π‘ home-office setup: Companies who cut their office spend will use that money to provide world-class setups for their teams at home
Companies who don't will lose people to companies who do
π Fully distributed: ~30% of the companies we talk to are getting rid of the office entirely and going remote-first
Companies doing this have seen their workers decentralize rapidly, leaving expensive cities to be closer to family
βοΈ Access talent: The first reason they are going remote-first is simple β it lets them hire more talented people
Rather than hiring the best person in a 30-mile radius of the office, they can hire the best person in the world for every role
π° Cut costs: The second reason they are going remote-first is because it lets them be far more cost-efficient
Rather than spending $20,000 / worker / year on office space they can provide the best remote setup on the planet for $2,000 / worker / year
π Remote burnout: The productivity inside the companies we've spoken to has gone through the roof
Their biggest concern is that workers burnout because they are working too hard
They are actively exploring ways to combat this
π Set time-off: To combat burnout companies are looking at policies which dictate workers should take X number of days off every 13 weeks
Expect this number to begin at 2 days every 13 weeks and grow closer to 5 days every 13 weeks
βοΈ Remote onsites: 60%+ of companies we talk to are already thinking about ways to use time together physically to improve culture
The most popular we hear is flying the team into remote locations for ~week. Portugal, Spain, Puerto Rico seem to be the most popular
π Personal choice: the smartest people I know personally are all planning to work remotely this decade
The most exciting companies I know personally all plan to hire remotely this decade
~90% of the workforces we've spoken to never want to be in an office again full-time
π¨ Async by default: is the thing that organizations are struggling with most
The majority of companies have replicated the office remotely and it is causing strains that are beginning to show
π€ Personal injury: These are exploding. Companies haven't moved quickly enough to prevent them and back, neck and repetitive strain injuries are becoming a huge problem
Expect this to remedy this quickly by providing better, ergonomic equipment to workers
π Pollution reduction: many companies we've spoken to care massively about the environmental impact that eradicating the office β and the commute β will have
108 million tons of Co2 less every year
β€οΈ Quality of life: even more importantly companies are realizing that they don't need to expect workers to waste 2 hours a day commuting to sit in an office chair for 8 hour
Almost every company we talk to believes that their workers will be happier as a result of remote work
π¨ Remote pressure: a few companies we've spoken to have decided to be more remote than they initially intended because their competitors already did it
There is a fear inside companies that if they don't go remote they will lose their best people to their competitors
β‘οΈ Personalized tooling: Companies are realizing that forcing individuals to use the same tools is stupid
Increasingly individuals will be given the power to choose the software tools they want to use to do their job
Work designed for the individual rather than the collective
π Output over time: the measure of performance in the office is how much time you spend sat in your seat
The measure of performance while working remotely has to become output. Tools that enable this to be tracked more accurately are something we are asked for a lot
β Written over spoken: documentation is the unspoken superpower of remote teams. The most successful team members remotely will be great writers
Companies are searching for ways to do this more effectively. Tools that enable others to write better will explode
π¨βπΌ Flattened orgs: middle management is in trouble, an unnecessary bottlenecks that serve no tangible purpose inside async organizations
Companies need coaching and facilitators to maximize organizational effectiveness
Interested in why these companies are talking to us?
The office was an assembly line of conformity. One-size-fits-all where everyone worked the same hours, used the same tools, did the same things
Remote will let us:
Choose the tools we want
Select the schedule we need
Control everything related to the quality of work produced
We're about to live through the age of personalization
Individuals will have the freedom to choose the tools, modes of communication, consumption, services, and platform that suit what they want and how they do things
This will apply especially to work and education
The 19th and 20th centuries were marked by mass production. Copy and paste products and services
Factories
Schools
Offices
It was too expensive to personalize atoms for individuals
6,500 companies β with 11m+ aggregate employees β signed up to our waitlist in the last 6 months
The biggest opportunites this decade will be in the future of work and living space
Hereβs why me and @ShaneMac are launching a rolling fund today
[ a thread ] π»π π
πMarket size: there are 255m desk jobs globally today. After Covid passes around 30m of them will be done remotely full-time, rising to 70m+ by 2030
A majority of these jobs will be done remotely 3 days+ a week
There will be massive 1st, 2nd, and 3rd order effects as a result
πOur focus: remote is at the same stage mobile computing was prior to the iPhone
The infrastructure and rails that enable remote work and living to rise globally still have to be built
Our focus is on finding, supporting, and investing in these startups