Thriving Beyond Borders: Unleashing the Power of Remote Startups

Remote work: it’s a hot topic in today’s workplaces, and in society in general. The pandemic and increasingly advanced technology have shown us that not all jobs must be completed from an office. In fact, many innovations are more effective or efficient this way.

But is remote the right direction for your startup? Will your startup begin as remote, or will it need to transition to remote? What tools exist to help founders take their business remote? In this article, we’ll quickly review some pros and cons, then dive into a step-by-step plan to create a well-functioning remote startup and provide tips and tools to help.

What are the important steps to making a remote startup?

If you’re thinking of making a remote startup, this article will outline the most important steps and tips and tools to add to your repertoire. The physical aspect is the most important difference between remote and regular startups. Some employees may be working in different time zones, across different cultures, and the possibility for misunderstandings is higher. However, there are many strategies that founders can follow to improve communication and keep their startup running smoothly. 

Firstly, set up daily standups and one-on-ones. Ensuring that each team member is clear about the objectives is key; remote workers’ complete understanding is essential to avoid people wasting time on unnecessary work or work done wrong. You can also use the power of videoconferencing, but be sure to require cameras on.

Videos will help transfer non-verbal communication, such as emotions, facial expressions, and gestures. This reduces the physical distance barrier and successfully helps remote workers/founders capture their intentions and feelings (Trustshoring).

Next, make sure everyone agrees on the definition of “finished,” because it could mean anything from code review completed to Q&A performed, to the demo approval by the product owner. Take great care to ensure that the team understands your startup’s lingo and what constitutes a finished product across places and times. Also, be more detailed with your feedback. If you’re thorough, your developers will be more equipped to provide the perfect results.

Along with this, don’t forget to document work in a Google Docs or Wiki. This practice creates inclusion, making information available to all team members at any time. That way, communication flows better, people don’t feel left out, and you improve your writing skills simultaneously (Trustshoring).

Furthermore, create a culture in which meetings are only mandatory for those who need to attend. Meetings are boring and reduce productivity on remote teams. Taking notes that will be shared with everyone, namely the people whose presence is not required, is a great step towards better communication and productivity. Plus, you will have a historical record of conversations to reference later and hold people accountable to deadlines and action items (Trustshoring).

Lastly, embrace asynchronous work. Essentially, this implies that business partners and teams may communicate with each other without the expectation of an immediate response. Remote tech teams have long employed this strategy to work efficiently. Even if you’re located in the same time zone as someone, give asynchronous communication a try; it has all sorts of benefits, including empowering people to work how and when is best for them (TrustShoring).

What kind of startup is going remote right for?

Going remote is at the forefront of many people’s minds right now; 43% of all US employees now work from home at least part-time, according to LeanGap. Remote companies have many advantages, including reduced overhead costs, increased flexibility, and better work-life balance. However, as with anything, remote startups face some challenges. 

Let’s first review fully remote startups. “This is when the entire company operates from home, without any physical office space. This can be great for reducing costs, but it can also be difficult to maintain communication and cohesion among employees spread out all over the country (or even the world)” (LeanGap). It can cause confusion when people come from multiple cultures, backgrounds, and places. Therefore, founders of fully remote startups have to work extra hard to create and maintain a successful team. 

The next type is the partially remote startup, in which only some team members work remotely, while others frequent a physical office. Pros: Helps maintain communication and coordination among team members. Cons: Those who work in the office or remotely may feel like they’re being marginalized or excluded, leading to tension and resentment (LeanGap).

The distributed startup is the third type, in which the company is physically based in one location, but employees are working remotely from anywhere. Although it can be challenging to maintain cohesion and manage a team that’s spread out across the globe, it’s also advantageous because founders have access to talent and perspectives that would otherwise be out of reach.

Overall, no matter which type of remote startup you may choose (or not), the most important piece of advice we have is to create a culture of respect, communication, and inclusion among your team members (LeanGap).

What tools can founders use to help them in going remote?

