I've spoken to 1,500+ people about remote work in the last 6 months
In that time we've raised $15M to build Firstbase
A few predictions of what is likely to emerge before 2025
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🚜 Rural Living: World-class people will move to smaller cities, have a lower cost of living & higher quality of life
These regions must innovate quickly to attract that wealth. Better schools, faster internet connections are a must
⏰ Asynchronous Work: Offices are instantaneous gratification distraction factories where synchronous work makes it impossible to get stuff done
Tools that enable asynchronous work are the most important thing globally remote teams need. A lot of startups will try to tackle this
⚽️ Hobbie Renaissance: Remote working will lead to a rise in people participating in hobbies and activities which link them to people in their local community
This will lead to deeper, more meaningful relationships which overcome societal issues of loneliness and isolation
🌍 Diversity & Inclusion: The most diverse and inclusive teams in history will emerge rapidly
Companies who embrace it have a first-mover advantage to attract great talent globally. Companies who don't will lose their best people to their biggest competitors
✅ Output focus: time will be replaced as the main KPI for judging performance by productivity and output
Great workers will be the ones who deliver what they promise consistently
Advancement decisions will be decided by capability rather than who you drink beer with after work
💰 Private Equity: the hottest trend of the next decade for private equity will see them purchase companies, make them remote-first
The cost saving in real-estate at scale will be eye-watering. The productivity gains will be the final nail in the coffin for the office
😴 Working Too Much: Companies worry that the workers won't work enough when operating remotely.
The opposite will be true and become a big problem
Remote workers burning out because they work too much will have to be addressed
✈️ Remote Retreats: purpose built destinations that allow for entire companies to fly into a campus for a synchronous week
Likely staffed with facilitators and educators who train staff of how to maximize effectiveness
❤️ Life-Work Balance: The rise of remote will lead to people re-prioritizing what is important to them
Organizing your work around your life will be the first noticeable switch. People realizing they are more than there job will lead to deeper purpose in other areas
💩 Bullshit Tasks: The need to pad out your 8 hour day will evaporate, replaced by clear tasks and responsibilities
Workers will do what needs to be done rather than wasting their trying to look busy with the rest of the office
🧘♀️ Health & Wellbeing: A lack of commute will give workers 25 extra days a year to do other things
Workers will exploit the freedom they have to organize things more freely in their day. Afternoon runs, morning meditation, 2 things a lot of people I know now do
🤖 personal RPA: robotic process automation will transform work for individuals
No-code tools that enable workers to built bots that automate menial parts of their roles will be huge
💀 Death of HQ: the office is dead but offices will persist. They’ll be used less frequently then hardly at all
Co-working, subscription clubs, will emerge that let workers who prefer that mode of work to operate from there
🚐 Remote Living: Work from anywhere RVs will become huge business
Associated business parks and services will spring up. This will happen even more rapidly as self driving tech emerges
In the last year, 11,000+ companies with 20m+ employees signed up to learn how we can help them set up, support, and scale their remote team globally
A few reasons why this is so important
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❤️Why Remote: I missed my daughter walking, laughing & talking for the first time. Almost everyone who's worked in an office has a similar story
Remote meant a higher quality of life. More time to do the things that make me happiest
While continuing to do meaningful work
🌱Founding Story: Me and @TreyBastian, founded a FinTech startup initially. It had to be remote because of the above and also it was the only way we knew we could find, attract and retain great talent
As we built a remote team we immediately began encountering challenges