Comments on: The Montana Future

By: Brian Wynne Williams

Brian Wynne Williams — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 06:44:32 +0000

Inspiring post. I agree with the sentiment, and there’s certainly a lot of appeal to being able to work anywhere — but I do think that most companies (and jobs) are still most effective with a degree of face-to-face interaction happening.

At Viget (based near DC), we’re working on a plan to open a series of remote offices in locations that people really want to live in (Durham, NC first). When we focus on bringing together the best talent, it seems clear that (a) there are certain places where people would prefer to be (Colorado is on my list); and (b) most talented people want to work directly with other talented people.

So, it’s not just about remote/mobile individuals for me, it’s about remote offices with small teams. It’s applying the benefits of the Montana Future to a company (not just people) without losing the great things about working on teams in person. Maybe Big Sky, MT should be next on our list?

By: Kare Anderson

Kare Anderson — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 19:49:39 +0000

Perhaps you’ve read Richard Florida’s books, Rise of the Creative Class & Flight of the Creative Class

By: geraldb28

geraldb28 — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 14:19:13 +0000

Mr. Feld, wish I had known Keystone was one of the other offices. Was just there at the Keystone Lodge and Spa. Great fireworks and SUPERB people. August in Keystone beats Tulsa almost any day of the year.

Absolutely second the notion it is now feasible to work from most anywhere. Which leads me to a question… With the wired nature of our world being so pervasive (excepting FAA approved flights) do startups have any appreciable disadvantages based on geography? On the whole… Certainly there are some benefits to locating close to talent pools, access to knowledge, mentoring and capital. Still…

By: Sam

Sam — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 05:33:59 +0000

I was just out in Big Sky prior to the conference and blogged about something similar - entrepreneurs "house sitting": http://www.leveragingideas.com/?p=416

By: Marc Averitt

Marc Averitt — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 21:13:30 +0000

Excellent post! I’ve been a “mobile” worker for most of the past 10 years. Having said that, there are certain professions where you’ll need to be willing to get on a plane to be able to live/work where you want. Case in point, being a VC in The OC…

By: Russ Fletcher

Russ Fletcher — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 19:22:03 +0000

Spot on Brad. There’s a growing talent crisis which is going to give innovative talent the leverage to decide to live in rural areas. Metro businesses are going to have to realize that they’ll want to set up rural operations if they’re going to be able to recruit and retain those folks who want a rural lifestyle.

Lots of related stories here: “Developing Tech Jobs in Rural Communities” http://matr.net/news.phtml?cat_id=68&catlabel=Developing+Tech+Jobs+in+Rural+Communities

Good to see you at the Big Sky Conference. Let us know when Colorado gets too crowded for you. Montana is truly Big Sky Country with a population of less than 1MM.

By: David Duey

David Duey — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 17:40:50 +0000

Did Atlas Shrugged play a role in your decision to move to Colorado?

By: Charlie Wood

Charlie Wood — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 16:15:12 +0000

I’m a huge fan (and proponent) of the idea of being able to live and work anywhere. I live in Austin but have worked for companies all over the country, some of which deal with purely-remote workers better than others. It seems like a natural outcome that as the communication barriers between geographically separated people are lowered, talent will naturally migrate to, as you call it, Montana.

But John Hagel, who is much smarter than I, writes about “an inconvenient truth: the trend towards coming together in dense urban areas to create spikes of talent is accelerating, rather than disappearing, on a global scale. How to resolve the paradox of greater spike formation in a flat world?” (See http://edgeperspectives.typepad.com/edge_perspectives/2007/06/unanswered-ques.html)

Any thoughts on this seemingly contradictory viewpoint?

-c

By: Martin Edic

Martin Edic — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 16:07:52 +0000

Love this post- when we started our company one of our stated goals was ‘be able to run it from a laptop, anywhere we can get a connection’. This means a few things including staying away from conventional hiring because it’s difficult to manage employees from a distance. However the people we need turn out to be people who want to work the same way, virtually, and prefer a contract- independent types.
The ability to build a real business with a completely different footprint is incredibly exciting.