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I disagree, and I've pitched companies to Suster and other VCs who've held this viewpoint. It's unfortunately very widely held by VCs, and in some cases is rath

I disagree, and I've pitched companies to Suster and other VCs who've held this viewpoint. It's unfortunately very widely held by VCs, and in some cases is rather extreme, with certains VCs demanding you not only be non-distributed, but that you be non-distributed in specific places. I become a believer in distributed teams from my experiences working on open source projects. In those cases, it's not possible to coalesce the team physically except on rare occasions. They seem to work just fine. Anecdotally, the best teams I've ever worked on were distributed, and I will continue to start companies with distributed teams and work with companies as a distributed team member. I will say that I think getting everyone together on a regular basis is good and useful. It makes the social dynamics much better if everyone can be reminded that their coworkers are actual people every 6-12 weeks. Hiring for distributed teams is both easier and harder. On the one hand, you can choose anyone, anywhere, and many people in non-name brand locations are hugely excited by the idea of working on small teams on cool projects. The downside is that it takes more discipline to be effective on a distributed team, and you must have vastly superior communication skills than the norm. Lots of perfectly smart and capable people can't or don't enjoy working that way. You often don't know until a few weeks in.

flippyhead 14y ago
Definitely. We've found that the most important thing bar none is getting the best people, dedicated to a common cause. If you can't get a key person because they want to keep the home they bought on some island, you're far worse off than if you have to Skype them or whatever. Also, a few of the best companies I know are distributed. 37signals, GitHub to name a few prominent ones. If they are not great evidence that it's workable and can be widely, I don't know what is.
- mijustin 14y ago
  I'd also add to the lisT: Automattic, Wildbit (half the team is remote), Teamtreehouse.com (studio in Florida, head office in Portland). Funny how all of the companies we've listed (37signals, GitHub, Automattic, etc...) are products that I love (and pay for!).
mgarfias 14y ago
Amen. The best teams I've ever worked with were all distributed.
dfischer 14y ago
Exactly this. We are a distributed company at The Hybrid Group (http://www.hybridgroup.com http://www.hybridgroup.com). There are a few challenges that exist for distributed teams/companies, if you can call them that. If anything, it may make sense to call them best-practices. 1) Communication is absolutely vital. We're on Skype consistently. 2) Standups (short) are absolutely vital. We have one every day for each project. 3) Getting together physically/seeing each other on video is important to reminding each other we are humans and not avatars. We have a weekly co-work day (opt-in). 4) Same timezone. We all work in the Americas. +-3hours timezone. Otherwise it is too difficult to stay in communication which is #1. It's nice having the luxury of not dealing with traffic and working in physical isolation. Distractions are plenty just with the internet, combine that with a physical workspace and you have a can of worms. Being distributed is working really well for us and it's a core piece of our culture.

flippyhead 14y ago

Definitely. We've found that the most important thing bar none is getting the best people, dedicated to a common cause. If you can't get a key person because they want to keep the home they bought on some island, you're far worse off than if you have to Skype them or whatever. Also, a few of the best companies I know are distributed. 37signals, GitHub to name a few prominent ones. If they are not great evidence that it's workable and can be widely, I don't know what is.

mijustin 14y ago
I'd also add to the lisT: Automattic, Wildbit (half the team is remote), Teamtreehouse.com (studio in Florida, head office in Portland). Funny how all of the companies we've listed (37signals, GitHub, Automattic, etc...) are products that I love (and pay for!).

mgarfias 14y ago

Amen. The best teams I've ever worked with were all distributed.

dfischer 14y ago

Exactly this. We are a distributed company at The Hybrid Group (http://www.hybridgroup.com http://www.hybridgroup.com). There are a few challenges that exist for distributed teams/companies, if you can call them that. If anything, it may make sense to call them best-practices. 1) Communication is absolutely vital. We're on Skype consistently. 2) Standups (short) are absolutely vital. We have one every day for each project. 3) Getting together physically/seeing each other on video is important to reminding each other we are humans and not avatars. We have a weekly co-work day (opt-in). 4) Same timezone. We all work in the Americas. +-3hours timezone. Otherwise it is too difficult to stay in communication which is #1. It's nice having the luxury of not dealing with traffic and working in physical isolation. Distractions are plenty just with the internet, combine that with a physical workspace and you have a can of worms. Being distributed is working really well for us and it's a core piece of our culture.