
Keep Your Startup Virtual - dcancel
http://davidcancel.com/keep-your-startup-virtual/
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ryanwaggoner
Even in articles like this, there's an assumption that eventually you'll have
to get office space. But companies like Automattic and 37signals make me
wonder. Especially if you had a strong focus in hiring and developing
processes to facilitate virtual teams, could you go indefinitely without
having a headquarters?

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tom
I didn't take that from this article. The key question was : “Is getting an
office space going to help grow my business?”. Sure seems like David's saying
that if you never answer a firm yes, you never need one.

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ryanwaggoner
_At some point we know that we’ll have to get an office space. You usually
reach that point when you need to hire outside your personal network or grow
beyond a certain size, the exact size depending on your situation. When it’s
time to move it out of your house or the coffee shop, you will know. It’s time
to move out only when the the answer to the question “Is getting an office
space going to help grow my business?” is a firm, “Yes.”_

To me, that reads as an assumption that, at some point, you'll have to get an
office. But what I want to know is: can you build a virtual Fortune 500
company?

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tibbon
100% agreed. I've participated with a startup/think tank recently
(<http://webecologyproject.org>) and while we could have had offices- we
didn't. It worked so much better for the most part.

Our downside to this was twofold however:

1) We choose our team poorly & it was too big. That isn't to say that these
aren't all simply wonderful people, but for making a highly efficient machine-
it was a hodge podge of people with various levels of interest, skills,
experience and commitment. We crept up to 10-12 people quickly and since it
wasn't a formalized business structure at first this seemed ok. We were
however all in the same geographic location (Cambridge).

2) We had too many meetings, which people stopped attending and become
ineffective. These became a time sink. People would defer conversation to the
meetings instead of our internal email list (which for some conversations is
the right thing to do), but then these became lengthy 4-5 hour meetings that
stopped getting things done. Our coding slowed. Decisions stopped being made,
interest was lost slowly.

These are points very specific to our group and I totally agree on holding off
on office space until you MUST have it. Keeping costs down and excellent
workflow up initially are a must. Just don't try it with 10 people and don't
kill people with mandatory meetings. Use IRC or some other tool religiously.

If anything, look into a coworking space like Betahouse
(<http://betahouse.org>) or New Work City.

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chris100
I agree with the point that you don't need office space early on. The key is
being in constant contact with the other team members. Some developers love to
chat/IM on skype all day long from home. It depends on your team dynamics.

But once in a while, you need serious face-to-face brainstorming. That's where
your coffee shop probably saves you. No one has designed a tool yet that
allows several people to really have a _brainstorming_ session remotely (hint
for a future YC startup: if you have a solution to this problem, go for it).

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ChrisHill
Completely agree with the premise David. I'm running CheapToday.com virtually.
We have 7 people working remotely w/ Board Members in London but with LOTS of
interpersonal collaboration & communication. Video conferencing has helped
quite a bit. Essentially, money goes to essential needs - people &
customers/marketing. Very liberating & cost efficient. Highly recommended
approach.

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lucraft
Your blog's design is extremely familiar. It might be wise to differentiate it
a bit more.

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lucraft
Could someone explain why this was downvoted?

