The founders of Tortuga backpack never intentionally sat down and said, āweāre going to build a remote team within our company.ā It all ended up happening by pure accident.
And thatās how it turns out at times. Companies large or small have their own crazy and complex inner-workings but the really unique piece that new startups have is the opportunity to interweave remote work values into their culture early.
Today, Iāll be summarizing an article from Jeremy and Fred, the founders of Tortuga backpack.
You may have noticed that Tortuga backpack is a physical product, itās a backpack. Their team has a production team and a factory that manufactures the product but thereās still a digital side to their company. Their team consists of editors, customer support folks, and more. Most of these functions are viable in a remote setting.
Before Tortuga backpack even had their first sale, Fred and Jeremy, founders of Tortuga, worked remotely for 5 years out of LA. They didnāt plan to work remote but it ended being more cost-effective especially for a small team of 2.
There are times where you accidentally fall into remote work, especially as a founder, maker, or freelancer. You may find yourself creating all of your output or your profit via your laptop or your phone anywhere in the world. Youāll handle your client calls, social media, and support emails all from the comfort of your home - and this is how it happened for Tortuga.
Tortuga said something that really stood out to me in their article, hereās the quote:
Our comfort with working remotely meant that we could focus our search on finding the rightĀ person, notĀ aĀ person in the rightĀ location.
When hiring for a role at a local office, I was bound to only looking at applicants that were no more than 40 miles away. Why? Because we wanted someone who wouldnāt have a hard time commuting and someone that was local. And when we hire like this, we start to narrow our choices down to who live the closest and stop looking at, are we hiring the right person for the role or for the company?
Takeaway: Take a look at your business or the company, are there roles that be done 100% remotely? 90% remotely? If so, plant a seed with your team that your next hire has the potential to be a remote employee.
Read the full article by Torguaās founders below.
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