Meeting Title: Brainforge x Amplify Hiring Discussion Date: 2026-04-08 Meeting participants: Vítor from @Amplify, Kaela Gallagher
WEBVTT
1 00:01:43.220 ⇒ 00:01:44.890 Kaela Gallagher: Hi, how’s it going?
2 00:01:47.820 ⇒ 00:01:49.379 Kaela Gallagher: Can you hear me okay?
3 00:01:52.510 ⇒ 00:01:53.500 Vítor from @Amplify: Hey, Caleb!
4 00:01:53.890 ⇒ 00:01:55.509 Kaela Gallagher: Hi, can you hear me okay?
5 00:01:55.990 ⇒ 00:01:57.549 Vítor from @Amplify: Yeah, I hear you now.
6 00:01:57.900 ⇒ 00:02:01.689 Kaela Gallagher: Okay, perfect! Thanks for taking some time for me, I appreciate it.
7 00:02:02.190 ⇒ 00:02:07.480 Vítor from @Amplify: I appreciate it too, thank you so much. I know it must have been busy with all the open roles you’re hiring for.
8 00:02:07.480 ⇒ 00:02:21.220 Kaela Gallagher: Yes, it’s been a busy time for sure. Yeah, I had… I had reached out to you because I think you had, maybe connected with Utam after he made a post about our… our hiring needs.
9 00:02:21.300 ⇒ 00:02:29.059 Kaela Gallagher: So, yeah, just curious to know, like, a little bit more about you and, what’s, like, putting you on the market.
10 00:02:30.230 ⇒ 00:02:31.040 Vítor from @Amplify: Awesome.
11 00:02:31.160 ⇒ 00:02:34.919 Vítor from @Amplify: So nice to meet you. Where are you speaking from in the U.S?
12 00:02:35.510 ⇒ 00:02:36.909 Kaela Gallagher: I’m based in LA.
13 00:02:37.770 ⇒ 00:02:38.530 Vítor from @Amplify: Awesome.
14 00:02:38.760 ⇒ 00:02:44.179 Vítor from @Amplify: So, nice to meet you. I’m Victor, I’m the founder of Amplify. We’re an IT outsourcing company.
15 00:02:44.190 ⇒ 00:02:56.429 Vítor from @Amplify: I messaged you on LinkedIn about it. I know you’re probably looking to hire candidates and interview candidates directly. Although I’m an engineer myself as well, I’m a founder.
16 00:02:56.430 ⇒ 00:03:09.410 Vítor from @Amplify: And at Amplify, we supply the best AI talent of AI engineers, data engineers, and full-stack engineers from Latin America to, yes, U.S. companies at U.S. time zone.
17 00:03:09.470 ⇒ 00:03:19.009 Vítor from @Amplify: We currently work with startups and enterprise companies, also in the US and Canada, Europe, and also in EMEA, like Israel, for instance.
18 00:03:19.180 ⇒ 00:03:20.280 Vítor from @Amplify: And,
19 00:03:20.430 ⇒ 00:03:39.180 Vítor from @Amplify: I know that two guys are hiring remotely, so I reached out to you, Tom, and I commented on his post, and I don’t know if it was an automation or not, and he reached out to me, and I just wondered if we could possibly connect and meet each other to see if there’s… it’s potentially relevant or not.
20 00:03:39.350 ⇒ 00:03:47.449 Vítor from @Amplify: I know you also must be hiring directly for, like, direct hires, but I strongly believe we have
21 00:03:47.860 ⇒ 00:03:52.069 Vítor from @Amplify: Very good, highly curated, pre-vetted talent.
22 00:03:52.350 ⇒ 00:03:56.509 Vítor from @Amplify: We would love to potentially collaborate with you, if that’s an option.
23 00:03:57.260 ⇒ 00:04:06.060 Kaela Gallagher: Okay, okay, got it. Yeah, right now, I am looking to hire people directly,
24 00:04:06.060 ⇒ 00:04:17.299 Kaela Gallagher: So, I noticed your engineering background and, noticed you had a role that ended recently, so was curious to see if you might be on the market, like, yourself?
25 00:04:17.420 ⇒ 00:04:23.030 Kaela Gallagher: But yeah, other than that, like, we’re… we’re looking to go direct.
26 00:04:23.680 ⇒ 00:04:34.240 Vítor from @Amplify: I understand. Is there any specific reason for the direct hires, and what’s your take on outsourcing? Why do you prefer to do direct hires?
27 00:04:34.240 ⇒ 00:04:39.989 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah, I actually used to work for a staffing company, so I’m familiar with.
28 00:04:39.990 ⇒ 00:04:41.790 Vítor from @Amplify: So you know.
29 00:04:41.790 ⇒ 00:04:43.740 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah,
30 00:04:44.050 ⇒ 00:04:55.519 Kaela Gallagher: But right now, like, I am doing a lot of, like, sourcing myself, and, I think primarily for, like, cost reasons, we’re just looking to go direct.
