Completely anecdotal, but about 8 years ago we had a pretty well scoped out web dev project. We didn't want to go with FTEs because the roadmap for that feature

Completely anecdotal, but about 8 years ago we had a pretty well scoped out web dev project. We didn't want to go with FTEs because the roadmap for that feature wasn't obvious after initial release (something bespoke for a large customer). Someone at the company referred his "friends and college acquaintances" who ran a small consulting firm in Mexico. The project lasted around 6 months, they delivered a little ahead of schedule and were quite nice to work with. A team of 5 devs. Looking at their LinkedIn profiles, two of them are now in the Bay Area for sure, one I'm not completely sure because I think his wife and him lived in California for a while since she did a postdoc there but I don't know if they stayed. One is in Seattle and the last is in NYC. Every time someone tells me they found "cheap, local talent" in LATAM for "much less than American developers" I always wonder how long it will be until that talent becomes itself... an American developer! Especially since, unlike a decade ago, people are now incorporating in LATAM and hiring FTEs, not contractors. This makes them eligible to get an L-1 visa to transfer to the parent company in the United-States after ~1 year at the company.