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Me and my Co-Founder decided that since we don't like to be in offices, everyone that works for us (Ripe Apps Inc.) don't have to either.

We've let go of the the physical space, we collaborate by Skype, IRC, e-Mail, Google Docs, DropBox, once every week or two over burgers/lunch, and if we need to convey something that is not coming trough the line with contractors we meet at a cafe for an afternoon.

We also don't hire manager, we only deal with people who can self manage.

1 comments

I worked for a company like this, honestly I didn't really like it, at least the meeting in cafe's part, personally I find the comforts of an office superior in this regard as a conference room with no distractions and a projector beats sitting in a noisy cafe huddled around a laptop. I'm not against the not having an office idea completely but I think that if I were to be involved in something like this again I would want them to at least have one of those "shared spaces" offices where you can go in sometimes to work collaboratively and have access to conference rooms, etc.

One thing that can work, if you only need a day here and there, is to get a motel room to use as a meeting room/conference room. Even fewer distractions than an office and you don't have to pay for it when you aren't using it. (We did this a few times in the 1980s/90s when I was working for an architect, when we needed a meeting place near a job.)

Nowadays I think most cities they have spaces that can be rented on an hourly basis that are suited for this purpose (beyond hotel rooms)

In those cases i have the Team come to my House or the Condo's Amenities Floor, lot's of quite room and wifi.

But yes, this arrangement is not for everyone.