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We too are a remote team at ninjaas.com. I admire startups which open-source their - workflows, tools, processes and philosophies. They must be having really-r

by pajju 13y ago

We too are a remote team at ninjaas.com. I admire startups which open-source their - workflows, tools, processes and philosophies. They must be having really-really-big heart! :) In our case, we are currently just Ramen Profitable. All our team members are remote, in the same time-zone. Many small startups don't care much to invest in bringing Greater workflows, Processes and tools. I keep telling to my co-founder - the hardest part in company building is setting up Processes, tools and workflows -- the Nurturing phase. It takes lots of gut, time and patience to explore and fix workflows, tools. From my experience so far - + Any remote work sits on top of love for the work. I must love the job. Job satisfaction. + There must be a sense of ownership, reward and instant gratification. All other things like responsibility, Trust, faith comes on top of that. + Remote teams need highest levels of Communication clarity, Protocols and aligning with the Product vision. Communication tools are important. We use Google+ Private communities. So, what if you are an idea-Stage/early-stage? If its an Idea and still not a concrete product? Then remote teams can't collaborate easily and brainstorm. We've found it very hard. Also for Remote teams - Everyone should be doing support, sales, marketing, pitching, writing cool articles and almost full-stack work. Overall a Generalist attitude. This brings more clarity, responsibility and leadership overtime. Finally as you said - The biggest wins aren't usually found in any blog posts or comments like mine, but in what you discover on your own, over time. So keep exploring and don't stop! :)

retrogradeorbit 13y ago
> Also for Remote teams - Everyone should be doing support, sales, marketing, pitching, writing cool articles and almost full-stack work. Overall a Generalist attitude. This brings more clarity, responsibility and leadership overtime. See my other post on here to see that I disagree with this. This is deeply unprofessional. Perhaps your programmers aren't professionals, so then it might make some sense. But then it's more a shop of amateurs than a really professional organisation. Would you expect a physician to drive the ambulance, triage the emergency room, treat the patients and keep the hospital accounts balanced to bring 'clarity, responsibility and leadership'? How about expecting a lawyer to write contracts, appear in court, manage the computer systems, man the front desk, keep the filing cabinet ordered and handle the invoicing and billing, answer the phones and including chasing clients who are late paying? As a software professional I would certainly not work for you. Why would you make me do sales, support, marketing, pitching and writing articles? I'm not a sales person or a tech support person. I didn't study marketing nor creative writing. I develop software. And I'm damn good at it. Asking me to do these other things would be a waste of my time and of your money. If you hired me and asked me to do these things I'd say no. If you forced me to, I'd respectfully quit. And then go get a job developing software with a team of professionals, not a bunch of amateurs.
- pajju 13y ago
  Startup != company. Have you worked in a startup environment? In any early stage startup, you need to be ready to roll out your sleeves and ready to do anything awesome in the interest of your team. This might be getting new leads, contracts, deals or whatever. This is how all great companies started. This should be the attitude. And please don't say - I'll only do this and not that. I will never hire you or work alongside such minds. Its the role of founders and early team to nurture the project and processes. Startups are very low on budget and can't spend $$ for sales or MBA heroes. Today developers can write a great blog article and attract customers in your niche. Note: We are all full-stack developers and completely bootstrapped. We have failed and learnt things the hard way so far. Once things are setup we have plans to invest/hire dedicated staff. We believe in training and making them align with our vision. I think you might have never worked in a startup, so you don't get the idea and feel of it. :)
  - retrogradeorbit 13y ago
    I actually started a startup once, when I was younger. The legal structure was a company. What legal structure is yours, if not a company? A partnership? Or even worse, it has no legal structure? Just a sweat equity and a promise? After two years we were not profitable and wound up the company. I made a lot of mistakes and learnt a lot about writing maintainable software. We hacked shit together quickly and out the door, and we paid the price in the medium term. At least our feelings are mutual. You would never hire me and there's no way I'd ever work for you. So it's all good!

by pajju 13y ago

retrogradeorbit 13y ago

> Also for Remote teams - Everyone should be doing support, sales, marketing, pitching, writing cool articles and almost full-stack work. Overall a Generalist attitude. This brings more clarity, responsibility and leadership overtime. See my other post on here to see that I disagree with this. This is deeply unprofessional. Perhaps your programmers aren't professionals, so then it might make some sense. But then it's more a shop of amateurs than a really professional organisation. Would you expect a physician to drive the ambulance, triage the emergency room, treat the patients and keep the hospital accounts balanced to bring 'clarity, responsibility and leadership'? How about expecting a lawyer to write contracts, appear in court, manage the computer systems, man the front desk, keep the filing cabinet ordered and handle the invoicing and billing, answer the phones and including chasing clients who are late paying? As a software professional I would certainly not work for you. Why would you make me do sales, support, marketing, pitching and writing articles? I'm not a sales person or a tech support person. I didn't study marketing nor creative writing. I develop software. And I'm damn good at it. Asking me to do these other things would be a waste of my time and of your money. If you hired me and asked me to do these things I'd say no. If you forced me to, I'd respectfully quit. And then go get a job developing software with a team of professionals, not a bunch of amateurs.

pajju 13y ago
Startup != company. Have you worked in a startup environment? In any early stage startup, you need to be ready to roll out your sleeves and ready to do anything awesome in the interest of your team. This might be getting new leads, contracts, deals or whatever. This is how all great companies started. This should be the attitude. And please don't say - I'll only do this and not that. I will never hire you or work alongside such minds. Its the role of founders and early team to nurture the project and processes. Startups are very low on budget and can't spend $$ for sales or MBA heroes. Today developers can write a great blog article and attract customers in your niche. Note: We are all full-stack developers and completely bootstrapped. We have failed and learnt things the hard way so far. Once things are setup we have plans to invest/hire dedicated staff. We believe in training and making them align with our vision. I think you might have never worked in a startup, so you don't get the idea and feel of it. :)
- retrogradeorbit 13y ago
  I actually started a startup once, when I was younger. The legal structure was a company. What legal structure is yours, if not a company? A partnership? Or even worse, it has no legal structure? Just a sweat equity and a promise? After two years we were not profitable and wound up the company. I made a lot of mistakes and learnt a lot about writing maintainable software. We hacked shit together quickly and out the door, and we paid the price in the medium term. At least our feelings are mutual. You would never hire me and there's no way I'd ever work for you. So it's all good!