Hacking Borders officially starts here
For the first episode, I wanted to begin with a question that sits underneath almost every global hiring conversation: once a company can hire across borders, what does it take to make that model actually work?
I speak with Tracy St. Dic, Global Head of Talent at Zapier, about what Zapier learned while building and refining its distributed hiring model—and why market focus, hiring consistency, cross-functional ownership, and operational readiness matter as companies expand across borders.
In this episode
Why hiring anywhere is not the same as having a global hiring strategy.
How Zapier moved from maximum geographic flexibility toward greater market focus.
Why calibration and interview consistency become critical as hiring scales.
How AI-enabled screening can improve candidate access and experience.
What time zones, market intelligence, legal readiness, and employment infrastructure change about global hiring.
Why expanding internationally becomes an operating-model decision—not simply a recruiting one.
Episode chapters
0:00 — Welcome & Tracy’s background
3:53 — Building the talent operating model at Zapier
6:58 — Why hiring everywhere creates a focus problem
11:39 — From hiring anywhere to intentional market focus
13:46 — Calibration and consistency at scale
14:26 — AI screening, accessibility, and candidate experience
20:31 — Do you need recruiters on the ground?
24:46 — What leaders underestimate about global hiring
28:27 — Global hiring is an operating-model problem
29:46 — What to do before expanding internationally
33:54 — Talent is everywhere. Opportunity isn’t equally distributed.
35:05 — Where to follow Tracy + closing
About Hacking Borders
Hacking Borders is a podcast for Talent, People, and Engineering leaders building teams across borders. Hosted by Tony Le, a talent acquisition expert with more than 20 years of experience in software companies, the show explores the decisions, systems, and tradeoffs behind scaling global teams.
Hacking Borders is made possible by CodersLink, helping companies build and scale engineering teams across Latin America.
