About SMASH

We build nearshore embedded teams for US companies. From Costa Rica, Colombia, Pakistan, and the United States.

We exist because the companies we work with don’t want a vendor. They want a better team. SMASH builds dedicated embedded teams in engineering, customer experience, and business support for growing US companies, sourced from Costa Rica, Colombia, and Pakistan. Not outsourcing. An extension of yours.

SMASH at a glance

Founded: 2017
Delivery centers: Costa Rica, Colombia, Pakistan
US headquarters: Salt Lake City, UT
Clients: Growing companies across the United States
Model: Dedicated embedded teams, not outsourcing
Employment: Long-term, not project-based
Industries: SaaS & software, healthcare technology, financial services & insurance, retail, real estate, consumer products

Our story

US founders.
A Costa Rican team.
An honest model.

SMASH was founded in 2017 by Kelly Phillipps and Matt Phillipps, both based in Salt Lake City. Kelly was scaling his own company and needed to triple his team, but he could not find the talent fast enough. Along the way he discovered exceptional engineers in Costa Rica, doing US-grade work outside the old outsourcing playbook. That discovery became SMASH: a nearshore hiring model built around dedicated embedded teams, not project-based outsourcing.

Matt built the operating model around it: an employee-leasing structure where clients gain committed team members who become part of their organization, not outsourced resources. Hire senior. Embed them long-term. Run on US time zones. Manage payroll, benefits, and equipment in-country. And stop calling it outsourcing when it was plainly an extension of the client’s own team.

The first years taught us that retention is the whole game. A placement that leaves in six months is a failure dressed up as a win. So we built the company around keeping people: real employment, real growth, real teams. The clients who started with one embedded engineer are the ones now running eight-person teams with us.

Eight years on, we operate from delivery centers in Costa Rica, Colombia, and Pakistan, with most of our clients in the United States. The model matured, but the conviction is the same one Kelly and Matt started with. For more on how we think about this work, read our Newsroom.

What we build

Three teams.
One operating model.

Engineering

Embedded engineering teams from Costa Rica, Colombia, and Pakistan. Senior, vetted, shipping in your codebase from week one.

See the Engineering team →

Customer Experience

Bilingual, nearshore CX teams working in your time zone and your tools. Not a call center, not a shared pool.

See the Customer Experience team →

Business Support

Nearshore finance, HR, and operations talent embedded in your workflows, not routed through a shared service center.

See the Business Support team →

The founders

Two people
who got tired
of the vendor model.

Kelly Phillipps

Co-Founder & CEO

Salt Lake City, UT

Kelly Phillipps co-founded SMASH with a vision to transform the way U.S. companies build high-performing teams. After experiencing firsthand how difficult it was to find exceptional talent while rapidly scaling his own organization, he discovered the outstanding technical talent available in Costa Rica. That experience became the foundation for SMASH.

Today, Kelly leads the company's strategic vision and growth, helping organizations build dedicated nearshore teams that become a true extension of their business. His people-first philosophy has shaped a culture where clients gain long-term team members, not contractors, and talented professionals find meaningful career opportunities and long-term success.

Matt Phillipps

Co-Founder & COO

Salt Lake City, UT

Matt Phillipps co-founded SMASH and leads the company's operational strategy, ensuring clients can quickly access exceptional talent while creating long-term employment opportunities across Latin America.

He has been instrumental in developing SMASH's unique employee leasing model, built around one core belief: clients should gain committed team members who become part of their organization, not outsourced resources. By combining an efficient recruiting process with a focus on long-term partnerships, Matt has helped build an operation capable of supporting rapid, sustainable growth for both clients and employees.

Where we operate

Costa Rica.
Colombia.
Pakistan.

Three delivery centers, one operating model, and clients across the United States. Two of those centers sit in Latin America, the deepest nearshore talent pool for US teams outside the country. The third extends into Pakistan, a second hemisphere for teams that need round-the-clock coverage. We did not pick these countries to look global. We picked them because of how their engineering and CX cultures actually work with US teams, and because together they cover the clock.

Delivery center

Costa Rica

Sabana, San José

Headquarters and largest delivery center. Bilingual by default, stable democracy, decades of US tech presence (Intel, HP, Microsoft). Central time zone, full overlap with US hours.

Delivery center

Colombia

Bogotá, Medellín, Cali

The largest engineering pool in LATAM after Brazil. Deep enterprise talent in Bogotá, a strong startup culture in Medellín, CST/EST alignment year-round.

Delivery center

Pakistan

Karachi

A growing delivery center that extends coverage into a second hemisphere. For teams that need on-call, 24/7 support, or follow-the-sun engineering, Pakistan rounds out the clock.

Clients + US footprint

United States

Salt Lake City, UT

Where most of our clients are, and where SMASH keeps its US footprint. Our embedded teams run on US working hours by design, not by exception.

How we vet

Vetting is a craft,
not an algorithm.

Software engineers, customer support agents, and business support professionals all clear the same four-step vetting model below, adjusted for the role.

Referral network first

We built our nearshore talent network over eight years in Costa Rica, Colombia, and Pakistan. Candidate screening starts here: the best candidates almost never come from a job board. They come from people we already trust.

Technical screen by a senior engineer

Not a recruiter with a checklist. For engineering roles, an actual senior engineer runs technical interviews as part of our engineering recruitment process, because the people doing the vetting are the people who keep these hires on payroll. Customer support and business support hires get the same rigor from a lead in that function, not a generalist recruiter.

English fluency assessment

Embedded means daily standups, code review, and customer conversations in English. We test English proficiency directly, not a certificate, because your team has to understand them and they have to understand your customers.

Culture fit + 90-day check-in

We interview for fit with the specific US team a person will join, then check in at ninety days. Fewer than eight percent of applicants complete the full process.

Real people

No anonymous
talent pool.

Every embedded team member has a name, a face, and a manager. So does the leadership team that supports them.We’re always hiring the next name on this list →