EP30 - Remote work 1
They all panicked after 2020 during covid.
Everyone is forced to do remote work during the lockdown. Then, the culture stuck.
Some founders start noticing deliquency. "We need to get everyone back in the office!" they cried.
"We have to rebuild our culture!" I agreed with them.
Loudly. In every interview and at every conference.
I wrote op-eds about the "magic of in-person collaboration."
I warned them about the silent disease of "culture rot."
My competitors listened. They stampeded back into expensive, long-term office leases.
They mandated attendance, bleeding talent that had tasted freedom.
Their overhead exploded. Their logistics slowed to a crawl.
Meanwhile, I did the opposite.
My core team is a global network of elite, ravenous freelancers.
While my competitors are paying for 50,000 square feet of desk space, I'm paying for results.
While their best minds are stuck in traffic. My top earner is closing a deal from a beach in Bali.
They think they are building culture. They are building their own cage.
I didn't have to out-innovate them. I just had to convince them to bankrupt themselves in the name of "synergy."
Their greatest strategic weakness wasn't the market. it was their nostalgia.
The next few decades will be exceptionally quiet. And exceptionally profitable.
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Context
Team RTO here. Both are right.
Many companies overspend on stupid campus, overheads, and getting people into one place.
Yet, unless you happen to recruit that 5% of the exceptionally self-driven person, the average remote hire is bad for culture and business.
And if you are that 5%, you would still not like remote because it greatly limits your growth and learning speed.