I'd argue that at this point you can still hire the self motivated people that you only need to lead not manage. 'Managing' programmers in general is hard enoug

I'd argue that at this point you can still hire the self motivated people that you only need to lead not manage. 'Managing' programmers in general is hard enough, managing remote team in nigh iimpossible so don't do it, just remove the obvious roadblock, be aware of what everyone is up to (roughly) and don't interrupt, if not needed. I dare say the daily standups are not needed - just read the commits to see what's already happened and send an email or a wiki page to edit plan for next week, no need for a meeting involving everyone's full hour. Embrace async and don't manage things that you don't need to.