31 00:04:56.070 ⇒ 00:05:04.929 Vítor from @Amplify: No worries at all. Would you mind if I ask you a couple of questions, and since we’re already here, just so we can enjoy this time together, so we can connect?
32 00:05:05.550 ⇒ 00:05:07.060 Kaela Gallagher: Sure, yeah.
33 00:05:07.590 ⇒ 00:05:13.110 Vítor from @Amplify: Cool. So, is there any specific region that you’re sourcing from in the world?
34 00:05:13.490 ⇒ 00:05:15.789 Kaela Gallagher: No, we hire all over.
35 00:05:16.480 ⇒ 00:05:20.439 Vítor from @Amplify: Well, do you already hire or source the candidates for Latin America?
36 00:05:21.350 ⇒ 00:05:32.700 Kaela Gallagher: Yes. I’m not sure if we have any current team members sitting within Latin America, but I have hired from, like, Brazil before, for example.
37 00:05:33.380 ⇒ 00:05:44.289 Vítor from @Amplify: Cool, alright. Cool that you know, so I think you know how things roll for a staffing model. Awesome. How many are you, like, a total headcount for the company right now?
38 00:05:44.310 ⇒ 00:05:46.559 Kaela Gallagher: We’re sitting at about 25.
39 00:05:47.280 ⇒ 00:05:48.970 Vítor from @Amplify: Okay, did you guys raise?
40 00:05:49.180 ⇒ 00:05:52.640 Vítor from @Amplify: money? Like, is that why you’re hiring and growing fast?
41 00:05:53.550 ⇒ 00:06:05.459 Kaela Gallagher: No, we’ve been profitable since day one, because we do consulting, so, we just have more clients coming in, so we need to hire more.
42 00:06:06.270 ⇒ 00:06:08.740 Vítor from @Amplify: Cool. So you’re growing bootstrap. Awesome.
43 00:06:09.010 ⇒ 00:06:18.659 Vítor from @Amplify: And… What else? Do you already have, an ATS, or a…
44 00:06:19.290 ⇒ 00:06:21.309 Vítor from @Amplify: An application tracking system to be managing?
45 00:06:21.310 ⇒ 00:06:24.740 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah, yeah, we’ve kind of built one out, yeah.
46 00:06:25.730 ⇒ 00:06:27.820 Vítor from @Amplify: You do your own internal tool?
47 00:06:27.820 ⇒ 00:06:28.670 Kaela Gallagher: Yes.
48 00:06:29.470 ⇒ 00:06:31.059 Vítor from @Amplify: Cool, cool, cool, cool.
49 00:06:31.290 ⇒ 00:06:35.869 Vítor from @Amplify: Awesome. Look, I… I understand.
50 00:06:36.020 ⇒ 00:06:41.499 Vítor from @Amplify: I’d like to put two things on one hand, on the other hand, on the table.
51 00:06:41.800 ⇒ 00:06:51.500 Vítor from @Amplify: Hiring in Brazil, it’s one of the most difficult and hard places to hire, because there’s huge labor and legal risk for hiring here.
52 00:06:51.630 ⇒ 00:06:58.360 Vítor from @Amplify: And as you know, as a staffing company, there’s advantages to that, and we put all engineers on our payroll.
53 00:06:58.690 ⇒ 00:07:10.210 Vítor from @Amplify: On the other hand, we could flex to kind of, like, start a relationship and work on the placement success fee model. Would that be something that makes sense?
54 00:07:10.480 ⇒ 00:07:11.540 Vítor from @Amplify: Did you collaborate?
55 00:07:12.060 ⇒ 00:07:34.720 Kaela Gallagher: Right now, I don’t think so. We do a lot of, kind of 1099 basis that helps us, kind of get around some employment laws, but maybe we can connect in 6 months, like, at that point, I will have transitioned some of the company over to W2, and maybe we might need more recruiting resources at that time.
56 00:07:35.660 ⇒ 00:07:40.669 Vítor from @Amplify: Cool. Awesome. Do you guys use Slack at Brainforge?
57 00:07:40.880 ⇒ 00:07:41.650 Kaela Gallagher: Yes.
58 00:07:42.360 ⇒ 00:07:42.940 Vítor from @Amplify: Cool
59 00:07:43.100 ⇒ 00:08:00.590 Vítor from @Amplify: Amplify is not only a staffing company, we’re also a tech company. We do consulting, we do a couple of projects, and we have our own products. Like, we have our own AI-native ATS, which are, like, kindly calling it a talent OS.
60 00:08:00.680 ⇒ 00:08:12.839 Vítor from @Amplify: And we also have a new hiring agent that we are running on OpenClaw. So, there’s a lot of interesting things, and… that are developing recently at Amplify.
61 00:08:13.140 ⇒ 00:08:27.890 Vítor from @Amplify: Would you be up to creating a Slack channel so we can try our hiring agent on Slack? Completely free, just, maybe, you can play with it a little bit, no commitments at all, and you can possibly share some feedback on it?
62 00:08:30.030 ⇒ 00:08:38.820 Kaela Gallagher: I don’t know that that’s something I’m looking into right now, but like I said, like, happy to connect again, maybe in 6 months when we’re in a different spot.
