Hiring Anyone, Anywhere: Global Talent Strategy with Kaleb Jesse

Joey Brodsky
Sep 14
3 min read

The GTM Kickback! #47 – Kaleb Jesse

Released: November 21, 2021

Remote work was once a perk. Today, it’s the future of work.

On this episode of The GTM Kickback!, I sat down with Kaleb Jesse, Head of Sales at Panther, to talk about how companies can break through the barriers of global hiring. Kaleb has spent the past half-decade leading sales in the HR tech space—building and scaling teams, competing in long enterprise cycles, and managing remote workforces long before it became the norm.

Now at Panther, he’s helping organizations unlock global talent by making it simple to hire anyone, anywhere.

From HR Tech to Global Hiring

Kaleb’s background in HR technology gave him firsthand insight into the challenges of talent acquisition and retention. From employee engagement platforms to enterprise ATS and comp software, he’s seen the full spectrum of how companies attract and manage people.

But what really stood out? The limitations.

Traditional hiring kept companies boxed into their domestic markets.
Global hiring was seen as too complex, requiring costly subsidiaries and local compliance.
Contractors offered a workaround but often left workers without benefits or career growth.

The gap between what companies wanted—global reach—and what they could actually execute created the opportunity Panther set out to solve.

The Problem with Hiring Globally

Hiring beyond your home country used to be daunting. Companies had two options:

Set up local subsidiaries. Costly, slow (80K+ and months of setup), requiring legal, HR, and financial infrastructure in every country.
Hire contractors. Easier, but risky: workers lacked benefits, couldn’t manage people, and often ended up misclassified.

Neither approach gave companies what they really needed: the ability to hire and support top talent wherever they found it.

Panther’s Solution: Employer of Record

Panther acts as an employer of record (EOR) across 150+ countries. That means:

Companies can hire full-time employees anywhere without setting up local entities.
Workers get benefits, protections, and proper career paths—not just contractor status.
One flat rate per employee simplifies the cost structure.

The result: startups and scale-ups alike can expand globally without the administrative nightmare.

As Kaleb put it:

“Why wouldn’t you want your internal team to be just as global as your product?”

Beyond the Gig Economy: A Shift in Power

For years, the future of work was framed as the “gig economy.” But Kaleb argues the real shift is decentralized power to employees within companies.

Workers want:

Flexibility. The ability to work from anywhere.
Security. Benefits and long-term stability.
Purpose. To work for organizations they believe in.

Global hiring allows companies to deliver all three—while accessing talent they’d otherwise miss.

Building and Leading Distributed Teams

Kaleb has been managing remote teams since well before COVID, and he emphasizes a few key lessons:

Documentation beats micromanagement. Remote success depends on shared knowledge, not hovering managers.
Async work is the norm. Not everything requires an immediate reply—results matter more than hours.
Culture must be intentional. Tools like Panther Playground (weekly virtual team-building) create connection across time zones.

The tradeoff of slower communication is outweighed by the benefit of hiring the absolute best people, wherever they are.

Why Sales Leaders Should Embrace Global Talent

For GTM teams in particular, local talent makes a huge difference:

Sales reps embedded in local markets understand cultural nuances and build stronger relationships.
Hiring globally reduces competition with giants like Google or Meta for scarce domestic talent.
Leaders can scale regionally without overextending themselves.

Kaleb’s advice: stop seeing remote as a compromise and start seeing it as an advantage.

Key Takeaways

Global hiring isn’t outsourcing. It’s building core teams with the best talent worldwide.
Subsidiaries are outdated. An EOR model makes hiring abroad simple and scalable.
Employees want both flexibility and security. Delivering both is the new competitive edge.
Sales teams benefit from localization. Regional reps build trust faster.
Remote leadership requires trust. Micromanagement doesn’t scale; accountability does.

Final Thought

The future of work is global, distributed, and skills-based. Companies that embrace this shift will unlock talent, scale faster, and build teams that reflect the markets they serve.

As Kaleb Jesse and Panther are proving: hiring anyone, anywhere isn’t just possible—it’s becoming the new standard.