“We knew we wanted to address the pain of remote work,” said Marcelo Lebre of the goal he and Job van der Voort shared when the two founded Remote.com in 2019. As it turns out, it was a worldwide pain. There were countless freelancers who were waiting to be matched with opportunities and vice versa. Remote.com scaled the problem on a global level so that the right talent could be pooled from anywhere. Currently, the majority of the site’s business is inbound and via word of mouth. As Marcelo points out, this is due to the power of the brand, but also of the pain itself.
A major feature of Remote.com’s success and one that it shares freely with the rest of the world is its handbook. What started as a way to keep all of its asynchronous workers organized became a guide for similar businesses to follow while learning to run their businesses remotely during the pandemic. Marcelo discusses how this handbook keeps employees accountable to themselves and each other and other surprising ways it builds and maintains brand culture.
Marcelo explains the benefits of anxiety and the major problem with today’s entrepreneurs.
Quotes:
“And the more we talked about the things that moved us, the more it was clear that we’re both suffering from the same issue of talent, the bridge that doesn’t exist and the gap between talent and opportunity across the world.” ([4:57]-[5:11] | Marcelo)
“The solutions out there are not good. They’re broken because people don’t understand the problem they’re solving. They’re just local solutions. They just don’t scale the work. They’re complex. They’re expensive. They serve no one. But the solution is massive. Let’s go for it.” ([6:35]- [6:56] | Marcelo)
“I believe that discipline always outweighs motivation. If you relentlessly pursue the market, the odds of you getting somewhere are much higher than if you just follow your own passion. But ultimately, they go hand in hand.” ([8:57]-[9:16] | Marcelo)
“The market is as big as the world itself. Literally any company in the world can be our customer.” ([30:14]-[30:25] | Marcelo)
“There’s a massive problem with entrepreneurs. These days, they tend to follow others much more than they should follow themselves. And that’s a big problem. Because you tend to copy templates. It’s much more important to be inspired by the right people, than to copy the ones you deem perfect.” ([57:38]-[58:03] | Marcelo)
Connect with Brendan Dell:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brendandell/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/BrendanDell
Instagram: @thebrendandell
TikTok: @brendandell39
Buy a copy of Brendan’s Book, The 12 Immutable Laws of High-Impact Messaging: https://www.indiebound.org/book/9780578210926
Connect with Marcelo:
LinkedIn: @MarceloLebre
Twitter: @marcelo_lebre
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About the Author
Brendan Dell
Brendan Dell is an author and the founder of The Daily Creative. As a freelancer he's worked with clients like Expedia, Cvent, Panasonic, Brother, Windstream and 100+ more to build unignorable tech brands. At The Daily Creative, he shares advice and lessons to help freelancers level up.