Thank your lucky stars that we live in an era of technological tools that will make running your remote startup that much easier! From staying motivated, to tracking progress, to better communication, let the tools of today ease the process of your startup going remote.

Moreover, organizing work in sprints is a perfect way to work remotely. Be Focused (for Mac) or TomatoTimer (to apply the Pomodoro technique) are fantastic tools to set up short work sprints and get into a rhythm. Adjust the sprint lengths to your personal needs.

Seasoned developers are usually big fans, but this technique is applicable to almost any task. Plus, when you sprint and focus on work in chunks at a time, you’re more likely to stay engaged, while creating more free time to enjoy life; it’s a win-win (TrustShoring).

When moving to a remote space, or starting in one, you’re highly aware that your team will not be able to brainstorm project ideas around a whiteboard, for example. However, apps exist to help founders facilitate remote brainstorming. Take advantage of mind mapping tools such as Miro, Meistertask, and MindMeister, which enable your team to brainstorm ideas in real-time, all in a remote environment (TrustShoring).

Remote work gives more opportunity for slacking off, confusion, and lack of accountability. It’s imperative that founders get organized. Create a system for tracking work hours, communication, and to-do lists. For example, utilize tools like Asana, Trello, or Notion for project management. “Asana is the standard for project management, and it’s perfect for remote teams.

Trello is great for kanban boards, and Notion can do everything from task lists to wikis,” LeanGap says. Track, manage, and connect teams on projects with Asana, or use kanban boards to increase transparency (people can visualize things better), which in turn increases trust.

To track team progress, you can also use Harvest or Clickify; founders will be able to access daily and weekly reports for each team member. In turn, stay up to date on teams’ project progress and velocity (TrustShoring).

Overall, perhaps one of the most important aspects of creating a successful remote startup is clear communication protocols and expectations from the get-go. This helps everyone to be on the same page and know their responsibilities. Utilize Slack and Discord; these platforms are equipped with countless features that make them ideal for remote work.

Slack is an all-in-one tool that provides benefits such as instant messaging, and your team can use multiple channels to stay organized. While Slack is the professional business standard, Discord is making a name in the crypto space. It includes powerful tools for small startups, such as simple bot automation (LeanGap).

Along with communication comes the importance of community. Remote workers can feel less motivated or invested in their work if they feel disconnected from the company and their coworkers. Use online chat rooms, shared documents, and regular video meetings to foster a sense of belonging. Regular check-ins, whether through project management software, regular video meetings, or emails, ensure that people are meeting their goals.

Employee morale and motivation are extra important in remote work, because there’s more chance that they become distant and uninterested. Encourage employees to take time for their personal development, too! Being part of a community means looking out for each other. Time for personal development can help them feel happier about the company and their job, while operating in a remote space (LeanGap).

What are important factors to consider when making a remote startup?

One founder assures that remote work is the key to seamlessly balancing work and life, plus it enables you to find the best team members. Let’s review the journey of their remote startup so you can apply the lessons they learned to your own goals.

Our story begins in 2010, when a startup had a tough decision in regards to big investments in their software platform for scale. They could stick with the trusted route of investing in hardware to run their cloud service, which would be hosted physically in a data center, and run by their tech ops team. Alternatively, they could ditch traditional hosting and take advantage of cutting-edge services offered by Amazon’s growing division of web services (AWS).

The startup chose the first, traditional route. They initialized multiple data centers and unfortunately spent the following ten years paying off debt. Ultimately, they ran their services on AWS anyway, so they essentially wasted ten years and a small fortune (Forbes).

The entrepreneurs of today find themselves in a similar situation, only that instead of a choice between data centers and AWS, they must choose between office space and remote work. Look at it this way: “Building a company today with office space is like booting up a data center in 2010 — it’s a decision with debt that will take you a very long time to pay off.” (Forbes) 

Forbes recommends that you focus on certain time zones for hiring. 100% remote work signifies incredible access to talent, there is a limit to how far it may go. For example, one startup made a big effort to only hire in the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). From California to Ukraine, employees often work in “bursts,” oriented around Eastern Standard time.