63 00:08:39.539 ⇒ 00:08:43.469 Vítor from @Amplify: Perfect, Kayla. Thank you so much. I was…
64 00:08:43.589 ⇒ 00:08:48.299 Vítor from @Amplify: Happy to meet you, and, wish you at the Brain Forge the best of luck.
65 00:08:48.439 ⇒ 00:09:05.339 Vítor from @Amplify: Thank you. You seem very experienced. Do you work at Target? I checked your LinkedIn, and I know you’re already handling yourself very well with the tools and resources that you have. I’d love to catch up in a while, so we can…
66 00:09:05.439 ⇒ 00:09:12.809 Vítor from @Amplify: Try to see if it’s, we could give it a try, and do some sort of pilot for a collaboration in the future.
67 00:09:12.929 ⇒ 00:09:19.199 Vítor from @Amplify: I saw, Brainforge, I saw UTAM profile, and saw the video on their website.
68 00:09:19.339 ⇒ 00:09:21.599 Vítor from @Amplify: And seems very interesting, like.
69 00:09:21.839 ⇒ 00:09:28.709 Vítor from @Amplify: Correct me if I’m wrong, but you build custom AI agents for companies, for tech companies, right?
70 00:09:29.030 ⇒ 00:09:30.100 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah, yeah.
71 00:09:31.700 ⇒ 00:09:32.340 Vítor from @Amplify: Cool.
72 00:09:33.290 ⇒ 00:09:39.840 Vítor from @Amplify: What is, like, the biggest pain point that you’re having right now?
73 00:09:44.910 ⇒ 00:09:46.000 Kaela Gallagher: in hiring?
74 00:09:47.520 ⇒ 00:09:48.130 Vítor from @Amplify: Yeah.
75 00:09:49.250 ⇒ 00:09:55.310 Kaela Gallagher: Mmm… I think we’re just trying to be really… Picky.
76 00:09:55.520 ⇒ 00:09:57.010 Kaela Gallagher: So…
77 00:09:58.780 ⇒ 00:10:06.570 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah, we’re just, like, we’re trying to take our time and, like, make sure that we’re bringing on the right people, so…
78 00:10:06.970 ⇒ 00:10:13.189 Kaela Gallagher: I don’t know, I think the process has been going well currently, like, we’re in a good position.
79 00:10:14.180 ⇒ 00:10:21.109 Vítor from @Amplify: Cool. I know you’re receiving tons of applies, and if you want to reconnect in 6 months, that’s fine.
80 00:10:21.210 ⇒ 00:10:22.080 Vítor from @Amplify: But…
81 00:10:22.220 ⇒ 00:10:32.720 Vítor from @Amplify: If you’re open to reconsider, and you can answer that after the call so you don’t feel uncomfortable, it will only take a couple of minutes from your time
82 00:10:32.840 ⇒ 00:10:44.910 Vítor from @Amplify: to test our hiring agent on Slack, and you can immediately straightforward decide if that’s relevant or not. I… we are a premium service, and we work at a lot of enterprise companies in the US as well.
83 00:10:44.950 ⇒ 00:11:00.639 Vítor from @Amplify: And we only deliver highly curated pre-vetted candidates. So we hand over to our customers usually 3 to 5 profiles tops, and that’s it. We don’t want to overwhelm you. I know you’re already receiving tons of high-quality applies and candidates.
84 00:11:00.640 ⇒ 00:11:10.719 Vítor from @Amplify: because Ring Forge, it’s a cool company, so its ability to source high-quality profiles and interested people at the product, and the company is high.
85 00:11:10.750 ⇒ 00:11:14.640 Vítor from @Amplify: But we are very picky as well.
86 00:11:16.240 ⇒ 00:11:23.939 Vítor from @Amplify: If you’re willing to reconsider, I could try to make my best effort to bring you 3 candidates, no commitment.
87 00:11:24.210 ⇒ 00:11:26.330 Vítor from @Amplify: And they will speak for themselves.
88 00:11:27.160 ⇒ 00:11:38.000 Kaela Gallagher: Yeah, I, yeah, I don’t want to move forward with that at this time, but, if you’d be willing to shoot me an email, I’d love to stay in touch there.
89 00:11:38.660 ⇒ 00:11:43.060 Vítor from @Amplify: Awesome. I’ll formalize you an email. Sorry for being pushy.
90 00:11:43.200 ⇒ 00:11:45.999 Vítor from @Amplify: Thank you for your patience.
91 00:11:46.140 ⇒ 00:11:52.130 Vítor from @Amplify: And… and I’ll send you an email with everything, and we can possibly reconnect when that’s relevant.
92 00:11:52.470 ⇒ 00:11:56.839 Kaela Gallagher: Okay, that sounds great. Thanks so much for your time, it was great getting to meet you.
93 00:11:57.200 ⇒ 00:11:58.750 Vítor from @Amplify: Thank you, Kayla. Bye-bye.
94 00:11:58.750 ⇒ 00:12:00.630 Kaela Gallagher: Alrighty, thank you, bye.