5 Startups Killing it with Distributed Teams
5 Startups Killing it with Distributed Teams
- Automattic— WordPress
“We are a distributed company, democratizing publishing and development.”
Everyone by now is familiar with WordPress and what it does, but few are aware of Automattic, the company behind WordPress and a $190 million USD funded startup (May 2014). An even more impressive fact is that Automattic has a staff of 400+ personnel that is almost completely comprised of distributed team members. Automattic’s team members are spread out all over the world in more than 50 countries. This geographic variance allows the company to be active 24/7. Automattic is the perfect illustration of a company utilizing distributed teams and thriving.
2. GitHub
“We believe that if a job allows for it, people should work wherever they’re happiest.”
GitHub is an online community that allows developers to effortlessly discover, reuse, and contribute to more than 24 million projects using an industry-standard workflow. The goal of GitHub is to make collaborating and writing software easier and they accomplish this with a distributed team. The GitHub workforce consists of 65% distributed teams thanks to a philosophy that believes people should work wherever they’re happiest. Github has raised over $350 million USD in funding (July 2015) but that doesn’t mean that they are all work and no play. The company encourages perks for work/life balance like complimentary gym memberships and Amazon gift cards for employees to buy books they need.
3. Buffer
“Work in the place that makes you happy, that inspires you daily, and helps you to become the person that you wish to be.”
Buffer provides a solution to help individuals, businesses, and publishers manage their social networks and engage with followers as effectively as possible. Buffer has a team that spreads across 7 different time zones. Even though this might seem to be a hindrance to a traditional organization, it offers to Buffer the advantage to be able to respond to 80% of emails within 1 hour, even though they have over a million users. Utilizing a team that is so distributed, Buffer can track the happiness of their customers and the speed at which their team can respond to them.
4. Cisco
“Continuous delivery improves quality, developer productivity, and the employee experience.”
Cisco System is an American multinational technology conglomerate that has its headquarters in Silicon Valley. They develop, manufacture, and sell networking hardware, telecommunications equipment, and other high-technology services and products. Cisco has embraced utilizing distributed teams in large and complex projects. A case study utilized distributed teams that operated by implementing continuous improvements and testing as opposed to a waterfall model where designing, building, and testing happens sequentially. The results yielded improved quality, developer productivity, and employee experience.
5. Trello
“Computers and networks are pretty good nowadays. There’s no reason you should have to uproot your personal life when you can do your job at home.”
Trello is a project management tool that organizes ideas and to-do lists into Kanban boards. Trello makes the process of virtual collaboration easier. Boards can be assigned to specific users, users can upload files to boards, add checklists, have streamlined discussions, and subscribe to certain boards to get email notifications when there is activity. It makes sense that a company that is providing a service to make virtual collaboration easier would embrace distributed teams. The company has monthly meetings with the distributed team open dialogues with team members to get to know each other better and discuss the bigger picture.
These are only five companies of hundreds of companies that are embracing the idea of a remote workforce and excelling because of it. Here at Upstack, we have the first-hand experience of the benefits of using a distributed team and it’s our mission to spread the gospel — companies can meet goals, be profitable, and create awesome products all while having happy, skilled, and motivated employees.
