By Riley Kaminer
Talent is increasingly global. And The Bridge, a leading tech-powered talent acquisition platform, is expanding to the US, with Miami as its launchpad, in an attempt to help companies find the best talent to fit their needs.
When British-Brazilian Bernardo Carvalho Wertheim returned to Rio de Janeiro after a stint working and studying in the UK, he had one mission in mind. “I wanted to modernize the talent ecosystem,” The Bridge’s CEO told Refresh Miami. Eschewing the suit and tie culture of the Brazilian recruiting scene, in 2016 he began to build a startup-focused agency to connect top companies and the best digital talent on the market.
Early on, leveraging tech innovations played a key role in The Bridge’s unique offering. For instance, the company leverages artificial intelligence tools to search for and sort candidates. It also has technology to extract key information from resumes.
Fast forward to today, and The Bridge offers a wide range of services. Its ‘talent-as-a-service’ offering finds, hires, and manages employees – charging employers a flat monthly fee. It also helps companies to screen potential employees, map talent across a particular region, relocate talent, and even find executives to fill C-level roles. The Bridge’s clients run the gamut from tech startups to consultancy firms to insurance companies and more.
For talent, the Bridge also offers courses such as AWS management and Python, to help people develop the skills necessary to stand out in a competitive employment landscape.
The Bridge has five offices around the world: Chile, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia – and now Miami. Carvalho Wertheim [pictured above] explained that he was drawn to Miami by our rapidly expanding tech environment and evolving talent landscape.
“We have seen some amazing initiatives in Miami, for example with Miami Dade College and how they’re creating programs and events for talent,” he said. “We have a lot of entrepreneurs from Latin America that moved to Miami and are living in Miami and are just killing it there.”
Mario Gonzalez is The Bridge’s man on the ground, leading expansion efforts throughout the state of Florida and beyond. “One of the main concerns that I have heard in Miami is, ‘Wait, are you saying that you’re going to take out the jobs that we’re trying to promote locally in Florida – and give the jobs away to talent in Latin America?’”
“What we’re trying to do is fill a gap because right now what we’re seeing is the talent that is available is either very expensive or doesn’t want to move,” Gonzalez continued. “And universities are simply not graduating enough software developers or computer science graduates at the pace that the market needs.”
This need is particularly acute for South Florida startups, who cannot afford to wait for the talent market to match their growth. Carvalho Wertheim noted that the projected growth for technical talent in the US is 22% annually over the next two to three years. Currently, it is a $60 billion industry, but Carvalho Wertheim signaled that he would not be surprised to see it become as much as a $100 billion market within the next five years. “It’s absolutely crazy,” he said of the growth.
Just as The Bridge is going long on the international talent market, it is also bullish on the long-term prospects of #MiamiTech. “We’re very excited that it’s only just starting in Miami,” said Gonzalez. “The idea of contributing to that community on the tech side, from the Latin American side as well, is also very exciting for us.”
READ MORE ON REFRESH MIAMI:
- Revelo opens access to Latin America’s tech talent market, unlocking US innovation
- Groovoo is grooving along to the tune of Miami tech success
- At TechBeach, building bridges between Latin America, the Caribbean and Miami
