Hiring remote team members internationally? You might want to figure out how to deal with the legal employment, local payroll, and taxes before getting into trouble. Our guest Dee Coakley faced exactly this problem in her previous experience as COO, which led her to co-found and head Boundless as CEO. She breaks down how to minimize the risks when …

If you want to hire good people, you should do employer branding. Companies today must be able to tell a compelling story of their workplace in order to capture the attention of top candidates. In this episode, you’ll hear how senior manager Diane Tate built Mozilla’s employer branding initiative from scratch and how you can do it for your organiza…

Wartime leadership is challenging. In this episode, we discuss strategies to help you navigate through it. Atlassian’s Work Futurist Dominic Price shares “plays” he uses that can make you a more effective leader right now. We also cover what he learned from the “Reworking Work” pandemic research, how you can break old habits to remove obstacles to …

Fundraising is tough, and even tougher for remote founders who can’t meet investors face to face. In this episode of Mastering Remote, early stage VC Joe Blair shares what it really takes for distributed companies to raise money – including how pitching is actually like building a sales funnel and why he thinks remote is underhyped.…

Switching the way you work from in-office to all remote is no easy task. Chris Winn took on this challenge when he became the CEO of Creative Market, knowing he had to “pick a lane” or risk his team evolving into two separate cultures. Chris shares his journey of managing change and building a healthy remote culture in this episode of Mastering Rem…

In this episode, we talked about how shaping up company culture and values, the “a-ha” moment when Chris realized that an office is not really required to get things done, how Chris deliberately works on processes and culture within the company, and his advice for companies starting out with remote work.…

This week’s episode is a replay of our recent webinar Recruiting and Remote Work in a Post-COVID World. We invited remote work thought leaders to talk about how the recruiting landscape will shift in the “post-COVID” world, how remote work will play a huge role in employer branding, building the infrastructure for your remote team, and more.…

In this episode, we talked about how InVision’s culture has adapted to their rapid growth, how their “design-first principle” has impacted their culture, the difference between a community and an audience, and her personal story on how remote work changed her life.By Jovian Gautama

Another special episode this week! This is the first Outside the Valley episode not hosted by me (you’re welcome). This week’s episode is a replay of our recent AMA session with CTO of TaxJar Matt Anderson. The AMA was hosted by our VP of Sales Mike Fossi, and a special co-host: VP of Engineering of Help Scout (and previous podcast guest), Megan Ch…

For this week’s episode, we have Brooke Hurford, COO and co-founder of Workfrom, a platform connecting professionals to real-world spaces and virtual offices. We talked about how Workfrom is designed to help remote workers interact better, the benefits of remote work to local communities, how Techstars mentorship helped her and her co-founder, and …

Welcome back! For this week’s episode, we’re going to replay our live AMA session with Ben Orenstein, co-founder and CEO of Tuple. We covered a lot of grounds in this session, including the benefits of pair programming in remote teams, best practices in pairing, the ups and downs of running a bootstrapped startup, and more!…

This week we have a special episode on the podcast! In this episode, we have our very first roundtable chat with other Arc team members. During this chat, we talk about our recently-launched Remote Work FAQs. We created this resource hoping to help companies who need to go remote because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This episode’s guests are members o…

This week on the podcast, we have Darren Murph, Head of Remote at GitLab, book author, and Guinness World Record holder! We talked about why GitLab uses “all-remote” to describe the company’s remote identity, how hybrid model remote teams can lead to anxiety and guilt, GitLab’s handbook-first approach, and why “story-telling ability” is essential i…

Today we have Steph Smith, author, developer, and Senior Analyst at Integral Labs and The Hustle! In this episode, we talked about the “give and take” approach in remote hiring and why you should actively hire “givers”, the three must-have aspects of effective leadership, how to be a better communicator through deliberate practice, and more!…

Today we have Laurel Ferrer, CEO of Distribute Consulting and founder of the Remote Work Association! In this episode, we talked about how remote work can help the development of rural areas by enabling entrepreneurship, strengthening local technology culture, and re-training the local workforce to utilize their skills for remote work opportunities…

Today we have Ken Weary, VP of Operations at Hotjar! In this episode, we talked about the reason why Hotjar prefers asynchronous communication, why software tools aren’t as important, and the “Tribes” system Hotjar uses in project ownership. We also talked about Hotjar’s onboarding process, meeting culture, documentation principles, and why being a…

Today we have Fred Perrotta, Co-founder and CEO of Tortuga Backpacks! In this episode, we talked about the challenges of developing a physical product when you’re a 100% distributed team, building an epic place to work, and applying the principle of “players and coaches” in your company. We also talked about Fred’s million-dollar mistake, how to fi…

Today we have Jesse Mecham, Founder and CEO of You Need A Budget (YNAB)! In this episode, we talked about how Jesse started YNAB in 2004 and how it evolved to be a remote company, his approach in delivering feedback and criticism, and the deliberate steps that Jesse took along the years to become a better remote leader Jesse also shared about YNAB’…

