Question 1

Who is this guy, and why should you care?

Accepted Answer

I grew up in the West End of Glasgow. Scott Malone. I spent a decade in cyber sales, and I finished that chapter as the top cybersecurity seller at a US company called SecureWorks. I was hitting quota, closing seven-figure deals, and noticing something odd. My American colleagues doing the exact same job, same pipeline, same product, same close rates, were earning two and three times what I was. Same work. Different postcode. That's when it clicked. That's why I started Alba. I'm not a recruiter. I'm a seller who got sick of the gap and did something about it. Everyone at Alba has done the job. We know what good looks like because we lived it.

Question 2

Why are Scottish sellers earning a fraction of what they're worth?

Accepted Answer

Here's the uncomfortable truth. A great SDR in Glasgow earns 35 to 45 thousand pounds. The same seller in Austin earns 120 thousand dollars, sometimes 140. Move up to Account Executive and the numbers climb higher still. Same title. Same work. Same software they're selling. The only real difference is where the payroll runs through. British sellers are some of the best in the world. Crisp voices, dry humour, they get on with it. American founders love hiring British reps. And with US companies going remote-first after 2020, they don't need you sitting in San Francisco anymore. You can sit in Partick and close a six-figure deal before lunch. Your pay goes up, the tax situation is cleaner than you think, and your life doesn't change. Same kitchen. Different payslip.

Question 3

What is Alba Talent, and what's the 200% Club?

Accepted Answer

Alba Talent is a placement firm. We work with a curated group of US tech companies who want to hire UK sales reps for fully remote roles. The candidate pays nothing. Ever. Our fees come from the hiring company, exactly like a traditional recruiter. What makes us different is who we place with. Every company in our network has committed to paying UK reps on parity with their US counterparts. No cost-of-living adjustment. No British discount. If the US seller in the same seat is on $150K, so are you. The 200% Club is our internal name for placements where the candidate at least doubled their previous OTE. Most do. Some triple it. The number we care about is the gap between what you were earning before and what you take home in year one.

Question 4

Why should I trust you?

Accepted Answer

Fair question. Here's what Alba has actually done as of early 2026: 47 placements into US remote roles, every one of them on the same UK contract terms, every offer reviewed by our legal partner Lindsays in Edinburgh before the candidate signs. Every company we work with has been vetted for payment reliability, for cultural fit with UK reps, and for whether the hiring manager actually wants a rep in your time zone. What I can't promise is that your future manager will never leave, or that the company you join will never restructure. Nobody in sales recruitment can promise that. Anyone who does is lying. What I can promise is that if your placement ends inside the first 12 months for any reason outside gross misconduct, Alba places you again at no cost, and we've averaged under 60 days to do it because we already have your CV and the relationships are still warm. And the thing I care about most: you can talk to anyone Alba has already placed. No cherry-picked case studies. You pick any of the 47. I'll make the introduction personally. They'll tell you the truth, including the hard bits, because I've asked them to.

Question 5

Can I really work from Scotland for a US company?

Accepted Answer

Yes, you can legally work from Scotland for a US company. The most common setup is an Employer of Record. Companies like Deel, Remote, and Oyster act as your legal employer in the UK while you functionally work for the US company. You stay on a UK PAYE contract, paying UK tax and national insurance. You keep your NHS access, your pension contributions, and your statutory rights. The US company pays the Employer of Record. They pay you in pounds sterling, every month, on time. Your hours are the part that takes getting used to. Most US companies want you online from about ten or eleven in the morning through to six or seven in the evening Glasgow time. That overlaps their morning with your afternoon. You're done before dinner. Weekends are yours.

Question 6

What about salary, pensions, and holidays?

Accepted Answer

Let me break this down properly. Base salary is paid in pounds, direct to your UK bank account. Variable commission is usually paid quarterly, sometimes monthly. Pension is handled through the Employer of Record using a standard UK workplace pension, so your contributions continue uninterrupted. Holiday is almost always 25 days plus the eight UK bank holidays, and some companies add the major US federal holidays on top of that. Sick pay, parental leave, and statutory UK protections all apply. Private healthcare is usually included but you don't need it because you keep your NHS. Equipment is shipped to your door on day one. No visa. No move. Nothing about your life changes, just the company on your payslip.

Question 7

What does a typical day actually look like?

Accepted Answer

Here's what a real Tuesday looks like for one of our placed reps. She's in Leith, selling for a Boston-based SaaS company. Wakes up at eight. Slow coffee, dog walk, no alarms. Desk by ten. First hour is prospecting and pipeline review on her own, no meetings yet. Eleven to one is focused outbound, cold calling and LinkedIn outreach into her US target accounts. Lunch at one, proper lunch, sometimes she walks down to the harbour. Two in the afternoon her US colleagues start logging on. Team standup at two thirty. Three to six is demo calls and discovery with prospects. At six she shuts the laptop and the day is done. She's in the gym by half six, dinner at seven, weekends off. No evenings. No weekend pipeline reviews. Just calls from her kitchen.

Question 8

What if it doesn't work out?

Accepted Answer

Nobody likes to talk about this but you should know it up front. Even with the vetting Alba does on every hiring company, things change after you join. Managers get reorganised. Companies restructure. Priorities shift. That's true everywhere, not just US remote, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something. Here's what's different when Alba is on your side. First, every contract is on UK paper with one to three months' notice both ways, so you're never blindsided. Second, if your placement ends inside the first 12 months for any reason outside gross misconduct, Alba places you again at no cost. Average re-placement has been under 60 days because we already have your CV and the relationships are still warm. Third, because you're on a UK contract, UK employment law protects you. Statutory redundancy, unfair dismissal rights, the full set of protections you'd get from a UK employer. The honest worst case: you end up back where you started with 12 months of US tech experience and a CV that just got significantly more valuable. The honest best case is the one most Alba reps land in: you stay, you hit quota, and your year two OTE goes up again because US companies pay for tenure.