WHO We Hire

WHO We Hire is built on a simple premise: no great company gets built without great people.Luiz Cent talks with founders, CEOs, CTOs, CPOs, COOs, and executives at technology companies to unpack how they hire, where they've gotten it wrong, and what they've learned scaling teams from the ground up.Topics include hiring strategy, talent acquisition, team building, leadership, company culture, scaling startups, and building high-performance teams in SaaS and tech.If you're a founder, operator, executive, board member, or VC, this show is for you.

WHO We Hire is a business podcast hosted by Luiz Cent, with 18 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Luiz Cent hosts WHO We Hire, a business show with 18 episodes published.

Our AI reads these to draft pitches. Use them as grounding for a pitch that cites a real guest and a specific topic.

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  Episode #19

  How This 5x CEO Knows When A Senior Leader Has Hit The Ceiling

  Aug 18, 202649 minS1

  Douglas Braun is the CEO of eProductivity Software (ePS), a global software company serving thousands of packaging manufacturers across more than 100 countries. A five-time CEO with a 40-year career in enterprise software, Doug has led teams from Stockholm to São Paulo, promoted internal talent into executive seats, and grown the ePS India office from 60 to 170 people in 18 months. In this episode, he shares the exact frameworks he uses when inheriting a team, promoting from within, running acquisitions as mergers of equals, and deploying AI without cutting headcount. What you'll learn: - The 90-day rule Doug uses every time he inherits a company (and why "what you did yesterday is what I want you to do tomorrow" buys him time) - How to tell the difference between an executive who needs coaching versus one who has hit the ceiling - Why Doug spends 60-70% of his time on the road and three-quarters of that with employees, not customers - The 24-hour response promise he makes to all 400 employees (and why he's 98% good at it) - Why every one of his nine executives personally owns customer accounts, including the CFO and Chief Legal Officer - The "human in the loop" AI hiring philosophy and why AI is not about cutting 20% of staff - The M&A rule Doug learned from a Fortune 500 CIO: acquisitions are "slow and painful or fast and painful, pick fast" - Why he took 17 people from an acquired 28-person company and 11 from his own team (and what that signals) - The 85/15 to 70/30 tactical-to-strategic shift every founder must make at the $10M mark Chapters: 00:00 Cold open: coaching vs. hitting the ceiling 01:04 Intro and Doug's 5x CEO journey 02:16 Inheriting a team and managing fear and uncertainty 03:53 When a shared vision is impossible 06:22 The 90-day rule for retaining top talent 07:47 Promoting from within: the UK chief product officer story 10:02 Doug's superpower: getting people on board 11:20 The 24-hour employee response promise 15:49 Leading across Sweden, France, India, and Brazil 17:11 "You won't last": the 5th CEO in 10 years 20:19 Sitting in cubes with the India team 23:09 Hiring in the age of AI 26:51 Why every executive owns customer accounts 33:27 The merger-of-equals M&A hiring framework 40:18 Advice for founders scaling 50 to 150 46:32 Where to find Doug Where to find Douglas A Braun: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/douglasabraun ePS (eProductivity Software): https://epssw.com/ Where to find Luiz Cent: Website: https://latamcent.com/ Who We Hire: https://whowehire.org/

