The Startup Nation inspired us with their cool office. We wanted the same. Indeed, we made efforts to design a friendly and pleasant office. We invested a lot, both money and time. We finished it a couple of weeks ago, and suddenly, we decided to quit for a new start — the remote work. Here are some reasons why, at évolt we decided to switch.
The French system is wrong
It was time for us to renew our contract with the office owner. In France, you have to rent an office for a minimum of three years. What the hell is wrong? How many companies have that level of visibility in our economic context? We said no. That was enough.
A startup needs flexibility. I always think of DeNiro’s line from Heat: “Allow nothing to be in your life that you cannot walk out on in thirty seconds flat if you spot the heat around the corner.” We are in that state of mind right now.
The waste of time
When you spend two and a half hours in your car each day to go to the office, you waste time, and you are exhausted. You can’t afford time for your family. The professional and personal life balance was not right. It was an opportunity for me to stop, focus on family, and get more work done.
Take care of ourself
For many years, I had no time for me. Between my family (with two kids) and running a company of about ten people, there was no time for myself. I was doing less and less sports, and it was affecting my mental health. Furthermore, my best ideas come from sports sessions. Today, I’m back. I have gained two-and-a-half hours a day that I can spend on physical activities to get more ideas 😉
Money, money, money
You can’t deny that renting an office costs a lot: between €2,500 and €3,000/month for less than 100m2 in Montpellier (and that is not even in Paris!). For an engagement of three years, that means almost €100,000 (when you add extras like coffee, pickles, wine, beer, insurance,etc.). Imagine what you could do with that money as a startup!
Access to more talent
We heard that remote work offers a lot of opportunities to hire new talent from around the world. A friend who manages a coding school told me about the students’ wishes to work remotely.I understood that we needed to adapt our culture and management to new behaviors.
Stay focused
The office life is something cool. Everything is fluid because you can solve a problem around a coffee. When you get in trouble, you can ask your colleagues, but it is also disturbing in another way. Staying at home lets you focus on your work. Snooze your notifications, and get things done.
Let’s start a new adventure with remote work
As an entrepreneur, I feed myself with new challenges. So, when we had the opportunity to start a new one as a remote company, we said yes! Furthermore, we believe that the future of work is remote. We want to be part of it right now. We want to explore, test, and be part of this new generation of company. We know that it will not be easy, but we take that challenge.
If you have useful ideas on remote work and want to share with us, don’t hesitate to comment.
