Most founders think offshore hiring means choosing between cheap labor and quality work. Austin Rief is proving that's a false choice, and building a fast-growing business by doing it.
After co-founding Morning Brew and scaling it from a dorm room newsletter to a $75M+ media empire acquired by Axel Springer, Austin faced the same problem every bootstrapped founder hits: how to grow without burning through cash on expensive U.S. hires.
His solution? Oceans, an offshore talent platform that's rewriting the rules on what "outsourcing" actually means. Now working with over 500 companies and cutting client churn by 85%, Austin is proving that the future of hiring isn't local - it's global.
In our exclusive Hampton interview, Austin reveals:
- Why he became a customer first, then bought into the company (and what he saw that made him invest)
- The 6-step vetting process that attracts talent from KPMG, Dentsu, and Ogilvy (not random freelancers)
- How they cut churn by 85% by making one simple change mandatory for every client
- His contrarian take on why "Pod Leaders" and career development matter more than low prices in offshore hiring
From bootstrapping a media company to millions of readers to building the infrastructure that helps founders scale without breaking the bank, Austin's playbook is all about finding leverage in unexpected places.
Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?
I’m Austin Rief. Most people know me as the co-founder of Morning Brew, which I helped build from a campus newsletter into a media company that sold to Axel Springer in 2020. I stayed on as CEO until February 2025, scaling the audience to millions and the business to $75m in annual revenue.
My focus now is on my role as co-owner of Oceans where we help high-growth companies hire world-class offshore talent with unbelievable résumés. We find, vet, manage, and upskill exceptional people in roles covering operations, finance, and marketing. We focus on the roles we’re really good at–where we know the talent is many times better than our competitors.
Essentially, we found a talent market that is unbeatable and are capitalizing on that to win in a very competitive industry. We currently work with over 500 companies, providing the operational leverage they need to scale effectively.
What’s your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?
Morning Brew started at the University of Michigan in 2015. My co-founder, Alex Lieberman, noticed that our friends found business news from outlets like The Wall Street Journal to be dry, dense, and boring. He created a simple PDF newsletter to make it more digestible. I was one of the first 300 readers and saw the potential, so I reached out to help him grow it.
The idea to invest in Oceans came directly from my experience scaling Morning Brew. We bootstrapped the business, so we tried to find every way possible to save money. We were hyperfocused on growth, and every dollar had the opportunity cost of helping us grow.
In 2017, I got very interested in hiring overseas talent as a way to save money. But I always struggled to find high-quality talent that would move the needle.
When I heard about Oceans, founded by Ian Myers in 2022, I realized he was building the exact service I wished I’d had. I signed up and became one of their first customers. I was so impressed by the caliber of talent at Oceans that I became a large investor in the business.
Take us through the process of building and launching the first version of your product.
With Oceans, the “product” isn’t an app or a widget; it’s delivering high-quality talent that gets up to speed quickly and stays for a long time. But like anything, it’s gone through a lot of shifting and improvement. The first version of Oceans was launched quite a while before I used it at Morning Brew. We started small, testing with a few friends. I would say Oceans’ first 20 or so clients experienced an ever-changing product. It was clear we had product-market fit, but it was also clear there was a lot of work to be done to scale.
First, we had to systematize our quality control. We have an unrelenting mantra that everything comes down to talent. Oceans has grown mostly through referrals, which means every client has to have a recommendable experience. Nothing else matters if we don’t bring our customers the very best talent. So we designed a rigorous, 6-step vetting process that goes far beyond a résumé screen. It includes hard skill assessments and personality tests to ensure we find people who are not only competent but also a great cultural fit for our clients. We focused initially on the roles we knew were critical pain points for founders: executive assistants, finance associates, and operations managers.
Since launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?
At Oceans, growth and retention are intertwined. The majority of our growth comes via organic referrals. For that to happen, we have to give our customers an incredible experience, both in their interactions with the Oceans team and the people they end up working with. This means we have to hire, onboard, train, and mentor the best people in Sri Lanka.
And I think we do a reasonably good job at this. A lot of our Divers are incredibly well-professionalized, coming from firms like KPMG, Dentsu, and Ogilvy. They’re also very well educated with many having studied abroad in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, etc. This means we have an incredibly unique talent pool and that helps us deliver an incredible experience to clients, who retain and refer.
But in the last year we’ve focused on improving a few core systems and processes to cut our churn by 85%. A few key parts of this success were:
First, we get the match right. People have wildly different expectations for their roles. We developed a backend leveling system that contains 10+ different competencies and parameters on each Diver. When a client comes in with a role in mind, we match their requests to a hyper-specific skill and personality set to ensure long-term success.
