How Lupa and Pinch Helped One Company Hire a Non-Bilingual Engineering Team Without Compromising Quality

At Pinch, we're building technology that helps teams collaborate without language barriers. Our live translation platform allows teams to meet, interview, and work together in real time—regardless of what language each participant speaks.

This is the story of how one of our partners, Lupa Hire, used Pinch to help a client solve a tricky hiring challenge: scaling a development team fast, with limited budget, and without access to fluent English speakers.

The Challenge: Scaling Fast With a Limited Budget

Lupa helps U.S. companies hire top-tier, bilingual tech talent from Latin America. Their standard approach is strict: source only candidates who speak fluent English and can perform well in English-language interviews. This ensures seamless integration into global teams and reduces communication risk.

But one of their clients (who we'll keep anonymous) came to them with an urgent need. They needed to scale their engineering team rapidly, hiring more than 10 developers in just a few weeks. The catch? They had a tight budget and a specific tech stack.

As always, Lupa advised them to prioritize senior developers with C1/C2-level English proficiency. However, the budget wouldn't stretch that far. Senior bilingual candidates were available, but the cost would limit the number of hires they could make.

So, Lupa searched deeply across the Latin American market.

What They Found

They identified a strong pool of mid-to-senior developers who:

• Matched the technical requirements exactly
• Had solid experience in remote work
• Scored well on all technical assessments

There was one issue: most of them didn't speak English at an advanced level. These were highly capable engineers who could contribute meaningfully—but they weren't interview-ready in English.

Under normal circumstances, these candidates wouldn't pass Lupa's English screening. But given the client's budget constraints and team structure, they explored an alternative.

The Solution: Using Pinch for Real-Time Translation

This is where Pinch came in.

Pinch is a live translation tool for video calls. It allows both sides of a conversation to speak in their native language and receive live, accurate translations.

Lupa recommended that the client test Pinch in their interview process. Instead of forcing candidates to speak in broken English, they could communicate confidently in Spanish while Pinch handled the real-time interpretation.

The Outcome

The result? A fully staffed engineering team.

• Over 10 engineers were hired using this process
• All interviews were conducted through Pinch
• Developers now report to an English-speaking tech lead

Thanks to Pinch, language was no longer a blocker. The client was able to access highly skilled developers who would have otherwise been excluded from consideration.

Why This Worked

This was a very specific case. A few key factors made it possible:

• The developers were technically strong and ready to work immediately
• The team structure allowed for English communication at the leadership level only
• The client was open to using tools like Pinch to bridge the gap
• Lupa guided the process with transparency and high standards

It's important to note that this was a strategic exception for Lupa. They typically recommend hiring bilingual developers—especially for startups or companies that need deep collaboration across time zones and roles.

But in this case, flexibility paid off.

The Lupa Standard

Even in this edge case, Lupa's quality bar never dropped. Every developer:

• Passed technical evaluations
• Had remote team experience
• Was selected based on cultural and team fit

Lupa doesn't just send resumes. They build reliable, high-performing teams—with or without perfect English.

Final Thoughts: Tools Make New Models Possible

Remote hiring is evolving fast. With tools like Pinch, companies can rethink how they evaluate and onboard international talent.

We were proud to support Lupa and their client in this case—removing language as a barrier and proving that top-tier collaboration is possible across borders and languages.