CEO of C4Media Inc. (producer of InfoQ.com and QCon conferences) talks about how to build and manage an international completely virtual company with a great culture and organizational feel.

1. How to run a Virtual
Business
Case study:

2. About me

3. InfoQ.com
● 750,000 unique
visitors/month
● 60 new content items
published/week
● Available in 4 languages,
managed by separate
teams of staff and editors
in:
○ China
○ Japan
○ Brazil
○ International (english)

4. QCon conferences
● 500-1200 attendees each
● 7 cities worldwide

5. Stats
● Revenue sources:
○ Online advertising
■ Highly targeted topical sponsorships
■ Lead Generation
○ Conferences
■ Ticket Sales & Sponsorships
● People and operations in US, Canada,
Romania, China, Greece, Brazil

6. ross 6 countries
taff mem bers ac
29 s rldwide
150 ed itors wo

7. They all work from home

8. What we'll cover
● How the company got started
● Structural Issues & Benefits
● Tactics used to run a virtual business
● Mindset and culture

9. How it started
2005: Worlds smallest multinational
● Floyd - CEO/Chief Editor - Canada
● Roxanne - Sales - California
● Alex - Developer - Romania
● Jason Lai - Translator - China
5 lead editors (par time)

10. Today
● C4Media English InfoQ & QCon team
○ Canada
■ 3 people: CEO, Ad Prod. Mgr, Finance Ops
○ US
■ 2 sales in California, Events Dir. in Florida
○ Romania
■ 4 Operations people, 4 software developers
○ Greece
■ 1 Platform Lead / Prod. Mgr.
○ 40 active editors part time
● China Subsidiary: 15 people + 30 p/t editors
● Brazilian Subsidiary: 3 people + 30 p/t
editors

11. Structurally
Canadian Corporation
● 100% foreign source revenue (no CDN
revenue)
○ US, EU, China, Brazil
● Many international full time contractors
● Incorporated in Brazil, US and China
● No revenue: no employment relationship
needed for full time people

12. Benefits
● No commute / Less stressful
● Introvert friendly
● More time for work
● People feel empowered
● More time for family
● Significantly Lower Operational Costs
● Lends well to results-oriented environment
● Teams distributed where talent can be hired
for highest value and
○ Nearsourcing
○ Developing Economies

13. Highly Cost Efficient and Productive
My company would not have survived the first
years if completely local & in-person
Being international & with no fixed costs
allowed us to be profitable much earlier,
crossing the most difficult time when most
companies fail

14. Advantages in Canada
Small Business Deduction: 16% corporate tax
on 1st $500K, vs. 30% + in rest of world
Toronto (Eastern timezone) well suited to
interact with
○ West coast (afternoon)
○ Europe (mornings)
○ Asia (9am or 9pm meetings - 12 hrs diff)

15. Diversity
● Age, gender, culture - all are irrelevant in a virtual
environment where results are what you primarily see
● Easier to overcome normal human biases when hiring

16. Tools and Tactics

17. Tools Demo
IM/skype
- day to day communication
Yammer
- culture & info sharing
Google docs
- spreadsheets for project specific trackers

18. Tools Demo
Dashboards
○ Objectives Dashboard
○ Scoreboards
15five - Automates the weekly 1:1
Wiki - for long term reference material
Kanbans
Email

19. Culture and Mindset

20. Things needed for a well-run
company EVEN more important for a
virtual one
One Page Business Plan
that everyone has copy of
Purpose and Core Values
Quarterly Objectives
Metrics
Rhythms

21. Meeting Rhythms
Departments
● Quarterly Review & Objectives Setting
● Monthly Review
● Weekly Dept
● Daily Standups
Per Project
● Weekly calls

22. Annual All-hands Meetings
2013: Ireland 2012: Spain
2011: Prague 2010: China

23. Dan Pink: What really motivates
employees
● Purpose
● Mastery
● Autonomy

24. C4Media’s Purpose
To facilitate the spread of knowledge and
innovation in enterprise software development

25. Purposes Around the World
● Apple: To make a contribution to the world by making
tools for the mind that advance humankind
● Nike: To experience the emotion of competition, winning,
and crushing competitors
● Sony: To experience the joy of advancing and applying
technology for the benefit of the public
● Wal-Mart: To give ordinary folk the chance to buy the
same things as rich people
● Walt Disney: To make people happy

26. Shared Values

27. C4Media’s Core Values
Transparency – Be transparent about process, status, expectations, your
feelings, successes and failures.
Integrity - We do what we say, and we say what we do. We publish content our
readers can trust. We fulfill our commitments to readers, customers, and each
other. We act in the best interests of the company.
Mastery- We never stop learning and we strive to continual improve our selves,
our processes, and our company.
Service – The joy of serving others, we go above and beyond for our customers,
for our readers, and for each other.
Accountability - Take ownership for results. We'll do what it takes to get things
done and are very serious about our commitments
Resourcefulness - Find creative solutions to get things done, have a “can do”
attitude.

28. 6 Core Values of
● Safety
● Positivity and passion
● Appreciative
● Fun and friendly
● To align customer and corporate interests
● Honesty and openness

30. Metrics
Every Dept should be tracking key metrics
Reviewed Weekly Dept / Project Calls

31. Quarterly Objectives
Everyone thinks hard once a quarter: How did I
do and what can we FOCUS on to grow the
most this quarter?

33. Common Questions

34. How do you know people
are working?

35. Trust + Transparency
Trust without transparency is foolishness
Trust with transparency is empowering

36. Creating Transparency
Dedicated use of transparency tools:
● Yammer
● 15five
● Scoreboards & Dashboards
● Metrics
● Dashboards
● Emphasizing via core values
Leadership must set an example

37. Scoreboards for transparency and
alignment

38. Editor Scoreboards

39. Trust
I'm willing to be misled for a month or two, we'll
find out eventually - manageable cost
The motivational worth of trusting everyone
who IS working well is priceless

40. Other Common Questions
Competition? What if people work for
competitors?
- no different from any company environment
How do you know they are working correctly?
- transparency and rhythms
How do you resolve interpersonal conflict?
- no different than any company environment

41. More Questions?
FLOYD@C4MEDIA.COM