Building Remotely

How can you get an insight into your remote teams' productivity and impact it positively? 

Rob Rawson founded Time Doctor to help remote companies solve this problem, and is sharing his learnings from over a decade of leading remote teams. 

In detail we discussed:

• Economic advantages of remote work
• Pros and Cons of working async
• Overcoming hard cultural differences remotely
• Measuring the performance of your remote employees

Find the transcript here. 

Stay tuned for the next episode in which we will discuss Facilitation in Remote Teams with Daphnee LaForest from Modern Leaders. 

What is a startup city and how do you build it?

Prospera, is a charter city in Roatán, Honduras. Their goal is to build an innovation hub that is exploring new models for economic growth and social prosperity. 

We talked with Trey Goff, their Chief of Staff and Chief Marketing Officer on why they started this project and how they are aiming to make the vision of Prospera a reality. 

In detail we discussed:

• Prospera's vision and mission
• Governmental competition as a result of remote work
• Prospera's legal structure
• Prospera's relationship with their home country Honduras
• The global impact startup cities will have in future

Apply to become part of Prospera here.

You can find the full transcript here.

Stay tuned for the next episode in which we will discuss how to Manage Cultural Differences in a Remote Team with Rob Rawson from Running Remote.

Kim Hansen has over two decades of experience working with startups. His firsthand experience of the complications surrounding equity grants led to the founding of Cake Equity. 

In this episode, Kim and Sondre discuss the best practices for granting equity to a global remote team. 

Topics we discussed:

• An introduction to equity and why it is important
• Turning shares into money
• An introduction to different equity policies
• What are options and when should you use them? 
• How Cake helps with this process

 You can find the full transcript here. 

Stay tuned for the next episode in which we will discuss the Startup Cities with Trey Goff from Prospera. 

After Taylor Jacobson started to work remotely and could not find an effective tool to help with his procrastination, he created it himself. 

Focusmate aims to increase remote workers' well-being and productivity by pairing them up in co-working sessions. 

In this episode, Taylor shares scientific insights behind stress and productivity and gives tips on how remote workers can leverage them. 

Topics we also discussed:

• The founding story of Focusmate
• Stress signals to look out for
• Defining focus
• The science of Focusmate

Check the full transcript here.

Stay tuned for the next episode with Kim Hansen from Cake Equity on structuring equity in a remote team. 

John Lee is a lifelong nomad and founder of "The Work From Anywhere Team", which aims to solve tax complexity for a global remote workforce. 

In this episode, John shares his insights on tax laws and risks to avoid when employing a global remote team. 

Topics we also discussed: 

• Emerging tax risks for Remote Workers
• Tax loopholes you should avoid
• The 4 ways of setting up taxes for a global remote team
• How governments and companies will adapt their tax structures to remote work

Check the full transcript here. 

Stay tuned for the next episode with Taylor Jacobson from Focusmate on increasing productivity as a remote worker. 

Ally founded Juno after experiencing the lack of individualised employee benefits himself.

Together with him, we explored how you can offer dynamic benefits for a global remote team. 

Topics we discussed

• The necessity of remote specific benefits
• Mistakes most remote companies make when it comes to benefits 
• An evaluation of SafetyWing's benefits
• The most popular benefits on Juno
• Why you should offer small benefits to your team

 Check the full transcript here. 

Stay tuned for the next episode with Lauren Razavi from Plumia on building a country on the internet. 

How can you communicate authentically in a remote team? 

Elie Dagher is a successful leadership coach and has made it his mission to teach authentic communication strategies to business leaders and teams. In this episode, he shares how you can create a healthy communication culture and handle conflict in a remote team. 

Topics we discussed: 

• Training leadership in yourself and others
• Defining authenticity
• The power of non-violent communication
• How to embrace conflict in a team

 Find the full transcript here. 

Stay tuned for the next episode with Ally Fekaiki from Juno on offering benefits for your remote team. 

Resources

Book: Non-Violent Communication by Marshall B. Rosenberg
Book: Siddharta by Hermann Hesse

After studying economics, Per Borgen switched careers to become a software developer in 2015. One year after taking part in a three-month Bootcamp he co-founded Scrimba - an interactive learning platform for aspiring developers. 

In this episode, Per gives advice to people that want to start their career as a software engineer. 

Topics we discussed:

• How Per got started with coding, and how Scrimba grew from a side-project into a full startup. 
• How hard is it to learn how to code? 
• How do you get a job as a remote developer? 
• Learning no-code tools vs programming languages
• Hiring a technical co-founder vs learning to code yourself

Find the full transcript here.

Stay tuned for the next episode with Elie Dagher on being an authentic leader in a remote company.

What are the possibilities of changing your citizenship as a remote worker?

After being fully nomadic for years, Pieter Levels decided to relocate to Portugal. Many nomads and remote workers were interested in the process, so he founded Rebase - a relocation service for remote workers. Starting with immigration and tax services for Portugal, they are moving onto Mexico. 

In this episode, he shares insights from his relocation process and how Rebase can assist other remote workers with the same plan. 

Topics we discussed:

• The process and difficulty of building Rebase
• Major trends in the nomad community
• Working on a big vs small company (indie projects vs VC funded startups)
• The rejection of creativity in modern society.

Find the full transcript here.

Stay tuned for the next episode with Per Borgen from Scrimba on building software remotely.

Are your team's virtual meetings effective?

For guidance on how to structure meetings to optimize for efficiency, genuine connection and motivation, we reached out to Jordan Husney, the founder and CEO of Parabol - an app for effective remote meetings.

Find the full transcript here.

Stay tuned for the next episode with Pieter Levels from Rebase on the migration of the new wave of remote workers.