RemoteWork.com

We started a couple days ago...like many other tech workers I am following the Shelter-in-Place order in the bay area due to COVID-19. I have been sitting on RemoteWork.com as a concept since 2017 (proof: https://twitter.com/remoteworkcom). I was originally inspired by Greg Caplan and his Remote Year (RemoteYear.com) project, I had the pleasure of meeting him at a coffee shop Chicago before the day before he left on his first cohort. 

Around NYE of 2020, as everyone was making predictions about what the next decade held, a consistent theme on hacker news and elsewhere was that a shift towards remote work would become one of the big shifts of the 2020s. Who could have guessed it would happen so fast? I secured a lease with Venture.com shortly after Jan 1st. I setup a no-code MVP using Sharetribe Go with the objective of getting users. I have been working remotely or part of a remote team for the past 5 years & am very familiar with the challenges it presents to both the individual and to the organization. 

This is why I decided to start RemoteWork.com a one stop software solution to help businesses enable, on-board and monitor their remote employees. The fastest growing search terms related to remote work today are B2B terms like "remote work policy", "remote work tools" and "remote work best practices". Business owners and HR professionals are scrambling to shift towards remote work, and with COVID-19 the next 12-18 months will see many companies shift into this space, but as of now there is no one-stop shop for enterprises or small to medium businesses to be launch ready. They are all flying blind and seeking guidance that really doesn't exist.

Personally, I also want to solve for the community and educational side of people beginning to work remotely. Working remotely may not be for everyone, but I know that most people with office jobs can perform their jobs working from home, if given the right tools and guidelines outlining best practices and businesses want to retain their best employees as turnover is expensive and keeping productivity high is not only possible, but also probable and measurable.

This is just the beginning. I hope we can start a movement that benefits both workers and employers. A movement that can reduce traffic congestion and improve overall job satisfaction thru work/life balance while maintaining worker productivity during this unprecedented change in American work culture.

Why Businesses Will Need a Remote Work Compliance Tool

It's obvious why employers would want technology solutions and tools to increase worker productivity and monitoring. However, what is less obvious is that businesses will NEED Remote Work compliance solutions. Similar to how employers are responsible for injuries at work, many employers may also be responsible for overall well-being, mental health and most directly physical working conditions will have a negative impact on employees workers compensation claims. Workers Comp laws vary between States, but don't be surprised as a State law begins to explicitly include remote worker injuries, many states already do as their laws indicate that injuries that “arise out of and occur within the course of employment” compensable. As I may have mentioned before, RemoteWork.com isn't just another jobs board or hr software tool, it's a tool to keep employees productive, healthy and avoid risk while improving the bottom line. (source: https://www.hg.org/legal-articles/does-workers-compensation-pay-for-a-remote-employee-s-injury-37517)

Next Steps: Assemble a winning winning team.

We all now know that Remote Work will be part of our daily vernacular for at least the next decade if not beyond. My next step is to assemble a winning team with experience selling to business buyers, I especially like WeFunder as Zenefits was a successful business with a similar enterprise / business buyer. Our team will focus on building a minimum viable product and talking to users who will share with us their greatest concerns as employers in the meantime, we can start building relationships and revenue as a jobs board and authoritative source of information on remote work best practices and tools.

Join the Movement

Join me. Let's make RemoteWork.com the leader in the space.

Cordially,

James Bellefeuille