if people want to learn more about you on LinkedIn, they can go to LinkedIn.com slash in slash Roger Amstos. and your last name is spelled E-I-N-S-T-O-S. Yeah.

Well, I'm very thankful to have this opportunity to talk with you. So tell me, in parting, this is a question that I often ask people. What do you know now that you wish you knew 12 years ago when you started up faintly? I love that question in the different variants

that it has, but for sure that I spend so many time focused on execution in my company, not looking abroad, understanding the ecosystem,

the networking, the people around me that I feel that I lost a lot of time, so many time. So I would change probably like being connected to the ecosystem faster, the journey of an entrepreneur, it's hard. It's really difficult. It's a roller coaster.

So if you ride that roller coaster with someone else where you can, like, you can have this kind of conversations or say, hey, I have this problem. Did you face this problem? Give me ideas or share with me your experience. it's much easier. So I would definitely change that. I appreciate you sharing that. One of my beliefs and one of the things that I coach real estate agents on all the time

is the importance of your environment. Your environment impacts your thoughts. And then your thoughts impact your feelings. Your feelings then impact the actions that you choose to take. And your actions, of course, impact the results that you have. And those results then come full circle to impact the environment that you're in for good or for bad. So that if you're in a good environment, you're going to have some good thoughts. You're going to have people around you sharing their ideas.

You're going to have some really good feelings, feelings of, I can go out there and do this. I can go make this happen. And then you're going to take action. You're going to take bold action and really go forward. and make something happen with your energy and your efforts. And then the results are going to be fantastic. And then that's going to fund your ability to further improve your environment or the opposite is also true.

Yeah. I completely agree. I mean, it's like being surrounded of friends that add you value or not with people in general, with family. It's the same in the business. If you're surrounded of people that will help you and you will help that people, you will do it for sure. You need to know that the journey is something that it will have ups and downs. But if you are surrounded of positive vibes and people that try to add you value and share with you their experiences, it will be for sure much easier.

But 100% sure. Yeah, this has been fantastic. And Roger, I know I could talk with you all day. We haven't even begun to talk about Argentine music, which is one of my favorites, but I know we could easily be talking all day. What's your favorite band? You have a favorite band from Argentina or a favorite gen of music? You know, I love Astrid Gilberto.

I love Antonio Carlos Chopin. And then just... Sergio Mendez, you know, a lot of this is Brazilian overlap as well. I mean, that whole energy and vibe to me, it's just very good music. It's just, so if the music is good, then that tells me a lot about the culture and the people and the energy and that community. So you know that it's just going to be positive and uplifting. Yeah, yeah, that's true. That's really true.

Thank you so much for being with me today on the Realty Funnels podcast. It's been an absolute pleasure getting to know you. I want to encourage everyone to check out Brantley.com. I think that if you're working on some projects where you need some software help, you need some coders, you need some developers. Reach out to Roger. This is going to be an opportunity for you to really make some of your notions come to life. And I believe fully that systems will power you to higher levels than not having systems. And we all know that systems run on codes.

And that's Rogers Forte. That's his area of expertise. So reach out to Roger and let him give you an opportunity to show what he's able to do. Well, thank you so much for having me for this nice talk. My pleasure, Roger. Thank you so much.