{"id":566,"date":"2012-10-02T07:42:43","date_gmt":"2012-10-02T07:42:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.binfire.com\/?p=566"},"modified":"2026-02-12T12:42:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T12:42:15","slug":"how-to-run-a-100-virtual-company","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/how-to-run-a-100-virtual-company\/","title":{"rendered":"How to run a 100% virtual company"},"content":{"rendered":"

Given all the attention on telecommuting and virtual operations, you would think there was now a huge roster of companies running entirely \u201cin the cloud, virtual team,\u201d if you will. But most, if not all, still have a physical, core presence somewhere.\u00a0 And there\u2019s a reason for that.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\"Can<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
What it takes to run an entire company out of<\/span><\/div>\n
Starbucks: communication, and lots of it.<\/span><\/div>\n
Photo: Marguerite Reardon, CNET.<\/span><\/div>\n

The Wall Street Journal\u2019s Rachel Emma Silverman\u00a0describes<\/a> the workings of one prototypical 21st-century \u201ccompletely office-less\u201d company: Web-services company\u00a0Automattic Inc<\/a>., which has 123 employees working in 26 countries, 94 cities and 28 U.S. states \u2014 all working from home.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cNobody knows for sure how many completely office-less companies there are or how fast their ranks are growing, but management researchers say such firms are still rare,\u201d Silverman writes. But their ranks are growing.<\/span><\/p>\n

Still, while virtual workplaces have a lot of pluses, there are still a lot of minuses as well that need to be overcome \u2014 both on the management and employee side. Managers often feel they are not in control of things when employees are not within sight. Plus, there may be data security or confidentiality concerns. For employees, there are often feelings of isolation and being left out of the career-advancement loop.<\/span><\/p>\n

To run an effective all-virtual team \u2014 or partially virtual team for that matter \u2014 communication is the vital link. Some observations made in the article include the following management tips:<\/span><\/p>\n

Address the \u201cvirtual workstyle<\/a>\u201d in hiring and orientation:<\/strong> Before making a hire, Automatic assigns applicants to work on a trial project. Plus, once hired, all new employees are required to work in customer service for their first three weeks.<\/span><\/p>\n

Emphasize \u201covercommunication\u201d:<\/strong> This is key to heading off misunderstandings. Employees at Automatic, for example, are constantly exchanging messages within an internal blogsite \u2014 a virtual water cooler. \u201cWhen misunderstandings occur with text-based chats, participants are encouraged to pick up the phone,\u201d Silverman writes.<\/span><\/p>\n

Emphasize teamwork:<\/strong> \u201cIf someone misses the mark, the team leader or another staffer will reach out to the employee to figure out what went wrong.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Organize regular get-togethers or meet-ups:<\/strong> Even in the virtual era, nothing bonds like face-to-face meetings. At one company, not only is there constant chatter between employees via instant messaging and email, but employees are also flown in every year for an annual meeting.<\/span><\/p>\n

