Mastering Remote

Welcome back! For this week’s episode, we’re going to replay our live AMA session with Ben Orenstein, co-founder and CEO of Tuple.

We covered a lot of grounds in this session, including the benefits of pair programming in remote teams, best practices in pairing, the ups and downs of running a bootstrapped startup, and more!

This week we have a special episode on the podcast! In this episode, we have our very first roundtable chat with other Arc team members.

During this chat, we talk about our recently-launched Remote Work FAQs. We created this resource hoping to help companies who need to go remote because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This episode’s guests are members of different teams at Arc. We get their perspective on how the current remote work transition has been affecting their team, processes, and more.

Joining us in this episode are our Head of Marketing Christine Orchard, Hiring Consultant Emiliano Rodriguez-Wyler, and Front-end Engineer Ting Chang!

This week on the podcast, we have Darren Murph, Head of Remote at GitLab, book author, and Guinness World Record holder! We talked about why GitLab uses “all-remote” to describe the company’s remote identity, how hybrid model remote teams can lead to anxiety and guilt, GitLab’s handbook-first approach, and why “story-telling ability” is essential in remote teams.

Today we have Steph Smith, author, developer, and Senior Analyst at Integral Labs and The Hustle!

In this episode, we talked about the “give and take” approach in remote hiring and why you should actively hire “givers”, the three must-have aspects of effective leadership, how to be a better communicator through deliberate practice, and more!

Today we have Laurel Ferrer, CEO of Distribute Consulting and founder of the Remote Work Association!

In this episode, we talked about how remote work can help the development of rural areas by enabling entrepreneurship, strengthening local technology culture, and re-training the local workforce to utilize their skills for remote work opportunities.

We also talked about how to measure the impact of transitioning a company to remote-first or fully distributed, how to measure productivity costs, and why remote work is not just limited to the tech industry.

Today we have Ken Weary, VP of Operations at Hotjar!

In this episode, we talked about the reason why Hotjar prefers asynchronous communication, why software tools aren’t as important, and the “Tribes” system Hotjar uses in project ownership.

We also talked about Hotjar’s onboarding process, meeting culture, documentation principles, and why being a self-starter is the number one attribute to have as a remote worker.

Today we have Fred Perrotta, Co-founder and CEO of Tortuga Backpacks!

In this episode, we talked about the challenges of developing a physical product when you’re a 100% distributed team, building an epic place to work, and applying the principle of “players and coaches” in your company.

We also talked about Fred’s million-dollar mistake, how to figure out if someone can be a good remote worker, and why you should always do project post-mortems.

If you’re enjoying the podcast, please consider leaving a review on iTunes!

Today we have Jesse Mecham, Founder and CEO of You Need A Budget (YNAB)!

In this episode, we talked about how Jesse started YNAB in 2004 and how it evolved to be a remote company, his approach in delivering feedback and criticism, and the deliberate steps that Jesse took along the years to become a better remote leader

Jesse also shared about YNAB’s cultural manifesto, unique questions the team uses to assess new team members, and the impact of remote work on Jesse’s family life.

If you’re enjoying the podcast, please consider leaving a review on iTunes!

Today we have Max Makeev, Co-founder of Owl Labs, the company that created the Meeting Owl. This is the first-ever episode that we recorded live in Arc’s office, so the audio is noticeably different!

In this episode, we covered how their flagship product, Meeting Owl, was created, and the struggles Max and his co-founder faced in the early days of Owl Labs,

We also talked about the unique challenges of building a hardware startup, how Max prepares for — and runs — meetings, and his learning/challenges faced when he was still the CEO of Owl Labs.

Today we have Laura Roeder, CEO and founder of MeetEdgar!

In this episode we covered how Laura built a company that can run without her, why MeetEdgar has a “CEO” _and_ a “President,” and the importance of transparency in company culture.

We also talked about why MeetEdgar doesn’t believe in deadlines, why they use the title “advocates” instead of “managers,” and how you can give better criticism and feedback in a remote team.

Laura also has a special gift for Outside The Valley listeners! Get one free month of MeetEdgar with the coupon code PODCAST here.

If you’re enjoying the podcast, please consider leaving a review on iTunes!