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70% of startups offer remote work options as hiring heats up, YC data shows

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Re: 70% of startups offer remote work options as hiring heats up, YC data shows

#321

Are there any startups attempting to sort out the tax situation when working from different places. It would involve a lot of figuring out with governments but as things stand I think being a digital nomad is going to be done semi illegally. I would definitely sign up and pay my fair share to the correct jurisdiction.

Multi-state employment can be quite complex and a lot of startups are struggling with it. I work for a company called Insperity that completely solves this problem (full stop) by taking on full responsibility for payroll taxes and a lot of HR related compliance issues. Some of our success stories include Netflix, Trulia, Workday, Buzzfeed, Hello Fresh etc. Anyone curious about this platform that enables remote work in any state is free to drop me a line--happy to discuss. zac.mutrux@insperity.com

Re: 70% of startups offer remote work options as hiring heats up, YC data shows

#322

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s exactly what I’m talking about. You are essentially a full time employee in all but name. Here’s one of the tests. Notice vacation is explicitly called out. > Are there written contracts or employee type benefits (i.e. pension plan, insurance, vacation). Will the relationship continue and is the work performed a key aspect of the business? Your employer is clearly treating you like an employee while paying you…

I wonder how would one enforce this. I invoice once per month for the hours I logged (that might include vacation hours), but the invoice itself says "Software Development Services {month} {year}". Or do you mean we wouldn't be able to have vacation as part of the contract? Or not allow a contractor to work for one client for more than X time per year? Seems pretty tricky. And how or who would enforce this for me, wh…

Enforcement is relatively easy. Many US states regularly pursue enforcement action for misclassification of employees.

Companies already report how much they pay contractors to the IRS and state tax agencies, so spot checking companies paying a large percentage of their total wages to contractors is the easiest way to do it.

If you’re being paid by any American companies, the most likely theoretical enforcement would be the state the company is based in.

Re: 70% of startups offer remote work options as hiring heats up, YC data shows

#323

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because everyone who seriously invests money in businesses knows that there’s a performance hit you take as a remote company. People haven’t been paying for offices for the last ten years for no reason. Engineering is one segment where this penalty seems to be lower. However, engineers seem to be unable to understand that every other function functions better in person. The tradeoff you’re hoping to make is that the…

> The tradeoff you’re hoping to make is that the increase in talent pool outweighs the decrease in productivity. No, the trade-off is being able to hire the best people possible instead of the best people who will work in the office. Honestly, the office has been dying since 4G and high speed internet got everywhere. Offices should be optional - there if you need it, there for meetings, team work sessions and present…

Please try and remember, as many people won't take a fully remote job as will not take an office bound or hybrid job. Lots of the best people are not interested in remote, so you're not going to get them by enforcing remote.

Re: 70% of startups offer remote work options as hiring heats up, YC data shows

#325

Meanwhile, I'm happy to see some startups trying to fix the "remote (US only)" stuff. It could be a great business. On one hand, many great talents (including me) around the world are blocked from these opportunities (like those from India, Russia, China, etc). On the other hand, many companies would like to have great talents with lower cost, but most of them don't want to deal with the hassle.

Small companies really can’t fix this. It means having the capability to legally comply with whatever US and foreign laws govern the hiring of a worker from that country. If you’re a tiny startup, there’s little incentive to take time to incorporate in a foreign country on the chance this potential hire is a superstar. So you work out some kind of contracting arrangement instead.

Usually this gets done "under the table". I don't think there's anythibg really preventing it stateside since labir protections are flimsy and are there only for citizens /residents.

Re: 70% of startups offer remote work options as hiring heats up, YC data shows

#327

I know most people will love this, but it's made it newly impossible to find jobs that will sponsor visas for those of us that want to move abroad

Looks like there's plenty of countries that offer remote work visas. https://www.letsdeel.com/blog/remote-work-visas Seems like a problem that will eventually self correct as more jobs go remote and countries realize they have to compete with each other for residents so they can profit off of these worker's productivity.

That list claims the Australian Working Holiday Visa is (quoted from article: "designed to allow digital nomads to spend a year in the country with the ability to apply for an extension". It's definitely not designed for digital nomads, it's designed for backpackers doing short stints of casual work, especially in fields like agriculture, mining, and construction [1]. Hell, to get the extension you need to work for 3 months in the above fields. And getting it that wrong puts the rest of the list into doubt.

[1] Full list here: https://immi.homeaffairs.gov.au/what-we-do/whm-program/speci...

Re: 70% of startups offer remote work options as hiring heats up, YC data shows

#328

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s exactly what I’m talking about. You are essentially a full time employee in all but name. Here’s one of the tests. Notice vacation is explicitly called out. > Are there written contracts or employee type benefits (i.e. pension plan, insurance, vacation). Will the relationship continue and is the work performed a key aspect of the business? Your employer is clearly treating you like an employee while paying you…

I wonder how would one enforce this. I invoice once per month for the hours I logged (that might include vacation hours), but the invoice itself says "Software Development Services {month} {year}". Or do you mean we wouldn't be able to have vacation as part of the contract? Or not allow a contractor to work for one client for more than X time per year? Seems pretty tricky. And how or who would enforce this for me, wh…

the US would want to enforce it, not so much to be nice to Estonians / Argentinians, but to to stop US companies bypassing US workers by going overseas and bypassing laws to protect employees.

Re: 70% of startups offer remote work options as hiring heats up, YC data shows

#329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody is going to do that are they, it's insane for tax jurisdictions to want to do this they are just doing themselves out of 10% rather than winning 55%.

1. That 55% doesn't go in the trash bin, it goes to pay the schools your children will attend, the hospitals your family might need, the streets you use to commute etc. 2. It's insane for individuals to give up equity just to avoid 55% taxes. They are doing themselves out of 45% rather than winning 90%.

People will find ways around the 55%, I don’t see all the European founders at YC giving away 55% of their companies so there are loopholes, might as well just be straight forward about a fair taxation rate. 55% of a company is too much.

Re: 70% of startups offer remote work options as hiring heats up, YC data shows

#330

I honestly don't understand how any startup can even hope to compete if they don't offer remote options. Hiring is incredibly tight right now, and I'm sure glad my options are "anybody within ~2 timezones" over basically only people within a 15 mile radius of my office because traffic is horrendous in my city. Not to mention, how have companies not realized how to build robust remote company cultures over the past 2…

A company with a few people vs. a company with a lot of people are two different beasts. If things are not rigidly defined, it can be a lot more effective for people to be around each other, especially in the phase of spontaneous brainstorming or kitchen conversation or happy hour drinks. Most new companies aren’t hiring super experienced engineers to grind out a high risk venture, and maybe those are the people leas…

How do you reach the same level of effectiveness teaching or debugging math problems on a whiteboard without investing a lot of time asynchronously?

If I may be so bold, we've taken a stab at this: https://sharetheboard.com

Our focus was originally on shared whiteboarding (PdMs + devs) but in 2020, for obvious reasons, schools started contacting us and using the tech for remote/hybrid teaching.

But it's true: the real-time part of teaching/writing/debugging is critical in the learning process. For this same reason, many of the teachers we work with use our app to share a piece of paper in real time. Similar result and you don't have to own a whiteboard.

(if you get a chance to kick the tires on it, I'd love some candid feedback)

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