Member Article

How I am Building a Remote-Native Business (And What That Means)

Max Faldin

When I launched my latest venture, Silverbird, in May 2020, we took our first fledgling steps into a brave new remote work era. Office space was a luxury we simply couldn’t afford due to lack of funds but also due to complete London lockdown, so personal interactions were relegated to digital encounters.

Roll forward to 2023, Silverbird has spread its wings across the globe, with more than 150 employees spanning seven time zones, and it’s been a journey of learning and adaptation. As we evolved, our understanding of how to manage and grow a remote company has continually been challenged and reshaped. I now want to share our new understanding of how remote companies should be built and managed, for all prospective fintech founders out there.

Remote Work - More Than Just a Buzzword The allure of remote work is a contentious issue. Traditional employment models thrive on measurable results, yet the remote working sphere offers up a new currency: effort. As I know first hand, controlling effort when your employee may be halfway around the world is a tough act. Still, remote work isn’t without its merits, offering employees a plethora of logistical and lifestyle advantages. But how do we bridge the gap between employee freedom and company needs?

The Remote Trade-Off - Flexibility vs Productivity While it’s great for employees to enjoy flexibility, a company still needs to generate value. Personal errands, doctor visits, school runs, have their time and place – and that place is generally not during work hours. Particularly for less experienced staff, I advocate a more traditional approach. At Silverbird, our rule of thumb is this: if you’re a newbie or a junior employee, your place is in the office (virtual or physical). At least for the first 3-6 months, until you prove yourself reliable as an employee and go through the much-needed learning curve of our culture.

Remote Work and Customer Service - A Delicate Balance Customer experience and sales can be a challenging arena for remote work, especially for fresh hires who haven’t yet fully embraced the company ethos. At Silverbird, our customer experience managers start with a full five-day office schedule, slowly reducing to a more flexible three-day arrangement as they acclimate. There’s no one-size-fits-all answer, so we adapt our policy to specific teams.

The Creativity Question - Remote or Office? For creative professionals – engineers, product managers, marketers, and the like – the question becomes even more complex. The value of their output isn’t always linear or easily quantified. In pre-COVID times, I was all for allowing creatives the freedom to manage their hours. This viewpoint is becoming increasingly mainstream, as remote work continues to gain traction.

The Case for Office Interaction Even so, traditional office settings do offer unique benefits, particularly for creative types. Casual chats by the coffee machine can spark innovative ideas and cross-department collaborations. Despite the appeal of remote work, I firmly believe that co-located creative teams often outperform their remote counterparts. The synergistic energy in a room full of collaborative minds can be a real game-changer.

The Social Dimension and Biological Needs We humans are social animals, and there’s the biological upside to offline work. Even those highly creative geniuses who believe they are firmly grounded on the fifth step of Maslow’s pyramid still occasionally need to go down to the third one – striving for a sense of belonging. Regardless of our level of creativity or introverted tendencies, we all need some level of interpersonal interaction. Moreover, a change of environment can be a mental health boost, a feature that fully remote work policies often lack.

Remote Work - An Economic Game Changer There’s no denying that remote work is revolutionising the business and socio-economic landscape. This shift affects our personal lives, professional dynamics, and even upends global economic theories. Indeed, the broad adoption of remote work may have altered the relationship between inflation and unemployment – a puzzle that economists have been grappling with for decades.

In addition to these economic implications, remote work is reshaping the social expectations of workers. Before COVID, the notion of shorter working hours and compressed workweeks were gaining traction among the younger workforce. The allure of a four-day week or a four-hour workday was tantalising. Yet, these ideas seem to have been eclipsed in the wake of the remote work revolution. One might ask, when was the last time you heard chatter about a four-day week?

Truth be told, I was never a fan of these reduced-hour theories to begin with (apologies to Tim Ferriss). However, with the rise of remote work, the relevance of such debates appears to be dwindling. The flexibility inherent in remote work renders the concept of traditional working hours somewhat obsolete. The focus has shifted from the number of hours worked to the quality and quantity of work output. In a sense, remote work is ushering in a new era of professional responsibility, compelling individuals to self-manage their efforts and performance. This is revolutionary, not just altering the way we work, but also how we perceive work and its value.

Ultimately, remote work is here to stay. But, that doesn’t mean the physical office space is obsolete. We need to strike a balance, maintaining the magical sparks of face-to-face collaboration while embracing the freedom and flexibility of remote work. As we navigate this journey,

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Silverbird .