Toptal, an online marketplace which connects programmers to companies needing their services, is a $80M+ company.
That’s not bad for a 6-year-old business. However, to me, what’s even more impressive is that they’re “location independent.”
In other words, their people work from all over the world—in various locations, time zones, and environments. Some may work from home. Others work from the beach. Some even work in more traditional (dare I say “old fashioned”) offices.
Gasp. The horror.
This type of a workforce model certainly has its advantages and disadvantages, but the progressive-thinking companies that embrace it can see remarkable results.
Your Uber is here.
We live in a very different world than our parents did. My dad commuted 60 minutes each way to work from an office with a big desktop computer and wired phone and fax machine. The internet didn’t really exist. Email was green text on a black screen.
Today, we request Uber rides with our smartphones. We live in a dynamic, always-connected, and on-demand economy. It’s foolish to think this trend isn’t going to impact the workforce. It will. It is. And I think it’s going to continue.
A model worth trying?
Our 5-year office lease expires at the end of the year. Time flies when you’re having fun, eh?
We’ve grown quite a bit over the past five years and expect to continue our expansion in the years ahead.
As a result, we’ve already embraced a number of tools, workflows, and procedures to make working from anywhere possible. In fact, it’s amazing how efficient and effective we’ve become while at the same time delivering more value to our clients.
For me and my sometimes-crazy travel schedule, being able to work wherever and whenever is a requirement. For others on the Forge3 team, it’s simply preferred to have a change of scenery to inspire creativity.
In the remaining six months on our lease, we’ll be experimenting with becoming more “location independent.”
Will it work? What lessons will we learn? Will it be a good fit?
Good questions.