Second, every Diver has an Oceans support system. We give every person we place a manager, called a “Pod Leader.” This leader keeps your hire accountable for performance and helps them grow with your company and for themselves. It’s a layer of support you won’t find anywhere else.
Third, we require a deep onboarding and integration. Our data has been clear: clients who skipped integration calls were more likely to leave. So, we made them mandatory. Our Integration Success Team now plugs every new hire directly into your workflows and culture from day one.
Just as important is retaining our talent. We kill the old outsourcing model by investing heavily in our Divers.
We offer above-market pay, full benefits, retirement accounts, and a real community with team retreats and social events. We also provide continuous upskilling, coaching, and training to help them advance in their careers. By treating our talent exceptionally well, we ensure they are motivated, engaged, and committed for the long term.
That stability and quality is ultimately what keeps our clients happy.
How are you doing today and what does the future look like?
Oceans is growing incredibly fast, and we’re doing so profitably. We are at the center of several huge trends:
- Remote work is a dominant force around the globe
- The U.S. labor market is incredibly expensive and has a dearth of mid-level talent
- Companies are more open than ever to offshoring
Our short-term goal is to continue improving each little detail of our service, with a focus on matching and career progression for our talent.
Long-term, my vision is for Oceans to be the default platform for building a global team.
When a founder or executive decides they need to hire the best person for a role, regardless of geography, we want to be the first call they make.
Did you ever have an “oh shit” moment where you thought it wouldn’t work?
Absolutely. When the pandemic hit in 2020, being an ad-based business was tough. Morning Brew was a bootstrapped business, and advertisers stopped paying. Revenue went to almost zero overnight. Thankfully things bounced back after a few months, but those were scary days.
Where do you see untapped opportunity in the market?
From the Oceans’ perspective, one of the biggest opportunities we see is in reaching scaling SMBs and introducing them to the benefits of offshoring. There are thousands of boring businesses in the US who would benefit from our services. Reaching them, overcoming skepticism, and growing in the category are the massive opportunities I see.
What platform/tools do you use for your business?
My tech stack is built for efficiency. Each tool has a specific job and saves me time or gives me leverage. Here’s what I’m currently using:
- Lindy AI: I use this for my AI automations. It creates custom workflows that handle everything from email responses to data entry, saving hours of repetitive work.
- HubSpot: Our CRM backbone. The free tier is powerful, and the sales pipeline tools make tracking deals simple.
- Clay: This is essential for enriching our CRM data. It automatically finds email addresses, social profiles, and company info to fill in the gaps that HubSpot misses.
- Ramp: All of our company spending runs through Ramp. The corporate cards come with automatic expense categorization and spending controls that save hours of bookkeeping.
- Superhuman: This is how I manage my email. The keyboard shortcuts and AI features make getting to inbox zero achievable.
What have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?
Here’s what I’ve been consuming recently:
Podcasts:
Books:
Advice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?
The #1 thing I tell other founders is to figure out what actually moves the needle for them, and only focus on that. There are so many distractions as a founder: dinners, VCs, conferences, etc. But most of that doesn’t actually matter. Find out what metrics drive your business, and maniacally focus on those. Everything else is noise and a distraction.
The next thing I’d say is the people you build with are just as important as what you’re building. Of course, it’s important to hire great people, but the best part about a company is building it with people you learn from, admire, and enjoy spending time with. Be incredibly selective about who you work with. As a founder, you have the rare opportunity to choose your coworkers. Don’t take that for granted.
Can you share a specific example of how being part of the Hampton community has helped you achieve a goal or tackle a challenge?
My Hampton core group has been huge in helping me figure out how to deal with executive team issues. As the CEO of Morning Brew, I certainly had my fair share of bad hires. I credit my Hampton group with encouraging me to move on from them quickly.
Where can we go to learn more?
The best place to find me is on X. Here’s a link to my profile.
To see what we’re building, visit the Oceans website.
Case Studies: See how companies are saving money and scaling faster with our talent.
Personally, I find being the CEO of a startup to be downright exhilarating. But, as I'm sure you well know, it can also be a bit lonely and stressful at times, too.
Because, let's be honest, if you're the kind of person with the guts to actually launch and run a startup, then you can bet everyone will always be asking you a thousand questions, expecting you to have all the right answers -- all the time.
And that's okay! Navigating this kind of pressure is the job.
But what about all the difficult questions that you have as you reach each new level of growth and success? For tax questions, you have an accountant. For legal, your attorney. And for tech. your dev team.
This is where Hampton comes in.
Hampton's a private and highly vetted network for high-growth founders and CEOs.
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