Free Playbook · The Advantage № 005

The Cabrini Playbook

Hiring abroad is not a discount. It is talent you could not otherwise afford.

Leandro Cabrini had never run a recruitment agency when he started one. Three months in, the side project was out-earning the marketing agency he actually ran. This playbook is the method underneath it, set against what Mike learned placing more than 700 international hires at Freshly — six moves, verbatim quotes from the episode, and the number almost nobody measures.

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Cover of The Cabrini Playbook

What’s Inside

The six moves — plus the cost that never shows up on an invoice.

  • №01

    Hold the budget, change the market — the same $175K bought a $400K engineer.

  • №02

    The saving buys months, not margin — hire before your revenue strictly allows.

  • №03

    Write the task list before the job post — or you are buying a lottery ticket.

  • №04

    Never run a stage you cannot name — every interview has a stated purpose, and a test project.

  • №05

    Everyone can hire, almost nobody onboards — the window that actually decides retention.

  • №06

    Buy the time zone before you buy the process — what to do when you have no SOPs yet.

  • №07

    The real cost of hiring is not having to hire — the number operators measure worst.

About the Author

Mike Wystrach

Mike built and sold Freshly, a direct-to-consumer food brand, to Nestlé for over $1.5 billion. He is the co-founder of Petfolk and managing partner at Cutting Horse Ventures, where he invests in early-stage consumer brands. He writes weekly in The Advantage on what it actually takes to build — beyond the highlight reel.

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