Eric Siu and Neil discuss why successful startups commit fully to either remote or office work. Hybrid models lack urgency. Neil drove to San Diego to pitch a client in person, arguing that face-to-face meetings build trust and deepen relationships, even for remote-first companies.
Jason Lemkin tweeted this. So he said, one of the best CEOs I know said to me the other day, I wish we'd never allowed work from home. So basically the takeaway here, the CEO, I never, I wish I never allowed work from home. Okay. And he's just saying, Jason Lemkin, he has a fund, right? And he's like, what I can tell you in my ecosystem is the fastest moving and the fastest growing startups I invested in are either 100% returned to office with some exceptions, But as a baseline. So with some exceptions, right? But as a baseline or 100% distributed. Okay, so now the ones that are 100% return to office often are more flexible than pre-2020. Few are as 100% as pre-2020, but they are 5 days a week in the office as a base with the hiring trade-offs that come with that. They generally won't hire anyone that can't come into office and that limits the hiring pool substantially. I've also invested in some winners that are 100% remote, but they really, really work at it. It's all they do and it has trade-offs, especially on go-to-market and sales teams. But the ones that are some of the best efforts mix of maybe come into the office a bit, a few times a week. What was he trying to say here? But the ones that are some of the best efforts mix of maybe coming to the office a bit, a few times a week, they just don't have the same urgency. Okay, whatever he's trying to say, he's just saying the people that mix it together, they don't have the same sense of urgency. So all this to say, I think the key takeaway here is that you have to either be 100% committed to remote or 100% in office, because then you have the urgency.
100% to remote or office.
But you really have to work at it for both of them.
Yes. I don't think remote's easy either to do it right. We've had office with some people remote, but we used to mainly have office and we put them everywhere. Now we're remote, but we still have some offices and remote has made it too hard to go back into office because we started hiring people all around the world, wherever we can find the best clients combined with where our clients are. And for us, it's actually worked to our advantage because we can see and interact with our clients more. But that was a choice, but you do got to work at it. It's not as simple as just making the choice and be like, oh, this is going to work.
I think it also comes from the top too, because your style is more of a remote style. Yes, it is. Like whatever people say, like the energy does come from the founder. So however the founder likes to work, that's probably how it's going to be.
But also even though we're remote, we push really hard on a lot of client interaction. So for example, this is Friday when Eric and I are recording this. Monday I'm driving to San Diego and back to pitch someone for 1 hour and then I'll come back.
You're driving yourself?
Yeah, I'm driving myself.
Dude, it's such a tiring drive.
Yeah.
I get tired doing that. You should take the train.
I'm pitching our buddy Jeff. You know Jeff?
Oh, cool.
Yeah.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. That's awesome. Oh, so that's worth it. That's like a little hangout too.
It's a little hangout, but I still would've went whether I knew Jeff or not. I've known him for over 10 years, but still, that's my philosophy is I will go and I'll make the effort to, and Jeff's like, dude, just send me the contract. We're good. No joke. I was just on the phone with him. He's like, what do I need a pitch for? Just send me the contract. I was like, no, dude. You need to know what you're getting and it has to make sense. And he's just like, just send me the contract. He's just like, you're one of the share— because I'm a shareholder in the company, in his company. So he's like, of course you're going to do what's best. And he told me what his budget was earlier this week. And I told him, I'm like, hey, we're going to come in under budget because I don't think it makes sense to spend all of that. And we should spend the money in other areas outside of us. And he's like, cool, whatever you want. Just send me a contract.
But the in-person goes a long way too.
Goes a long way.
Because when you do that, like, Every, you're building a, you're deepening the, like Jeff and Neil have known each other for a very long time, but still just that one touchpoint goes a long way. It shows that you care and then he'll remember you a lot more too. And there's a lot more things you can do. You're, you're going to have a lot more flexibility too.
Yeah. And then when I go to his main office, because our pitch is at, I think, 11:30, there's a few team members coming. I'm like, dude, I'm going to have to drive back. I'm like, you still have Ever Bowl in your office? He's like, yeah. He's like, you just make sure. I'm like, cool. We'll eat some acai while we pitch here. And he's like, all right, sounds good.
That's good. That's good.
