Daniel Barreto, may be a lesser known actor in the Lima startup community, but his impact is huge.
Daniel is CEO and co-founder of Haystack News, a U.S.-based startup that offers a better way to consume digital news content. Daniel is also a mentor at StartX, a top accelerator program in the U.S. where Haytack News is a portfolio company. Haystack is described in the App Store as “your go-to for hyper-relevant news, from local coverage to global current events. It’s the best way to watch a variety of coverage, all in one place, and absolutely free.”
Daniel is Peruvian and is building a technology team in Lima with locally-sourced talent. In this way, Haystack News is following the steps of AmigoCloud and BlazingDB to validate the quality of Peru’s tech talent pool and form the future leaders of the tech scene.
“We started building a team in Lima 18 months ago and the strategy has proven successful beyond our expectations. Our engineers in Lima are all Silicon Valley caliber and we have been able to increase our productivity and speed significantly. Now with the COVID pandemic everyone is working from home so geography is not a factor anymore, specially since we share similar time zones between the US and South America.”
Daniel Barreto, CEO and co-founder of Haystack News
Daniel’s talent sourcing incorporates best practices including a wide reach and unbiased selection methods. This has resulted in hiring talent from top public and private universities, including National University of Engineering – UNI, Universidad Católica San Pablo and Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. Haystack posts jobs on Get on Board and is currently looking for a Senior Data Scientist and AI Lead to be based in Lima.
Importantly, these engineers are getting training in a startup culture that is very different from working at a corporate in Peru. Having startups like Haystack News in Peru helps to make sure that software engineers are paid well even while learning what it is like to work at a startup. Engineers are exposed to global best practices in programming, a close-knit startup culture and, in some cases, stock-based compensation.
Haystack is also an exciting place to work compared to traditional technology jobs in Peru. The startup has seen growth numbers that are unimaginable to most companies in Peru. This year alone, more that one million new users have begun watching news via Haystack, which streams one billion minutes of content each year.
Daniel brings best practices in tech hiring and training to Peru, ensuring he has a top team that will support Haystack’s development. One day, armed with the skills gleaned at Haystack, these engineers will go on to be startup CTOs, CEOs and co-founders in their own rights.