Sharing with the startup community our experience at Reply.ai in our journey working remotely and having a remote-first startup culture. The future of work is remote, but is not as easy as it seems.

1. Being a Remote company
Lessons learned from our journey to be a happier team
@ompemi

2. Context
CEO & Co-founder of
Remote team: NYC, Chicago, Madrid,
Cordoba, Castellón, Alcoy and a nomad
travelling the world @ompemi
omar@reply.ai

3. 2013-2016 (previous startup) 2019 (today)
Remote team with 2 optional HQ
@ompemi

4. Very
remote
@ompemi

5. Remote can
be great
Flexible schedule, Travel,
Spend more time with family
@ompemi

6. “We hire the best talent”
is not entirely true if you
don’t allow remote
employees
@ompemi
More so with specialized talent

7. The future of work is remote
@ompemi

8. But
sometimes
it can be hard
@ompemi

9. Lessons learned from
our (remote) journey to
happiness
Not a playbook, every
team is different and at different stages.
@ompemi

10. Remote requires processes
Company needs to adapt the moment
there is one remote employee
@ompemi

11. Being part of a remote team
is not for everyone
Look for proactiveness. Easier with “seniors”.
@ompemi

12. Results-oriented: set clear
objectives, goals and KPIs
No assumptions. It has not been easy for us, OKRs can help
@ompemi

13. @ompemi

14. Celebrate
small and big
achievements
@ompemi

15. Few balanced HQs
vs
1 Big HQ
The remote employees do not have the “office talks”.
Act as if you were all remote.
@ompemi

16. Compensation in remote
What we do: consider seniority, location, performance, etc.
Flexible schedule. Unlimited PTO with minimum days.
@ompemi

17. Do Offsites
@ompemi

18. @ompemi
Have a
clear
agenda

19. @ompemi
Reinforce your
why and provide context

20. @ompemi
Pass the mic

21. @ompemi
Have fun

22. Clear agenda in your
onboarding process
Provide a mentor, make 1:1s, company story, who is who,
product session, market session. Every hire, revisit.
@ompemi

23. Office space as a perk
Not everyone want to be on their pijamas all day
@ompemi

24. Have regular feedback loops
across teams
Most teams will suffer cross-team miscommunications.
Team and cross-team channels.
@ompemi

25. We created
“Feedback And
Retrospective Time”
Making it easy to have hard conversations 1:1
@ompemi

26. F.A.R.T.
“Jacobo, let’s FART this afternoon about X”
==
Let’s have a 1:1 about this topic that I would like to chat
about as I believe that...
@ompemi

27. Overcommunicate
@ompemi
“Remember that we discuss
that X client expect Y on Z?”
Sure...

28. Lastly, some processes
we created for team building
@ompemi

29. “Broken Arrow Cafe”
Groups of 3-4
1 video call
Every week
1 non-work question (e.g. favorite book?)
15min
Objective: team building
@ompemi

30. “Broken Arrow Hall”
@ompemi
1:1
1 video call
Every 2 weeks
About work
15min
Objective: have more context, understand challenges

31. “Broken Arrow Beers”
@ompemi
Everyone
1 video call
Every week
About anything
Undefined duration
Objective: relax and chill before leaving on Friday

32. Don’t apply blindly
what I said
Every team is different. Your culture, team and process should
evolve with the stage of the company
@ompemi

33. Thank you
@ompemi
omar@reply.ai
Omar Pera