This seems to allow team members across time zones to at least have some coherence and overlap of working hours. They intentionally left Hawaii and Asia-Pacific out of the question. “Once you begin hiring there, everything changes. Your all-hands meetings and team meetings are thrown off as there is no great time for the entire company to come together. Communication and work slows down as decision making is delayed by at least twelve hours.” (Forbes) While it can be exciting to see the world as your oyster, remote startup work does call for some discernment in regards to hiring zones, at least initially.

Another factor to keep in mind with the lack of an office space is the overall employee experience. It is recommended that as soon as your startup has over fifteen team members, you hire a generalist to manage employee experience. Not only will this person handle the traditional HR function, they will design programs (virtual and/or in-person) to connect people for bonding and teamwork.

You might have heard that “water cooler” conversations are a lost gem of office culture in the remote world. However, this perception is outdated and there are truly many ways to bring people together. Good ideas absolutely happen remotely, you just have to provide the space for people to form ideas and make decisions. As the founder, make sure that your startup has someone in charge of employee experience from the beginning (Forbes).

One thing to keep on the forefront of your priorities is your employees’ mental health. Remote work can be taxing in different ways than traditional work. Too much screen time, dealing with family, barking dogs, and annoying neighbors are all factors to keep in mind when taking your startup remote.

Mental health needs to come first in order for teams to achieve great things, so we’ve outlined four simple yet effective programs to help remote workers thrive. First, try “Fresh Air Fridays.” The first Friday of every month, employees take a half day to go out in the world and do something that inspires them, that makes them happy. Offer a quarterly stipend to help reimburse these soul-nourishing ventures (Forbes).

Next, perhaps twice a year try having “Quiet Periods,” where the company totally logs off. A break, once in the winter, once in the summer, encourages teams to unplug, unwind, and recharge. “Virtual Events” are another strategy to consider to improve mental health and employee performance. Weekly and/or monthly, hold a varied set of team-building activities that are unrelated to work, but that foster bonding, collaboration, and friendly competition.

The last strategy we recommend to improve mental health is “Offistes,” which are basically adult field trips. Remember how fun field trips were in grade school? Without the expenses involved in physical office spaces, that budget can be used to take team members to interesting, exotic, or special offsite locations. This boosts morale, team unity, and overall job satisfaction. Make sure that everyone has a chance to participate (Forbes).

Keep experimenting with different strategies and tools! These four strategies were effective at growing from 0 to 100 employees in a remote setting. Startup founders face a challenge, but remote work provides a great opportunity to grow above and beyond the limitations of traditional work. Remember that the faces and names on the screen are real people, after all.

Here are a few tips and tricks to manage your remote startup excellently and a few to encourage your team members to practice as well:

1. Create a process for handling emergencies, because they will arise. As a founder/CEO, you’ll most likely be the best suited to handle emergency situations, because you’re in the know, but you may also delegate someone to take charge of solving situations. 
2. Don’t be afraid to ask for help when needed. Communication is so important for remote work, and if you’re running into problems, your best option is to tell someone 
3. Get dressed for work. You’ll be more mentally prepared for work and feel more professional at the same time.
4. Set dedicated work hours to keep yourself focused and on track.
5. Avoid working at night or when you’re tired. It leads to fatigue, decreased productivity, and lower-quality work. Set a work end time; when will you stop work for the day?
6. Take breaks throughout the day and work in sprints. This keeps you energized and motivated, and allows you to have more time set aside each week to spend time with loved ones and have fun.
7. Lastly, celebrate your team’s successes together, regardless of your location in the world (LeanGap).

Founders face many challenges but also countless opportunities in today’s era of remote work and startups. Take advantage of the numerous strategies, tools, and tips outlined in this article to propel your startup on its remote journey, and enjoy life more fully while you’re at it!