remote startup - building a company from everywhere in the world
DESCRIPTION
The likes of Automattic (Wordpress) and 37signals promote remote working as a way to hire the best talent, regardless of location. Programming can be done from anywhere and saving office costs is a great way to bootstrap. This talk looks at the advantages and disadvantages, tools and methodologies for building a remote company. This talk was given by David Mytton at Digital Shoreditch London 2013.TRANSCRIPT
Building a company from anywhere in the world
David Mytton
Woop Japan!
Server Density Timeline
Server Density Timeline
•April 2009: 2
•Dec 2009: 3
•Early 2011: 5
UK
UK
UK
Canada
Canada Netherlands
USA
•Late 2011: 7 UK Canada Netherlands
USA Portugal
Server Density Timeline
UK
Canada
Netherlands
USA Portugal
Poland
•2013: 12
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•No limits on hiring
Advantages
RelocationWorldwide talent
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•No limits on hiring
Advantages
•Suits employees
Friends, family, flexibility
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•No limits on hiring
Advantages
•Suits employees
•Responsibility
Promote responsibility within the team - taking the initiative
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•No limits on hiring
Advantages
•Suits employees
•Responsibility
•CostOffice costs, commuting
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•No Distractions
Advantages
Office costs, commuting
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•No Distractions
Advantages
•Travel
Office costs, commuting
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•No Distractions
Advantages
•Travel
•Timezone coverage
Office costs, commuting
Disadvantages
Collaboration
More difficult
Disadvantages
Collaboration
Keeping everyone updated
More difficult
Disadvantages
Collaboration
Keeping everyone updated
Isolation
Having informal ideas or discussions
Disadvantages
Collaboration
Keeping everyone updated
Isolation
Watercooler
Having informal ideas or discussions
2012 Office
Last year we added an office after 3 years of working remotely
What works best where?
Remote Office
Engineering Design
Ops Marketing
Support Sales
Everything? Everything?
2012 Office
Very difficult toadd remote later
Important that we did it in this order
2012 Office
Office only
Remote Only
Remote → Office
Important that we did it in this order
2012 Office
Remote Only
Remote → Office
Office → Remote
Office only
Important that we did it in this order
Remote mindset
Communication
Availability
Tools
Working remotely is a mindset, difficult to bolt on after starting all in the same placeCommunication: have to keep everyone in the loopAvailability: not all around at the same time. Organise meetings or collaboration in advance
Not just chatting - activity feed
Very difficult toadd remote later
