There’s no doubt about it: a growing number of US students would consider job opportunities in emerging countries such as Brazil. On the other hand, Brazilian tech companies and startups are having difficulties hiring top talent.
This is where Hemishare comes into play, with the launch of its RecruitLab accelerator program. According to its founder and CEO, Lisa Lovallo, its mission is to “connect US recruits with Brazilian startups to take the risk and cost out of long-distance startup recruiting.”
Its risk-adverse approach is simple: recruits are offered to work remotely for a Brazilian startup for 3 to 6 months, before moving to Brazil full-time if both parties are keen to keep on collaborating after that test period.
Hemishare is a member of Wharton’s Venture Initiation Program incubator and received seed funding from Wharton this summer. Thanks to that pedigree, it hopes that the MBA, graduates and undergrads that will take part in the program will come from America’s leading universities.
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Hemishare’s RecruitLab already received over 400 applications from prospective candidates. The application process for its first round of placements is open until today, November 30, and it is free to apply.
Hemishare’s decision to start with remote work means that the upfront investment is considerably reduced, as companies can postpone dealing with Brazilian bureaucracy until they are certain the candidate is a good match. As you may know, hiring a foreign worker is not an easy task in Brazil, especially for startups.
While it is understandable for a country to protect its local workforce, it doesn’t make sense in the Brazilian IT sector. According to recent reports, Brazil will be lacking 200,000 IT professionals in 2013 – a gap that can’t be immediately filled by investing in education and training. In the meantime, the easiest solution would be to hire from abroad.
Chances are some candidates will actually have a Brazilian passport anyway, as Hemishare hopes to reach qualified Brazilians who have studied in the US and are considering moving back home to work with startups – a growing trend on which we reported last year.
While that would remove any visa obstacle, Hemishare also hopes to leverage other advantages to help startups hire foreigners:
“We’ve partnered with the BRAIN Brasil organization on their talent acquisition initiative project,” Lovallo tells us. “They are working with the government to fast track certain profiles for visas and our candidates have those profiles. [In addition,] my business partner in Brazil is a corporate lawyer from Veirano Advogados and is working in conjunction with expert visa consultants in Brazil to streamline the process.”
It will be crucial for Hemishare’s success to spark as much interest from companies as from recruits. While it may be too late for prospective employers to jump on the bandwagon today, Lovallo is encouraging startups to get involved now to start preparing future rounds.
Image credit: Pond5
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