Nearshoring is misunderstood — and that's a problem

Most executives I talk to have one of two reactions to nearshoring: either they think it's just a cheaper version of offshoring to India, or they've heard enough horror stories about quality and communication that they've written it off entirely. Both reactions are based on outdated information — and both are costing companies real money.

In this conversation with Dawn Tiura, CEO of the Sourcing Interest Group, I try to cut through the noise. We talk about what nearshoring to Latin America actually looks like in 2019, what it's good for, where it falls short, and how to do it right.

The co-location advantage nobody talks about

The most underrated benefit of nearshoring isn't cost — it's time zone alignment. When your engineering team in Mexico or Belfast is working the same hours as your product team in Chicago or Portland, collaboration happens naturally. You don't need to leave detailed instructions at the end of every day and hope they're followed correctly. You can have a real conversation. You can unblock a problem in real time. That changes everything about how quickly a team can move.

I built Unosquare on this principle from day one. We started in Guadalajara in 2009 with a handful of engineers. By the time of this interview, we had over 500 people across Mexico, Belfast, and the US — all operating in overlapping time zones, all building software for some of the most demanding clients in fintech and healthcare.

"The biggest misconception is that nearshoring is purely a cost play. Done right, it's a talent play. You're accessing engineers who are technically excellent, culturally aligned with your US team, and operating in real time — not 12 hours behind you." — Mike Barrett

What cultural alignment actually means

Cultural alignment is one of those phrases that gets thrown around a lot without much substance behind it. Here's what it means to me in practice: your nearshore team needs to understand not just the technical requirements of what they're building, but the business context — why it matters, who uses it, what the stakes are.

That kind of understanding doesn't happen through documentation. It happens through relationships. It's why I've always believed that the CEO needs to get on a plane, sit in the office, go to dinner, learn a few words of Spanish. You can't build a high-trust team remotely if you've never shown up in person.

From a spare bedroom to 1,200 people

I started Unosquare with my co-founder in 2009. We had no outside investment, no debt, and a very simple thesis: build great software engineering teams in Latin America and connect them with US companies that need them. We never deviated from that. We never took a round of funding. We never chased a market we didn't understand.

Thirteen years later, Unosquare had grown to over 1,200 people in seven countries, appeared on the Inc. 5000 fastest-growing companies list ten consecutive times, and been named one of Oregon's top businesses. All of it bootstrapped. All of it profitable from the start.

The model works. This conversation is about why — and how to apply it in your own organization.