More and more companies, from Credit Suisse, one of Europe’s largest traditional financial institutions, to Airbnb and Coinbase, are moving to allow their employees to work from wherever they want. The office, once a centerpoint for all things work-related, is now transforming into a network of connected nodes working in concert to deliver a variety of outcomes.
For Web3 enthusiasts, this might have a familiar ring – and it should. Just like the Web itself, business is getting decentralized, and Web3 startups should spearhead this charge, paving the way for others to follow. We set off on this path years ago and learned a lot from the experience.
Why bother at all?
The Web3 movement is about more than technology – it embraces and promotes a set of values such as transparency, individual-empowerment, and autonomy across borderless communities, rooted in a vision for a more open, inclusive, and fair world. A centralized office following a strict vertical hierarchy is pretty antithetical to this vision for fairly obvious reasons. Web3 is a mindset, and it is not enough to just preach it, we must live it and lead by example.
That said, there was more to our decision than the desire to embrace the Web3 ideals in full. Businesses do objectively stand to gain a lot from opening up to true decentralization in a physical sense, which means spreading far and wide beyond nation state borders while sticking to startup-esque horizontal ways of working.
First of all, true decentralization enables companies to work with the best talent globally, without having to stick to a specific locality. Given the persistent shortage of talent in the tech space, this is an enormous advantage. In some ways, a decentralized tech company is like a Github collaboration bringing people from dozens of countries together, but with the added benefit of getting paid.
Besides that, such flexibility usually appeals to the employees, who are not the biggest fans of centralized office spaces no matter how many pizza parties the company is willing to throw. Furthermore, ownership and self-empowerment that come with ditching a vertical corpo-style hierarchy can make them more motivated and excited to contribute to the project. Excitement and the sense of accomplishment that comes with running your own show are crucial at a time when talent is on a search for meaning like never before.
Finally, ditching a centralized office space allows the company to cut some costs. A specific address is still a must in the business world, so rent will still be on the budget, but featured not nearly as prominently as with a regular company. Some of the freed finances should go toward home office allowances and other perks for team members.
Organization decentralization 101
For an organization, decentralization makes for an experience comparable with the Wim Hoff method for self-improvement. You have to fully commit to change, and at first, it will be very uncomfortable. You’ll earn respect from some, others won’t understand you. But as the new mentality sets in, there will be a point where you’ll have no clue how you ever lived without it.
Here is how we carved out our path to a decentralized workspace:
- We started hiring globally. Talent moves from place to place, and we wanted to make sure we can onboard the best people wherever they go. This remote-first approach enabled us to expand far and wide, drawing in talent in time zones from Australia to Peru. Of course, we could not afford to set up a legal entity in every country we hire in, but signing up with a global hiring service made it possible to onboard contractors worldwide while still being financially healthy.
- Team members choose how they want to work. There are a bunch of options to select from: Our team members are still welcome at the HQ in Berlin, but they are just as free to work from home or tap into the company budget for a spot at a coworking space. We also set up opportunities for the team to come together in person every now and then for in-person work and socializing. The feedback so far is great – it helps to convene from time to time and get to know each other in person.
- We follow rules and protocols. Freedom takes responsibility, so we set a number of rules for smoother collaboration and communication. No matter where they live, peaq team members must align at least half of their work hours with the CEST time zone to make sure they are available. We also set up clear-cut company-wide objectives and OKRs to align on the direction we should all be working toward.
- We promote ownership and transparency. We use project management tools to break down every project into sub-tasks. For each task, we assign an owner, the person responsible for seeing it through end-to-end. This responsibility has an invigorating effect and also enables us to align on priorities and tasks at hand. Furthermore, we strive to be as transparent as possible, keeping documents open within the company and maximizing communications on public Slack channels.
- We work horizontally. We make sure to foster a culture of openness and collaboration, setting up regular meetings between teams and team leaders. We also set up forms and channels for feedback and ideas from employees to enable everyone to suggest their ideas knowing they will be taken seriously.
We are happy with the result so far – we have built a flexible and versatile community that gets things done. The next point on the agenda is to subsidize travels to get-togethers in physical locations. We are also working on setting up deep work mornings, where team members can focus on tasks which require long periods of deep concentration or ‘flow’, as well as no-call days for similar purposes. There are more milestones to hit and more ideas to implement, but so far, the journey has been very rewarding, and we will stick to this path.
About the author
Javier Wasserman is the Head of Operations at EoTLabs, the company behind the leading Web3 projects such as peaq, the blockchain network powering the Economy of Things. Before joining EoT Labs, Javier co-founded a B2C & B2B fitness subscriptions marketplace with more than 800 gyms and fitness centers from LATAM and held a variety of development and business growth positions. Trained by the leading business accelerators such as 500 Startups and Startup Chile, and with his degree in IT and Computer Science studies from Universidad Caece in Argentina, he is an entrepreneur and growth engineer with a passion for tech, innovation, and startups.