Michael Bertoni: Hiring Smarter for AI & SaaS Companies

If you've spent any time in the AI, SaaS or tech world, you already know how hard it can be to find the right people at the right time. The wrong hire can cost a startup months of momentum and hundreds of thousands of dollars. Conversely, the right hire can completely change the trajectory of a company.

Michael C. Bertoni has spent more than 25 years helping founders and CEOs figure out exactly what that difference is. As the Founder and CEO of SaaS Talent, he's one of the most connected and experienced voices in the industry; he brings all of that to every stage, mic, and conversation he's a part of.

Who Is Michael C. Bertoni?

Michael is the kind of person who has genuinely lived the startup experience from the inside out. He didn't build his expertise from a textbook or a boardroom. Instead, he built it by spending over two decades in the trenches with other founders under the same circumstances. He has learned what works, what doesn't, and what separates the companies that scale from the ones that stall.

Bertoni founded SaaS Talent back in 2015 with a very clear mission: to help AI, SaaS, and tech companies hire elite talent quickly and without blowing up their budgets. Since then, the company has grown into a full recruiting and go-to-market growth agency with a team of more than 35 people. The company boasts a pre-vetted bench of 50+ professionals ready to deploy across the US and Latin America. Together, they've served over 100 companies, from scrappy, bootstrapped startups to well-funded, Series C scale-ups.

Outside of the agency, Bertoni is also the founder and host of The SaaS Pulse Show, a video podcast that's produced more than 100 episodes featuring SaaS and tech leaders from across the US and Canada. He has also founded the SaaS & Tech Growth Meetup, which has grown into the largest AI, SaaS, and tech community in the Philadelphia region, with more than 50 meetups and six holiday events under its belt. Further, he also serves on the board of the Philly100 Forum, a community for the fastest-growing companies in the Philadelphia area.

On a more personal level, Michael is a former Division I-AA college football player at the College of William & Mary and a completed Ironman triathlete. So, when he talks about competing hard and showing up consistently, it's not just business advice. It's who he actually is.

Why Media Producers and Event Organizers Keep Saying Yes

There's a reason that journalists, podcast hosts, and event organizers consistently find Bertoni easy to work with. He doesn't talk in circles or repeat the same vague advice you've already heard a dozen times; instead, he brings real data, real stories, and a genuinely practical point of view that audiences can immediately use.

One of the biggest things he brings to the table is proprietary data. SaaS Talent works with companies across the US and Latin America every single day, giving them access to real compensation benchmarks, time-to-fill numbers, and retention data that most people in the industry simply don't have. This kind of firsthand insight is extremely valuable to journalists covering talent trends, analysts trying to understand the GTM landscape, and founders who just want straight answers.

On top of that, Bertoni has a large and engaged audience, with more than 30,000 first-degree connections on LinkedIn, including more than 10,000 SaaS and tech leaders, and he actively amplifies the content he's part of. When he appears on a podcast or speaks at an event, his network hears about it. That cross-promotion is something most guests simply can't offer.

He also comes fully prepared and professionally set up for virtual appearances, with a solid remote setup that includes a proper camera, lighting, and audio. Alternatively, for select in-person events, he's happy to travel. He's a reliable, quotable, and prepared guest who consistently over-delivers.

What He Talks About

Bertoni covers a wide range of topics, each grounded in his real-world experience building and scaling teams for tech companies.

Nearshore GTM Playbook

One of his most popular topics right now is what he calls the nearshore GTM playbook: the idea that while almost everyone nearshores their engineering talent to Latin America, almost nobody nearshores their revenue team. Bertoni is actively building that category and writing the playbook for how to do it well, a theme he expands on in The New Geography of Growth: Why LATAM Is the Future of Talent.

He specifically discusses how US startups can build full go-to-market teams that include SDRs, BDRs, account executives, customer success managers, and marketers across borders. Notably, these are at 40 to 60 percent less cost, without sacrificing quality.

AI's Real Impact on Recruiting

Another topic he frequently presents on is AI's significant impact on recruiting. There is a lot of noise out there about what AI is doing to the hiring market, and Bertoni cuts right through it. He talks candidly about where AI is genuinely speeding things up and how AI-generated resumes and fake interview responses are becoming a real screening challenge. In his discussions, he also analyzes the skills recruiters and founders actually need right now to stay competitive.

The Second Close

He also speaks powerfully on what he calls "the second close," the idea that getting someone to accept an offer is only half the battle. Retention throughout the first 90 days is where many companies quietly fail, and Bertoni breaks down exactly why new hires leave early as well as what companies can do to design a hire that actually sticks.

Building Distributed Revenue Teams

His other popular topics include how to build distributed revenue teams that combine US leadership with time-zone-aligned nearshore talent, as well as how founders can scale their companies without becoming the permanent bottleneck in every decision. The last topic tends to hit especially hard for founders who are still doing everything themselves despite knowing it isn't a sustainable business practice.

What People Who've Worked With Him Say

The social proof speaks for itself. SaaS Talent has helped more than 100 companies build teams, including startups and growing technology companies such as Chain.io, Intelligent Contacts, The Activate Company, HopSkip, Medical Guardian, PurpleLab, Trial Interactive, and others, all of which have trusted SaaS Talent to solve crucial hiring and growth challenges.

• Brian Glick: The Founder and CEO of Chain.io, stated that SaaS Talent helped him hire 30 people over three years. Further, Glick has mentioned that Bertoni's team goes above and beyond to help think thoroughly through challenges.
• Jeff Mains: The CEO of Intelligent Contacts, called SaaS Talent the only recruiting firm his company uses and highlighted how hands-on Bertoni and his team are.
• Brian Giamo: Co-Founder and CEO of The Activate Company, noted that Bertoni's team has over-delivered on every project and praised their internal screening process, which is capable of filtering out the best talent from the broader market.

Where You've Already Seen Him

Bertoni has been widely involved in some of the most well-known communities and events in the SaaS world, including SaaStr and SaaSOpen. More recently, he appeared on the Founder 2 Founder Podcast with Aaron Spivak, which has quickly become one of the top founder podcasts in 2026 — building on earlier features like his conversation on the Entrepreneur's Enigma Podcast.

Bertoni has also joined Greg Mischio for a conversation about the AI-First Talent Playbook, where he examined how talent strategy is shifting in the age of AI. What's more, through his own SaaS Pulse Show and Tech Talks series, he's produced well over 150 episodes featuring leaders from across the industry.

So, What's Coming Next?

Bertoni is currently working on his first book, titled In the Age of AI: The Blueprint to Transform People Into Your Growth Engine. The book takes a bold position: in a world increasingly shaped by AI, the companies that outlast and surpass will be those that treat talent as their primary growth engine, not a cost center. It's a natural extension of the thinking behind The AI-First, Revenue-Aligned SaaS Talent Playbook, and it's shaping up to be one of the must-read business books in the talent space.

How to Work With Michael?

Whether you're a podcast host looking for a well-prepared and engaging guest, an event organizer searching for a speaker who can genuinely move the room, or a journalist who needs a credible and quotable source on hiring, AI, or go-to-market strategy, Bertoni is worth reaching out to.

He's comfortable in any format, from a keynote to a fireside chat to a panel to a workshop — he brings the same energy and preparation to each and every event. Learn more about why founders choose SaaS Talent as a growth partner, or contact us here to connect with Michael for your podcast, panel, or event.