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  Episode #18

  The Framework This 25-Year Entrepreneur Uses to Deploy AI Without Killing Jobs

  Aug 11, 202649 minS1

  Brian Esposito is the founder of Esposito Intellectual Enterprises and CEO of Diamond Lake Minerals, a public company he grew from a $1 million market cap to nearly half a billion dollars in just three years. With over 25 years of entrepreneurial experience across more than 25 industries, Brian has never worked in the corporate world or had a boss. In this episode, he reveals his framework for identifying the wrong people before they damage your business, why he has an "allergic response" to AI replacing human capital, and how he helps founders avoid losing control of their own companies on the fundraising hamster wheel. What You'll Learn: - Why watching how someone treats a waiter instantly reveals if they're an opportunist you should avoid - The "golden rule" filter Brian uses to identify people who will put your business at risk for materialistic gain - How to reclaim equity from advisors who aren't performing their duties within 30 days - Why surrounding yourself with drama-filled people drains your ability to run 25+ companies simultaneously - The mindset shift from "raising money" to "earning money" that prevents founders from losing control - Why Brian never tries to replicate himself anymore after wasting years attempting it - How negativity in your inner circle runs your energy at "ten RPMs" and destroys what you can accomplish - The specific question Brian asks to identify if someone's god is money: do they brag about materialistic things? Chapters: 00:00 Episode 18 - Who We Hire: The Framework This 25-Year Entrepreneur Uses to Deploy AI Without Killing Jobs 02:30 Why Watching People Thrive Is More Rewarding Than Building Companies 03:54 Brian's Allergic Response to AI and Human Capital 06:28 Using AI to Enhance Jobs, Not Eliminate Them 08:25 Why Live Entertainment Will Explode as Human Connection Becomes Rare 11:06 Journey: The Platform Fighting Back Against Spotify's Data Hoarding 16:52 Finding the Right People by First Identifying the Wrong Ones 19:59 The Golden Rule Test for Spotting Opportunists 21:42 Why Negativity Is the Fastest Way to Drain Your Tank 24:29 From Nail Polish to Space: Building an Industry-Agnostic Career 29:26 Diamond Lake Minerals: $1M to $500M Market Cap in 3 Years 37:37 Rewiring Founders Away from the Raise Money Hamster Wheel 43:48 Being the Bad Guy Who Makes Advisors Accountable 45:08 Why Brian Stopped Trying to Replicate Himself Where to find the guest (Brian J Esposito): LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/brianj.esposito Social Media: @BrianJEsposito Where to find Luiz Cent: Website: https://latamcent.com/ Who We Hire: https://whowehire.org/

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  Episode #17

  InEvent CEO Reveals The #1 Tech Role Every AI Company Is Hiring

  Aug 4, 202637 minS1

  Pedro Góes is the CEO of Snapdat & Ziplit and founder of InEvent, a Y Combinator-backed (S19) event technology company that has generated over $20M in enterprise sales and serves Fortune 500 clients including Amazon, Coca-Cola, KPMG, and Santander. A 3x "Most Influential in Events" honoree and BizBash 40 Under 40, Pedro has scaled InEvent to 150 full-time staffers with 200-300 people working daily across the globe, and even produced live broadcasts from the International Space Station. In this episode, he breaks down the exact hiring ratios, internship playbook, and role shifts reshaping team composition in the age of AI. What You'll Learn: - Why every full-stack developer now requires 3 quality analysts on the InEvent team - The exact reason project manager roles are being killed and what's replacing them - How Pedro built an internship pipeline that gets 2,000 applicants in the first week - Why paying interns $25K to grow into $150K roles beats hiring senior talent cold - The counterintuitive interview tactic Pedro uses to filter out "hype" candidates - Why event industry roles are AI-resistant while radiologists and PMs are not - The 5% RSVP conversion rule for founders throwing their first in-person events - How to run a dinner strategy using your CRM heatmap instead of hiring an event manager Chapters: 00:00 The shifting roles in event technology 01:15 Pedro Gois background and building InEvent 02:00 The post-2020 boom and the shift back to in-person events 03:27 Launching Snap Data to solve post-event sales follow-up 05:08 Running massive scale events for the UN and US Presidents 07:35 Global remote hiring and the value of human connection 12:27 Reallocating dev budget: Why AI requires three QA engineers per full-stack dev 13:43 Removing project managers to connect CS directly with engineering 16:15 Achieving 100% pipeline coverage post-tradeshow with instant AI follow-up 28:00 Interviewing for high-responsibility roles and rejecting hype 29:20 Building a global remote internship program that yields company managers 33:20 The founder playbook for running high-ROI customer and prospect dinners Where to find Pedro: Pedro Góes: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pedrogoes InEvent: https://inevent.com Snapdat: https://snapdat.ai Where to find Luiz Cent: Website: https://latamcent.com/ Who We Hire: https://whowehire.org/

