Digital Social Hour
Why Top Tech Talent is Fleeing the US: CEO Reveals Truth | Anthony Constantino DSH #1086
Fri, 10 Jan 2025
🚀 Discover why top tech talent is leaving the US! 🇺🇸 Anthony, CEO of Sticker Mule, spills the beans on the Digital Social Hour with Sean Kelly. 🎙️ Get ready for an eye-opening conversation about: • The exodus of rational programmers from America 💻 • How woke culture is impacting the tech industry 🌎 • Why Europe and South America are becoming tech hotspots 🌍 • The secrets to hiring and retaining top talent in any situation 🔑 Anthony shares his journey from a small-town entrepreneur to running a global company with 1200+ employees across 39 countries. Learn how he's pioneering remote work and why he believes having a "cool company" trumps all in the hiring game. Don't miss out on this candid discussion about tech, talent, and the changing landscape of the industry. Tune in now for insights that could reshape your perspective on the global tech workforce! Watch, like, and subscribe for more insider stories on the Digital Social Hour. Join the conversation and stay ahead of the curve in the ever-evolving world of tech and business! 🚀📺 #globalengagement #workfromhomejobs #techtalentmigration #managingremoteteamsbestpractices #challengesofworkingremotely #techtalentmigration #ceoinsights #leadershipremotework #remoteworkbestpractices #remoteworkchallenges CHAPTERS: 00:00 - Intro 00:25 - Anthony’s Crazy Week 02:07 - Hiring and Paying Well 04:25 - Running for Congress Campaign 07:44 - The Significance of Political Signs 10:24 - New York's Political Landscape 12:16 - New York Needs to Go Red 15:32 - How to Support Anthony's Campaign 16:09 - Anthony’s Campaign Fund 16:50 - Outro APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://www.digitalsocialhour.com/application BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [email protected] GUEST: Anthony Constantino https://x.com/ac132 https://www.instagram.com/ac132 SPONSORS: Prolon: http://prolonlife.com/DSH LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/
Chapter 1: Why are programmers leaving the US?
It must be hard to hire in America right now, right?
I'd say if you have a good company, people want to work for you. If you have a cool company, if you have a great company, it's easy to hire no matter what situation you're in.
Chapter 2: What makes hiring easier in the tech industry?
That's a good point. Okay, so we've got Anthony here, CEO of Sticker Mule. Thanks for coming on today, man. Happy to be here. Yeah, it's been a really cool event. I met some great people. Yeah, great time.
I'm happy. I showed up last minute, too. I was in New York City at the Academy of American Civil Rights League. I got the Vince Lombardi Award. Then I flew to Mar-a-Lago. I was there for a week with my girlfriend, and then we flew here with Roger Sons. It's been a whirlwind week. I had Roger on yesterday. That was a good one. Yeah, Roger's the best. Man, he's been canceled to the max.
Yeah, I know. Actually, yeah, I'm a big fan of his. I like to bring up, he was one of the first people kicked off of Twitter. So, you know, I always remembered that. And that was one of the first signs to me how troubling of a person Jack Dorsey was that he kicked Roger Stone off Twitter. I said, whether you agree with Roger or not, he's a historical American figure.
And we want to hear from important voices in America. It doesn't matter what their perspective is. So when Jack Dorsey kicked him off, that was one of the first things, first signs I saw that he had a... Some sort of problem going on. Absolutely. His perspective on life. How was Mar-a-Lago? I've never been. Beautiful. So I believe it or not, it's really, people find it funny.
I've had a membership since the 2020 election. Almost as soon as Trump vacated the White House, I immediately wanted to find a way to show support. So I went and I bought a membership then, but I never used it. I'm not, I don't like socializing just to socialize. So I didn't use that. I didn't use it for four, until for four years. I didn't use it until very recently.
When Elise Stefanik got appointed to the U.N. ambassador role, I happened to be in Fort Lauderdale to get dinner with Roger Stone. He wanted to thank me for all my activity on behalf of President Trump during the election. And people were saying to me, you should consider running for Congress. Roger thought it was a great idea. Next thing I know, he said, well, we should get dinner in Mar-a-Lago.
