Before it was ranked the fastest-growing company in the Philippines by Statista and the Philippine Daily Inquirer in 2024, Penbrothers was a small offshore staffing startup born out of necessity. Through cultivating homegrown talent, prioritizing employee onboarding and retention, and focusing on long-term team building, the company has grown into an international hiring hub for regions such as North America, Asia, Europe, and Australia. By turning remote-first staffing into a strategic tool, rather than just a cost-cutting measure, Penbrothers has carved out its own niche in the BPO industry.
A Founding Rooted in the Brain Drain Problem
Penbrothers was founded after Guilherme “Gui” Faria, one of Penbrothers’ co-founders, needed talent quickly to help scale his startup. This reminded Nicolas Bivero, another co-founder of Penbrothers, of the spirit, work ethic, and proactive attitude of Filipino talent that he had observed during his time working in logistics in Southeast Asia for almost two decades. Thinking of his own experiences and the shared data centers that Fortune 100 companies like JP Morgan and Google had built in Manila, Bivero asked himself this question: “Why couldn’t we provide that same high-level talent to startups and SMEs who don’t have the scale to build their own 200-person offices?”
Bivero and Faria saw this as an opportunity to address the “brain drain” they had witnessed in the Philippines. In 2014, the year that Penbrothers was founded, the Philippine Statistics Authority estimated that there were 2.3 million Filipinos working overseas between the months of April and September. Because many talented professionals were leaving their countries to look for career advancement opportunities abroad, adopting an offshore/remote staffing model would allow Bivero and Faria to create value within the local community, rather than forcing locals to migrate elsewhere.
Based on this idea, the company Penbrothers was founded in 2014. As a company that specializes in offshore/remote staffing, Penbrothers aimed to bring more high-quality career opportunities to the Philippines, so that more Filipino professionals could gain international experience, competitive compensation, and long-term career growth without having to go abroad for employment. According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, an estimated 2.19 million Filipino workers were working abroad as of 2024. By bringing more jobs to the Philippines, Penbrothers is allowing more Filipinos to stay home while still building great careers at overseas companies.
Growth Through a Pandemic Pivot
Penbrothers’ first project was hiring for Faria’s startup, which yielded three initial hires from the Philippines who were still working for Faria over 10 years later. The company eventually grew from three initial hires to over 1,300 employees across the Philippines who have found jobs through the company. In 2024, the company was ranked the Philippines’ Fastest-Growing Company on the Philippines’ Growth Champions list from Statista and the Philippines Daily Inquirer.
The company was able to achieve this success despite significant challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Before the pandemic, 50% to 60% of Penbrothers’ revenue came from selling co-working space, as many of its clients preferred offshore teams in physical offices. The pandemic forced the company to pivot into remote staffing, and today, remote staffing accounts for more than 95% of Penbrothers’ revenue.
Penbrothers was able to adapt and grow strategically as a bootstrapped company by minimizing risk and building for quality, rather than scale. Bivero helped minimize the company’s monetary risk by keeping his full-time corporate job for another eight years after co-founding Penbrothers, while the company invested in initiatives such as its Hypercare onboarding system to increase service quality. Because many offshore business relationships fail within the first six months, Hypercare was developed to ensure no one is left behind during the hiring and onboarding process. By utilizing a structured feedback system that allows early detection of a hire’s misalignment with a company’s culture and performance expectations, Hypercare identifies ways that alignment can be improved and assesses whether a hire is a good fit.
A Consultative Partner, Not a Staffing Vendor
Penbrothers positions itself as a consultative HR partner, rather than a traditional staffing vendor. This means that instead of acting as a transactional hiring company, it provides a consultative process for hiring, advising employers on how to structure teams, compensation, and HR support. Rather than a traditional EOR (Employer of Record), Penbrothers classifies itself as a PEO (Professional Employer Organization), collaborating with companies to manage and support the remote teams staffed by its talent.
“We wanted to ensure we were a decent, ethical employer that properly paid taxes, social security, and health insurance, rather than just treating people like cheap warm bodies,” Bivero said. “Additionally, we practice total pricing transparency, clearly breaking down the employee’s salary from our management fee so clients know exactly where their money goes, and employees are guaranteed fair wages.”
Penbrothers’ growth from a bootstrapped startup to an offshore staffing company with international reach reflects the increasing importance of remote talent and international hiring in today’s business world. By bringing more jobs to Filipino talent in industries such as retail, e-commerce, travel and hospitality, IT, and fintech, Penbrothers is just one of the companies helping the Philippines cement its place as a global epicenter for remote staffing. The combination of its offshore/remote staffing model, its Hypercare feedback system, and its role as a PEO has helped propel Penbrothers into the ranks of the Philippines’ fastest-growing businesses.
Photo By Yan Krukau: Pexels
