Location-Independent Companies Can Wield Tool Suite to Reach Employees
A startup called Teleport is making tools for companies (and startup employees) that track timezones, optimize travel and advices on living costs. Teleport is a startup from Skype veterans that want global companies to function better no matter where they are located.
Preparing for an estimated 56 million people moving work from the office to online by 2016, the company has developed manpower management made for location-independent startups. Teleport wants businesses to work well even if employees live a 12-hour flight away from each other.
The most obvious app from the suite is Sundial, a graphic way of tracking down timezones team members are in. Although simple, it prevents managers from counting hours with their fingers every time they want to check up on someone.
Flock, on the other hand, analyzes flight costs, destination prices and other similar considerations when arranging meetings of people from different places. For example, if you have team members scattered around Asia that you’d want to meet with, just input their cities and yours. Flock will find the best city to meet halfway in, taking into account flight costs and available Airbnb apartments with enough rooms for the group.
The third member of the suite, Teleport for Startup Cities, targets individuals. It works on both iOS and Android and it can match an individual with a city based on cost-of-living and startup employment opportunities.
The emergence of remote-independence is widely attributed to improving network infrastructure around the world. By building business processes that can be done online, companies save on cost and allow employees to operate with more flexibility, possibly maximizing efficiency.
Co-founders Sten Tamkivi (also CEO) and Silver Kessküla share a history working on Skype before it was acquired by Microsoft. The third co-founder is Dr. Balaki Srinivasan, PhD., an electrical and chemical engineer from Stanford with expertise in data mining.
The company, being a primary client of itself, has main hubs in Palo Alto (USA), Talinn (Estonia) and Munich (Germany) while other “more nomadic” members stay in Medellin (Colombia), Tartu (Estonia) and Cambridge (U.K.). It has $2.5 million in seed funding from the likes of Andreessen Horowitz, SV Angel among others.