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  Episode #16

  Pearl VP: Why Companies Laying People Off For AI Will Regret It In 18 Months

  Jul 28, 202642 minS1

  Sam Mallikarjunan is VP at Pearl, where he's building out an entirely new business unit connecting experts with people who need real help not just AI answers. He previously served as GM at Agent.ai (Dharmesh Shah's AI marketplace that hit 1.5M users), CEO and co-founder of OneScreen.ai, CRO at Flock.com where he helped quintuple revenue, and Head of Growth at HubSpot Labs where he grew monthly recurring revenue 200x and built a community of 160k+ members. He also taught Advanced Digital Marketing at Harvard and served as Faculty Chair for Digital Marketing at USF. In this episode, Sam breaks down his frameworks for org design in the AI era, why laying people off for AI will backfire within 18 months, and how "shared custody agreements" are reshaping career development inside modern teams. What you'll learn: - Why standing out in the AI job market is like "applying for a chef's job by making them a meal" - The exact HubSpot LATAM playbook validate with a generalist first, then hire the specialist - Why laying off people because of AI will hurt companies in the next 18 months - The "shared custody agreements" framework for developing careers when org design breaks down - Why hiring people you've worked with before quietly creates a culture of insiders and outsiders - How to sell mission over brand when you have zero employer name recognition - The difference between translation and localization when building international teams - Why psychological safety matters more right now than hiring "AI-native" talent - How the only recruiter to crack Sam's AI screener actually did it Chapters: 00:00 Trailer: Pearl VP: Why Companies Laying People Off For AI Will Regret It In 18 Months 00:39 Meet Sam Mallikarjunan 01:26 The HireMe HubSpot story 02:43 Why every AI-powered applicant looks identical 04:11 Why Sam left AI agents to join Pearl 06:20 Will we have more entrepreneurs than employees? 10:23 Building HubSpot's LATAM team from zero 14:14 Translation vs localization when hiring globally 16:36 The roles Sam refuses to give to AI 19:04 Shared custody agreements: the new org design 26:08 Hiring for adaptability vs deep specialization 30:24 Recruiting without brand recognition 36:11 How one recruiter cracked Sam's AI screener 40:58 Where to find Sam Where to find the guest: Sam Mallikarjunan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mallikarjunan/ Sam's website: http://mallikarjunan.com/ Pearl: https://www.pearl.com/ Where to find Luiz Cent: Website: https://latamcent.com/ Who We Hire: https://whowehire.org/

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  Episode #15

  The Enterprise Sales Legend on Why LLMs Will Never Stop Hallucinating

  Jul 21, 202650 minS1

  Kris Lawson is the co-founder and CEO of Ruby AI, the world's first always-on autonomous sales agent with full context, memory, and multi-agent intelligence built to give every rep an AI edge across the entire sales cycle. Over 20+ years, Kris scaled go-to-market organizations at Oracle, Salesforce, Microsoft, Snowflake, and Vidyard, famously becoming the first Oracle rep ever to lose a deal to Salesforce before being recruited to help build Salesforce Canada from a 4-person Regus office to over 800 people. He later built Snowflake Canada from zero to $35M+ ARR, has personally closed over 1,800 new logos, and is co-founder of Snow Angels, a Snowflake alumni investor syndicate backing data and AI startups. In this episode, he breaks down the hiring profile that wins in the AI era, why founder magic doesn't translate to sales teams, and the "cognitive surrender" trap that's quietly reshaping how buyers evaluate every deal. What You'll Learn: - Why coachability is the single most important trait when hiring reps at scale - The exact reason 9 out of 10 sales academy hires fail when they join startups - The "PG Savage" hiring profile Kris used to build Snowflake Canada from zero - Why first-line sales managers should have 12-14 reps, not 6, in the AI era - The full-stack AE model that compresses SDR, AE, and CSM into one role - Why quotas should double while base comp stays the same (with more upside) - How to test candidates for being "AI-pilled" during the interview process - The founder mistake that quietly kills story fidelity as sales teams grow Chapters: 00:00 Trailer: The Enterprise Sales Legend on Why LLMs Will Never Stop Hallucinating 02:10 Losing to Salesforce at Oracle and getting recruited 04:09 The hiring profile that built Salesforce Canada 05:37 Why coachability beats pedigree 07:28 Building Snowflake Canada from zero 14:50 The PG Savage profile and why sales academy hires fail 9/10 times 17:41 The three founder mistakes that kill story fidelity 21:38 First call decks and story adherence in deal reviews 26:24 The full-stack AE and the AI-pilled interview test 31:31 Manager span of control: 12-14 reps, not 6 35:20 Doubling quotas while keeping comp flat 38:32 Hallucinations as a feature, not a bug 43:38 The founding team hiring sequence: SDR, then 2 AEs, then player-coach 46:07 Why hyper-personalized content is the new minimum Where to find Kris: Kris Lawson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/krislawsonland/ Ruby AI: https://heyruby.ai Where to find Luiz Cent: Website: https://latamcent.com/ Who We Hire: https://whowehire.org/

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