Viralogy

This morning my friends from college woke up at 6am, ate breakfast, watched the early morning news, put on a tie, and dragged themselves to work for another grueling 8-10 hours.  The traditional, corporate life has consumed 100% of their time during the weekdays and is the ball-and-chain that dictates what time they wake up, what they wear, and when they can relax.

That used to be me.  Actually, that used to be all of us.

Each member of the Viralogy team was once bound to a work-life that required a physical presence at the office.  But by working together, we realized that this imaginary ball-in-chain only existed because we allowed it to exist, and that location barriers and time barriers no longer apply, especially in the world of the Internet startup.

The result:

1. Each member of the Viralogy team works in a different city and we even have members in different countries
2. Each member of the Viralogy team works at his or her own time
3. Each member of the Viralogy team is able to minimize work time through effective team coordination
4. Meetings are conducted once a week with the majority of the collaboration done online

How we do it

1. Meetings: Meetings are held and conducted via Skype.  We maximize meeting effectiveness by coordinating through emails, reserving meetings times strictly to high-level decision-making.

Cost: $0

2. Project Management: Project management is conducted via PB Works.  PB Works allows the Viralogy team to build systems and processes, and hold each other accountable for the work that needs to be done.

Cost: $0

3. Outsourced Work: Viralogy uses Elance to hire a team of outsourced employees from India to do our data entry and PR outreach.  We maximize their output through training manuals that remove us from any management roles.

Cost: $4/hour

4. Fax: Since we don’t have an office location, we simply use Rapid Fax for all of our faxing needs.

Cost: $7.95/month

5. File Access from anywhere to anyone: Dropbox allows us to keep our documents up to date and have the most recent version of our executive summary, business plan, and business model ready for anyone to use and demonstrate at anytime.

Cost: $0

6. Conferences with Clients: We use FreePhoneConference.com when people aren’t able to meet through Skype.

Cost: $0

7. Public Calendar and Document Collaboration: The team uses Google Calendar and Google Docs to share and save any important dates, and to share spreadsheets for easy collaborate in making financial and user projections.

Cost: $0

8. Easy Invoicing: With no “office” to send checks to, we have chosen to receive all of our payments through PayPal.  For a low price of $30/month, we are able to easily receive payments from our clients as well as easily make any company expenses.

Cost: $30/month

Obstacles and Pains

It sounds so easy doesn’t it?  However, working virtually does not come without its pains and obstacles.  Here are the pain points that Viralogy has faced and how we have overcome them:

1. Loneliness and motivation:  Without a team to physically push us and work alongside of, many team members have felt disconnected and lonely.

Solution: We conduct weekly meetings and hold conversations via Gchat or Skype chat on a daily basis.

2. Accountability: Everyone works remotely; therefore, it is difficult to tell if a team member is actually getting work done or just goofing off.

Solution: PB Works functions as our accountability management tool that allows us to see weekly tasks and accomplishments.

3. Outsource Management: The first time we attempted to outsource our work to India, we spent 10+ hours on Skype calls and training sessions that ultimately postponed the development of our project and wasted dollars.

Solution: We created a detailed outline of the project and a detailed training manual (hosted on PB Works) that completely removed us from direct management and training.

How the Viralogy team members spend their time

Here are the perks of working at a virtual office and how we use our personal time:

Jun Loayza - Chief Marketing Officer

A remote office has completely changed the way I live my life.  Because I work remotely, I have the freedom to build systems that allow me to work only on the important and have the rest of the work automated.  This allows the team to work less hours and devote more time to the people we love.

Here is a concrete examples of how working from a virtual office allows me to get the job done and enjoy myself in every way that I want:

Trip to Peru for Christmas

I’m taking a trip to Peru this Christmas and will be able to work throughout my travel without missing a beat or needing to take time off from the startup.  I’m able to accomplish this through the following tools:

1. Skype for wifi meetings
2. Subscription to Skype US and Canada for calls to US and Canada lines: http://skype.com/allfeatures/subscriptions/uscanada/
3. A personal online number via Skype that allows me to receive calls and messages through Skype: http://www.skype.com/intl/en/allfeatures/onlinenumber/?cm_mmc=affiliate-_-commission_junction-_-text-_-skypein_pid%3D3196076
4. PB Works, Google Calendar, and Google Docs

Yu-kai Chou - Chief Executive Officer

Working in a virtual office gives me tons of freedom while doing the same amount of quality work. I started off working from LA, but then moved to the SF Bay Area for a year to experience a new lifestyle. I was also able to visit old friends in Taiwan for a few weeks while working on client projects in the US.  I have recently relocated to Vancouver to temporarily spend time with family and visit the Rocky Mountains here while continuously working on Viralogy. I still travel back to California to visit my girlfriend or whenever there is business to be done there. Tickets can be pricey but it’s no where close to office rent and the higher living standards in the Bay.

Joseph Yi - Director of Marketing

By working virtually, I am able to truly spend time with those that matter most. During college I was in a long distance relationship with a girl I dated in high school. After my girlfriend and I graduated from college, she moved back home and we are now closer to each other. Although we both work full-time, she in a 9-5 job, and I in a startup, I am able to plan my days in advance so that I can spend ‘quality’ time with her because of my virtual office.

Joseph Hsu - Web Developer

Working virtually has allowed me to stay flexible. This is extremely important as I balance my schedule as a full-time student. I still get to enjoy the college life, spend time with the girlfriend (@jpineda04), and make music (http://www.flickr.com/photos/jhsu/4116386708/). Working virtually is great especially since my setup allows for me to work not only when I want, but also where I want - anywhere there’s a computer.

Jaremy Rich - Director, Business Development

Breaking the mold of a localized business allows me to plan my hours and my days the way I want. Whether I work at 2 p.m. or 2 a.m. is up to me, and it allows me to manage my productivity effectively. If I need to spend more time with my dog or my fiancée during the day so that I can burn the midnight oil at night, I can do that. If I want to spend my day working on my netbook in a coffee shop, I can do that too. It’s a large responsibility that can be incredibly rewarding if managed well.

Working virtually means that our staff is extremely flexible and respectful of each other’s needs in terms of time. For example, we hold a weekly company meeting at 8 p.m. Those meeting times are extremely rare in the normal corporate culture, but we have found it to be a perfect time to collaborate and think creatively. When you can work in a virtual workplace, you have increased flexibility not only with respect to location, but time as well.

Olina Qian - VP of Business Development

Working in a virtual office enables me to get the maximum productivity out of my day.

I like to wake up early and work before the world wakes up and interrupts me. I enjoy the feeling of working in a coffee shop instead of an office. I like to travel around the world. By working in a virtual office, all of the above becomes possible.

Final Advice for those looking for a “new way to work”

There are hundreds of tools out there that will allow you to work remotely; however, the tools are the least important element for the virtual company.  We have seen many companies outsource their work to India or the Philippines, only to realize that they’ve increased their workload instead of decreasing it because of the training, management, and language barrier involved with outsourcing.

The three most important factors in successfully running a virtual company are your ability to create systems, your ability to hold everyone on your team accountable for their work, and your ability to keep everyone on the team emotionally healthy.  Accomplish these three things and you will have built a fully functional virtual company.