When we started ORLIY, the easy default would have been to rent an office in one city and hire around it. Instead, we went remote-first, and it's a decision we'd make again.
Access to talent, not proximity
The best person for a given role rarely lives within commuting distance of any single office. Being remote-first from day one meant we could hire based on skill and fit, not geography.
Writing things down by default
A distributed team only works if decisions and context live in documents, not in hallway conversations. We default to writing things down, which has the side effect of making decisions easier to revisit and audit later.
What we protect deliberately
Remote-first doesn't mean no structure. We protect a handful of synchronous touchpoints each week specifically to keep the team connected, and we're deliberate about onboarding so new hires never feel like they're piecing the company together on their own.