SignalFire’s Guide To Distributed Team Management

The 100 best tools and best practices for remote work, hiring distributed teams, running a work from home company

Michael Martin

Michael Mangini

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Are you working remotely and wondering “How we can make this better? And what if we do this permanently?" Or maybe you’re a new company and think that a remote team is the move but it seems complicated.

Well, at early stage venture fund

SignalFire⁠

, we spent Q2 2020 hosting four workshops across six hours with 26 experts discussing remote team management, recruiting, on-boarding, and culture. You’ll see these leaders’ profiles throughout the playbook, so feel free to investigate their profiles and connect with them. We’re here to bring you the frameworks, tools, and best practices from pioneers like Gitlab, the world’s largest all-remote company.

You can also check out the

Full Resource List⁠

for all our suggested vendors of tools that can help your team adjust to remote work and find our top picks for each section as you move through the playbook. And for a broader view of startups in the space, check out our new

Remote Work Market Map⁠

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🏁 Now, let’s get started 🏁

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Is a remote team the right approach for you?

If you’re considering whether or not to go fully remote, here are few questions you should ask yourself:

Exactly how flexible are you in terms of time zones/locations?

How much faith are you willing to put on employees you may never have met in person?

How would you grade your leadership team’s communication and remote management capabilities? Are you willing to adopt new methods and invest in best practices?

How do you plan to build/maintain/evolve your company culture?

The answers to those questions may not give you a definitive "yes or no" to whether a remote team is the right approach for you, but they may guide you in how deeply you embrace remote work.

Where to expand?

If you've landed on yes, a remote team is right for you, congrats! Now comes the hard part: building one.

There are no shortage of resources out there to help you evaluate the best markets for the talent and/or lifestyle that you’re seeking but below you’ll find a list of tools we think offer comprehensive solutions that balance affordability and quality.

Compliance, Local Regulations, Insurance

We recommend that you explore working with an Employer of Record (EOR) or Professional Employer Organization (PEO) to determine if you need to be following specific rules & regulations in the locations where you may want to expand.

ShieldGeo and Papaya Global are two great companies that can both help determine where to distribute talent and how to do business from those locations.

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