Reprinted from Smart Planet by Joe McKendrick<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
\n\"\"<\/a>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>
<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Given all the attention on telecommuting and virtual operations, you would think there was now a huge roster of companies running entirely \u201cin the cloud, virtual team,\u201d if you will.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,28],"tags":[7,29],"class_list":["post-566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-project-management-2","category-virtual-teams","tag-project-management","tag-virtual-teams"],"yoast_head":"\nHow to run a 100% virtual company - Collaboration Corner<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Given all the attention on virtual operations, there was now a huge roster of companies running entirely \u201cin the cloud, virtual team \u201d if you will\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/how-to-run-a-100-virtual-company\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How to run a 100% virtual company - Collaboration Corner\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Given all the attention on virtual operations, there was now a huge roster of companies running entirely \u201cin the cloud, virtual team \u201d if you will\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/how-to-run-a-100-virtual-company\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Collaboration Corner\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-10-02T07:42:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-12T12:42:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/i.bnet.com\/blogs\/starbucks_laptop_users_270x202-cnet-marguerite-reardon.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"David Robins\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"David Robins\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/how-to-run-a-100-virtual-company\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/how-to-run-a-100-virtual-company\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"David Robins\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/9e7cab738f49cc42aa1e195126e7dd65\"},\"headline\":\"How to run a 100% virtual company\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-10-02T07:42:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-12T12:42:15+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/how-to-run-a-100-virtual-company\/\"},\"wordCount\":405,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/how-to-run-a-100-virtual-company\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/i.bnet.com\/blogs\/starbucks_laptop_users_270x202-cnet-marguerite-reardon.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"project management\",\"virtual teams\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Project management\",\"virtual teams\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/how-to-run-a-100-virtual-company\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/how-to-run-a-100-virtual-company\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/how-to-run-a-100-virtual-company\/\",\"name\":\"How to run a 100% virtual company - Collaboration Corner\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/how-to-run-a-100-virtual-company\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/how-to-run-a-100-virtual-company\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\/\/i.bnet.com\/blogs\/starbucks_laptop_users_270x202-cnet-marguerite-reardon.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-10-02T07:42:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-12T12:42:15+00:00\",\"description\":\"Given all the attention on virtual operations, there was now a huge roster of companies running entirely \u201cin the cloud, virtual team \u201d if you will\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/how-to-run-a-100-virtual-company\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/how-to-run-a-100-virtual-company\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/how-to-run-a-100-virtual-company\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\/\/i.bnet.com\/blogs\/starbucks_laptop_users_270x202-cnet-marguerite-reardon.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\/\/i.bnet.com\/blogs\/starbucks_laptop_users_270x202-cnet-marguerite-reardon.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/how-to-run-a-100-virtual-company\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"How to run a 100% virtual company\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Collaboration Corner\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Collaboration Corner\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/cropped-binfire_logo.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/cropped-binfire_logo.png\",\"width\":696,\"height\":324,\"caption\":\"Collaboration Corner\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/9e7cab738f49cc42aa1e195126e7dd65\",\"name\":\"David Robins\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ca569889b88b6ab05131d38fa14f2548bbd90ac85a17da19bf28a69bb2ab9eb8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ca569889b88b6ab05131d38fa14f2548bbd90ac85a17da19bf28a69bb2ab9eb8?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"David Robins\"},\"description\":\"David Robins is the founder and CEO of Binfire. David studied at both Cornell and MIT, and was the Director of Software Engineering at Polaroid for 11 years.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/author\/david\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"How to run a 100% virtual company - Collaboration Corner","description":"Given all the attention on virtual operations, there was now a huge roster of companies running entirely \u201cin the cloud, virtual team \u201d if you will","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/how-to-run-a-100-virtual-company\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"How to run a 100% virtual company - Collaboration Corner","og_description":"Given all the attention on virtual operations, there was now a huge roster of companies running entirely \u201cin the cloud, virtual team \u201d if you will","og_url":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/how-to-run-a-100-virtual-company\/","og_site_name":"Collaboration Corner","article_published_time":"2012-10-02T07:42:43+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-02-12T12:42:15+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/i.bnet.com\/blogs\/starbucks_laptop_users_270x202-cnet-marguerite-reardon.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"David Robins","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"David Robins","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/how-to-run-a-100-virtual-company\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/how-to-run-a-100-virtual-company\/"},"author":{"name":"David Robins","@id":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/9e7cab738f49cc42aa1e195126e7dd65"},"headline":"How to run a 100% virtual company","datePublished":"2012-10-02T07:42:43+00:00","dateModified":"2026-02-12T12:42:15+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/how-to-run-a-100-virtual-company\/"},"wordCount":405,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/how-to-run-a-100-virtual-company\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/i.bnet.com\/blogs\/starbucks_laptop_users_270x202-cnet-marguerite-reardon.jpg","keywords":["project management","virtual teams"],"articleSection":["Project management","virtual teams"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/how-to-run-a-100-virtual-company\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/how-to-run-a-100-virtual-company\/","url":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/how-to-run-a-100-virtual-company\/","name":"How to run a 100% virtual company - Collaboration Corner","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/how-to-run-a-100-virtual-company\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/how-to-run-a-100-virtual-company\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/i.bnet.com\/blogs\/starbucks_laptop_users_270x202-cnet-marguerite-reardon.jpg","datePublished":"2012-10-02T07:42:43+00:00","dateModified":"2026-02-12T12:42:15+00:00","description":"Given all the attention on virtual operations, there was now a huge roster of companies running entirely \u201cin the cloud, virtual team \u201d if you will","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/how-to-run-a-100-virtual-company\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/how-to-run-a-100-virtual-company\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/how-to-run-a-100-virtual-company\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/i.bnet.com\/blogs\/starbucks_laptop_users_270x202-cnet-marguerite-reardon.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/i.bnet.com\/blogs\/starbucks_laptop_users_270x202-cnet-marguerite-reardon.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/how-to-run-a-100-virtual-company\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"How to run a 100% virtual company"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/","name":"Collaboration Corner","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Collaboration Corner","url":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/cropped-binfire_logo.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/cropped-binfire_logo.png","width":696,"height":324,"caption":"Collaboration Corner"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/9e7cab738f49cc42aa1e195126e7dd65","name":"David Robins","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ca569889b88b6ab05131d38fa14f2548bbd90ac85a17da19bf28a69bb2ab9eb8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ca569889b88b6ab05131d38fa14f2548bbd90ac85a17da19bf28a69bb2ab9eb8?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"David Robins"},"description":"David Robins is the founder and CEO of Binfire. David studied at both Cornell and MIT, and was the Director of Software Engineering at Polaroid for 11 years.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.binfire.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/author\/david\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=566"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11213,"href":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/566\/revisions\/11213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.binfire.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}