Remote vs Local Team for First-Time Founders

One awesome thing happened in the past 10 years - remote work was discovered. It, of course, it blew up during Covid and now we're settling down to normal. But it means that entrepreneurs (and companies as well) are presented with number of options when it comes to assembling their dream team.

More is not always better! Especially when you're starting out.

The decision between a local (aka collocated) team or a remote workforce is pretty big because it will shape the future of your newly founded business.

I have experienced them all - colocated office work, teams in different offices across the globe as well as fully remote work - and I can tell you that there are factors that can make or break your team and company if you approach these choices with a limited understanding of consequences. And none of the options is without challenges.

That said, I believe that the best option is to mix them all, but…it's the option with the biggest initial overhead. And that's not ideal for a company that's just starting. But we are here for first-time founders, so let's look at some factors relevant to founders building their first team;

Remote work advantages:

One of the undeniable advantages of a remote team lies in the access it provides to a global talent pool. No geographical boundaries. People just an internet connection and a camera and they can work for you from anywhere.

In theory, this should give you the opportunity to cherry-pick from an array of exceptional individuals. If…

…if you can find them. No boundaries mean a few more billion potential candidates.

You need to be able to:

• find them - how do you let them know you have a job for them?
• talk to them - do you speak the same language and understand the words?
• understand them - can you understand the meaning of the words you both are saying?
• evaluate their fit for your needs - how do you make sure they have the skills and abilities to fit and contribute to the team?
• pay them without too much hassle - oops, yeah, this can be tricky, but there're platforms for that.

If you can get over these little humps and you find the right people, the diversity of skills and perspectives can be very refreshing and eventually can catapult your business forward! It can enable out-of-the-box thinking, you maybe able to reach and appeal to clients in more exotic cultures and you will most likely reap the benefits of average lower costs of human capital.

The remote setup allows you to save on office costs and perks but you will most likely spend the money in other areas - like company retreats and work-togethers, company merch, extra tools for remote work, and home office set-up contributions. So don't count on saving too much.

I, myself, love the flexibility remote setup offers. Not just for me, I almost always had flexibility in my jobs, but for everyone else. Not being tied down to physical office space has its advantages and can expand your horizons and network - one day, you'll work from the cozy home office, and the next day from a vibrant coworking space.

This idyllic depiction in reality has many shades of grey - add kids, pets, elders, and school engagements into the picture and your flexibility looks different. But you can still make your own choices around commute, location for living, and time organisation with more flexibility than with any collocated office.

However, there are significant challenges that come with remote work setup…

Remote work challenges:

The remote option is not without its challenges. It demands certain dispositions and discipline. First and foremost - you need to love writing and ideally be good at it. You need to be disciplined and produce clear and easy-to-understand documentation of everything.

You need to be able to make a clear argument in writing, you need to be able to ask and comment and critique in writing. You need to be able to write in a way that avoids misunderstandings. You can learn all this with practice, but you must understand that your ability to excel in clear and concise communication directly influences your ability to be productive and add value to your team in a fully-remote work setup.

As I mentioned, remote work requires a heightened level of self-discipline, as the absence of face-to-face interaction necessitates the need for a self-starter mentality. And most remote-first companies assume they're hiring self-starters, yet they have absolutely no way to test it and find out if it's true.

It goes without saying that all meetings should be on video, where practical, and all meetings should have transcription and summaries of main points available to all participants and ideally to the whole company.

Also, in a fully-remote setup, you will have to think hard and often about how to make people interact together. How to help them get to know each other. Ideally, you'll figure out the way to enable random encounters and chats that will create a base of your “company culture”. I assume we all understand that company culture can't be built over weekly Zoom meetings or daily standups.

There are digital tools for everything a remote team might need, and some work better than others, but... the adoption is not easy, and like with everything, somebody needs to lead and figure out the way to get others excited about it.

Timezone differences

Time zone differences are an issue of its own. And it's an issue for remote teams as well as for collocated teams with more offices across different time zones.

I'd say it is a more significant issue for remote teams because of the lack of any face-to-face interaction which makes misunderstandings and problem resolutions painful and slow. Coordinating schedules across multiple regions is a daunting task, demanding not only adaptability but also some rules (I won't get into it here). There's nothing worse than waking up to a schedule that got filled overnight by colleagues from other time-zones, when you hoped to do some focused work.

So if you're starting to build a team now for your new business, please think twice before introducing more timezones into your team. Of course, it is not a one-size-fits-all advice. Maybe you've worked with great people from across the globe before, and they're the perfect match for your new business. You know each other, you can communicate effectively, and you know what to expect from each other. Then, hey, go for it. It will most likely work well.

Collocated office:

I think it's clear that most challenges mentioned above can be reversed as positives for a collocated office. The thing that makes offices pleasing and fun to visit for most of us - are the people and the company culture.

These two things enable the benefits of more accessible communication, random encounters that often solve problems the fastest way, and accelerated learning.

If the culture sucks, nobody likes to come to the office, and nothing positive happens there.

I'm not gonna spend time on office benefits because I'm sure you've experienced them, you've heard about them, and you have your opinion about it.

Hybrid model - why you should get ready for hybrid too:

What I want to talk about is hybrid model. It's a fact that even if you decide to take my advice and start your team with collocated office to accelerate the initial company culture building and belonging feeling, you should work as you'd be in hybrid model. It will inevitably happen and you need to be ready for it.

What is hybrid model?

Well, it's the collocated office with remote work option in any mix that makes sense for you and your team. What it means is that you need to work like you'd be working remotely, because there's always someone missing (or can be missing) in the office, and she/he is joining calls on Zoom (or whatever you use).

I think it's inevitable that hybrid will win the future. So you may as well get ready for it now.

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TLDR:

When starting a business, you, as a founder, have the choice between a local/collocated team, a fully remote work, and a hybrid option.

If you do not have any prior experience with remote work or work across radically different time zones - say more than +/-4 hours of your timezone - be prepared for an additional layer of obstacles that need to be navigated.

My advice would be - avoid it! It's not worth it. It will distract you, and you will lose momentum trying to figure out “just one more thing” in the moving puzzle of your new business.

A collocated office offers easier communication, accelerated learning, and natural company culture building (whether you like it or not).

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