Today we have Max Makeev, Co-founder of Owl Labs, the company that created the Meeting Owl. This is the first-ever episode that we recorded live in Arc’s office, so the audio is noticeably different! In this episode, we covered how their flagship product, Meeting Owl, was created, and the struggles Max and his co-founder faced in the early days of …

Today we have Laura Roeder, CEO and founder of MeetEdgar! In this episode we covered how Laura built a company that can run without her, why MeetEdgar has a “CEO” _and_ a “President,” and the importance of transparency in company culture. We also talked about why MeetEdgar doesn’t believe in deadlines, why they use the title “advocates” instead of …

For our first episode in 2020, we have Kieran Flanagan, VP of Marketing at HubSpot and host of the Growth TL;DR podcast! In this episode, Kieran talked about how remote work had helped him in his life, why he thinks career opportunities should not be limited by geographical location, and one of the hardest parts of being a distributed team leader. …

This week on Outside The Valley we have Tammy Bjelland, CEO and Founder of Workplaceless, a company that helps remote professionals, managers, and organizations to thrive in a remote setting. Tammy shares about how she got into advocating for remote work, what fascinates her the most about remote work, and why she thinks remote work can improve the…

This week on the show, we have Liam Martin, co-founder and Chief Marketing Officer of Time Doctor and Staff.com. He is also the co-organizer of the Running Remote conference, the biggest conference on distributed teams and remote work. Liam shares his insights on growing into an “executive” role by “letting the entrepreneur inside you die,” how to …

This week we are joined by Eddie Zaneski, Manager of Developer Relations at DigitalOcean! This episode is quite special, because we’re focusing on one single job position, which is, you guessed it: Developer Relations. We talk about how Developer Relations is a position that most of the time only makes sense when it’s a remote position, and how the…

Today on Outside The Valley we have Megan Chinburg, VP of Engineering at Help Scout! We talked about Help Scout’s hiring and onboarding process from start to finish, with a discussion around the “value screening” stage, and how Help Scout makes sure to reduce biases in the interview process. Megan also shared the one thing that Help Scout did in th…

Today on Outside The Valley we have Hailley Griffis, Head of Public Relations at Buffer. We discuss the culture of transparency and openness within Buffer, including how it affects the company’s marketing and hiring, how remote work affects Hailley’s productivity, and more. We also dive into Buffer’s internal processes and talk about the most uniqu…

Today on the show, we have the CEO and Founder of Credo, John Doherty. Credo is a platform where you can hire reliable, vetted marketing professionals. This week’s episode is less about remote work itself, but more about managing and communicating expectations — whether you're a leader of a company, a client, or a freelance consultant. We also talk…

Today I’m joined by Giacomo “Peldi” Guilizzoni, the CEO of Balsamiq. In this episode, we talked about Balsamiq’s culture (specifically around the core value of continuous learning and the importance of experiments), the growing pains Peldi experienced as a leader, and more. We also had a quick peek into Balsamiq’s hiring and onboarding process. We …

Today on the show we have Hiten Shah, founder and CEO of FYI. Hiten was also the founder of tech startups like Kissmetrics, Crazy Egg, and Quick Sprout. We talked about how Hiten has been leading remote teams since 2003, FYI’s Remote Work report, the importance of figuring out your remote work structure, and why hiring is about “opting-in.” An inte…

Today I’m joined by Ho Yin Cheung, the founder, and CEO of Remo, a tool that helps you organize virtual events and office space, and Riotly Social Media, an Instagram social media agency. We discussed the challenges Ho Yin faced when he began transitioning to be a better remote startup leader, how his perceptions about remote hiring have changed fr…

Today on the show we have Andreas Klinger, the Head of Remote at AngelList, and one of the founding team members of Product Hunt. We talk about why hiring Silicon Valley engineers is now mostly a liability, how to systemize trust within remote teams, why onboarding is super crucial for remote teams, and so on. In this interview, we also mentioned t…

Today on the show, we have Justin Mitchell. Justin is the founder and CEO of YAC, a voice collaboration tool for remote teams. He’s also a founder of SoFriendly, a software development company based in Florida. We're going to dive into how Justin got his first startup gig in high school, how YAC got their traction via Product Hunt Maker's Festival,…

Today on the show we have Krister Haav, the CEO of Toggl, a simple (yet powerful) time tracker that helps you learn how much your time is worth. If you’re familiar with Toggl, you’ve probably already noticed that they have a super playful brand. They’re not afraid to experiment with comics, or even this addictive startup simulator game: https://tog…

Today I’m joined by Mark Faggiano, the founder and CEO of TaxJar, a 100% distributed SaaS company that helps businesses automate their sales tax calculations and filing. We talked about Mark’s genuine passion for remote work, why he personally handled new team members’ onboarding in the company, and how having an Employee Experience Team is vital f…

Today we have Claire Lew on the show! Claire is the founder and CEO of Know Your Team, software that helps you become a better leader for your company. We talked about building trust and social connections in a remote team, how you can be a better facilitator as a leader, and the role of empathy in a distributed team.…