3 ms·

Let me get it straight: You are increasing potential hires pool tenfolds, save a fortune by not playing the real-estate bubble game, effectively double your wor

by avip 8y ago

Let me get it straight: You are increasing potential hires pool tenfolds, save a fortune by not playing the real-estate bubble game, effectively double your work day to almost 24 hours by spreading over timezones, and likely enjoy a 6-days work week - and VCs are worried about your ability to scale? This is just astonishing to hear.

TAForObvReasons 8y ago
> save a fortune by not playing the real-estate bubble game I always thought that the real estate game was intentionally part of the deal. The idea would be for a group of VCs to pick a target location (say, San Francisco), buy up the local infrastructure (housing, office space, coffee shops, etc), and turn around and rent / sell to the startups that you just funded. This would pad the ROI, so even a company that crashes and burns after 5 years would still be profitable on the basis of the rents paid. This cycle wouldn't come into play with a remote team. And in that lens, the onerous zoning laws of the bay area make perfect sense
- thaumasiotes 8y ago
  > buy up the local infrastructure (housing, office space, coffee shops, etc), and turn around and rent / sell to the startups that you just funded. This would pad the ROI, so even a company that crashes and burns after 5 years would still be profitable on the basis of the rents paid. You can never turn a profit on rent paid out of money you gave to someone, just like it's impossible to turn a profit on purchases your employees make from you with the wages you pay them. You're always better off just keeping the money.
  - TAForObvReasons 8y ago
    It's someone else's money. - VC raises money to invest - VC or the individual partners buy the infrastructure (or already owns it through different channels) - VC instructs companies it funds to use infrastructure it owns $$ Now, of course there's interest in successes in the fund, but even when a bet doesn't pan out the VC firm can profit
    - thaumasiotes 8y ago
      That does not "pad the ROI". It lowers the ROI of the fund. It may launder some money from the fund into a VC's personal pockets, but that's not the same thing.
sytse 8y ago
You know how we think about all remote, we think it is a no-brainer. I want to leave some notes on your points: 1. "Increasing potential hires pool tenfold" => In the view of many VCs the most talented and experienced people will live in the bay area. 2. "effectively double your work day to almost 24 hours by spreading over timezones" => although it is great that our support and site reliability engineers don't have a night shift it is very hard to work across timezones, it makes most part of our company less effective and harder to coordinate, we have to push ourselves to work asynchronous (issues instead of chat) 3. "enjoy a 6-days work week" => we think the benefits of not having a commute belong to the team member, not the company 4. "VCs are worried about your ability to scale" => they are very worried about having the executive team on the same page, not very worried about individual contributors
PhasmaFelis 8y ago
A lot of people don't work well remotely. Me, for example. I found that out the hard way. > likely enjoy a 6-days work week Wait, what? Are remote workers expected to work Saturdays or something?
- DoreenMichele 8y ago
  effectively double your work day to almost 24 hours by spreading over timezones, and likely enjoy a 6-days work week My assumption is they mean that M-F covers 6 days if you have people in enough time zones, while still paying them for five days.
- Latteland 8y ago
  Maybe because of international date lines, one person's Saturday is another's Friday, so different days means someone is always working?
- avip 8y ago
  "weekdays" are not globally Mon-Fri.

by avip 8y ago

TAForObvReasons 8y ago

> save a fortune by not playing the real-estate bubble game I always thought that the real estate game was intentionally part of the deal. The idea would be for a group of VCs to pick a target location (say, San Francisco), buy up the local infrastructure (housing, office space, coffee shops, etc), and turn around and rent / sell to the startups that you just funded. This would pad the ROI, so even a company that crashes and burns after 5 years would still be profitable on the basis of the rents paid. This cycle wouldn't come into play with a remote team. And in that lens, the onerous zoning laws of the bay area make perfect sense

thaumasiotes 8y ago
> buy up the local infrastructure (housing, office space, coffee shops, etc), and turn around and rent / sell to the startups that you just funded. This would pad the ROI, so even a company that crashes and burns after 5 years would still be profitable on the basis of the rents paid. You can never turn a profit on rent paid out of money you gave to someone, just like it's impossible to turn a profit on purchases your employees make from you with the wages you pay them. You're always better off just keeping the money.
- TAForObvReasons 8y ago
  It's someone else's money. - VC raises money to invest - VC or the individual partners buy the infrastructure (or already owns it through different channels) - VC instructs companies it funds to use infrastructure it owns $$ Now, of course there's interest in successes in the fund, but even when a bet doesn't pan out the VC firm can profit
  - thaumasiotes 8y ago
    That does not "pad the ROI". It lowers the ROI of the fund. It may launder some money from the fund into a VC's personal pockets, but that's not the same thing.

sytse 8y ago

You know how we think about all remote, we think it is a no-brainer. I want to leave some notes on your points: 1. "Increasing potential hires pool tenfold" => In the view of many VCs the most talented and experienced people will live in the bay area. 2. "effectively double your work day to almost 24 hours by spreading over timezones" => although it is great that our support and site reliability engineers don't have a night shift it is very hard to work across timezones, it makes most part of our company less effective and harder to coordinate, we have to push ourselves to work asynchronous (issues instead of chat) 3. "enjoy a 6-days work week" => we think the benefits of not having a commute belong to the team member, not the company 4. "VCs are worried about your ability to scale" => they are very worried about having the executive team on the same page, not very worried about individual contributors

PhasmaFelis 8y ago

A lot of people don't work well remotely. Me, for example. I found that out the hard way. > likely enjoy a 6-days work week Wait, what? Are remote workers expected to work Saturdays or something?

DoreenMichele 8y ago
effectively double your work day to almost 24 hours by spreading over timezones, and likely enjoy a 6-days work week My assumption is they mean that M-F covers 6 days if you have people in enough time zones, while still paying them for five days.
Latteland 8y ago
Maybe because of international date lines, one person's Saturday is another's Friday, so different days means someone is always working?
avip 8y ago
"weekdays" are not globally Mon-Fri.