I said, Roger, that'd be great. I have a membership I've never used.
I love it, man. CEO of Sticker Mule. Giant company now, right? 1,200 employees.
1,200 people. We're in 39 countries. Wow. Very funny. Sticker empire. Yeah. So we were one of the pioneers of remote work. I built the company. I'm from a small town. And we're from a small town in upstate New York called Amsterdam, New York. And we had to build it remotely. So we were one of the pioneers of remote work. We wanted to get the best people there were to build the company.
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Chapter 3: How did Anthony Constantino build Sticker Mule?
And we had to go hire people from all over the place. So we started hiring people over the United States of America and all over the world, really, to get talent. Believe it or not, well, you probably know there's a lot of... woke people and techs filled with woke people, especially in the United States of America.
So many of the best programmers that are a little more rational are actually in other countries. They're not poisoned with the woke mind viruses as severely as the American developers. India, right? We don't have anyone there. Oh, really? No, we like South America. We like Europe. Okay. Yeah, a lot of great talent in Europe and in South America.
We actually have a hardware engineering facility in Italy, 20 hardware engineers. Nice. Yeah, we have a lot of talent in Europe, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, and South America. It must be hard to hire in America right now, right? Um... I say, if you have a good company, people want to work for you. So if people want to work for you, if you have a good company.
In fact, I stood up and I endorsed President Trump immediately after the assassination attempt. And it went viral and people thought it was going to hurt the company. It wasn't a great marketing strategy, but it was a great strategy for getting talent. So if you have a cool company, if you have a great company, it's easy to hire no matter what situation.
That's a good point. If you're like a Charlie Kirk or someone with a good leadership style, they'll come to you.
Yeah, exactly. If people want to work at Sticker Mule... Yeah. We pay well too. You know, the trick is I tell people with hiring, people want two things. They want, um, they want better income and they want more fun. They want a better life. Yeah. And so some companies, they say, well, we pay you really well, but we make you miserable. Right.
And other companies say we're a lot of fun, but we don't pay that well. And I say, we, we try to do both. So we pay really well. We pay in, in, in, um, in engineering, we pay the same rates as Tesla, you know, around like the gold standard for good pay. Right. We pay very well. And, uh, and then we try to let people have a lot of fun. Yeah, well, happy your employees will probably work harder.
Yes. Yep, yeah, exactly. Happy people, you know, you want people doing things out of the goodness of their heart, not because of, I don't know, not because they feel like they have to. When people enjoy working, they do a lot better.
Absolutely. So you're running for a position right now?
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Chapter 4: What political challenges did Anthony face?
Chapter 5: How does corporate culture affect employee happiness?
We only had 300 or 400 employees back then. I don't remember. And I sort of just took it on the chin back then. I couldn't really do anything. I just took it on the chin, you know, remained a quiet Trump supporter, respectful, quiet Trump's board did what I could to, uh, help on the sidelines. Um,
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I want to build myself, my company to a point where if I do want to speak up, I don't have to fear the mob, fear the cancellation mob. And so over the last eight years, I built a company from three or 400 people to 1200 people. We're doing really well. And so when a bullet hit president Trump, I just immediately fired off an endorsement. I put it on X, it went viral, got 12 million views.
And then I emailed it to our 5 million customers that blew up. We got a massive
social media firestorm nice media firestorm you know media firestorm but a lot of positive coverage believe it or not but uh we got a lot of good coverage then when a lot of hate on social media but a lot of good coverage in our traditional media um when the backlash died down with regards to that everybody said look you know you made your statement you made you proved your point you should get back to work get back your ceo get back to building your company and i said look at
Based on the online backlash, if I go back to work, the perception will be that the activists once again silenced the Trump supporters. I said, I have to continue showing I support him. I can't just let the statement stand on its own. So I just kept doing more things I could do to show I support him. I ended up printing stickers. I made stickers that said Trump for peace.
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