Founding a Startup While Being Abroad & Living as Digital Nomad

Last year I wanted to improve my international awareness, and therefore decided to apply for an exchange program. A few weeks later, an early-stage startup idea with a relevant market need and the potential for scalable growth came along. The right people with the same mindset and a diverse range of specializations got passion for this project and started developing the business model. So I have to decide whether to build a startup, realizing my longing desire to be an entrepreneur or to move abroad and to live in a foreign country. I picked option C, founding a startup while being abroad.

Looking back, it was an incredible experience, an experience I will remember for a long time. Here’s the journey I’ve encountered including some of the ups and downs along the way.

In preparation to my trip I subscribed to Remotive.io by Rodolphe Dutel from Buffer. This provided me with tips and knowledge on working remotely, improving productivity and communication. Additionally, I used Pieter Levels’ website http://nomadlist.com to find the best cities to live in, as well as working remotely on a startup.

I rented out my apartment in Vienna for a good price and started my tour in Oslo, where I lived in a dormitory with super-fast Internet connection. Since the Scandinavian countries spend more money for education in comparison to other European countries, my costs were less compared to the rent in Vienna. The University offers co-working spaces, free printing and all the resources I needed in order to build a startup. Hence, all my costs were covered, even though Oslo is by far not the cheapest city. :D

Seeing as I have worked as an IT consultant for startups for the past six years, I am very familiar with the concept of working remotely. As long as I have my laptop and a Wifi connection, I can do my work almost anywhere, anytime. When I’m not restricted to sitting at a desk from nine to five, I feel that I can be more creative and productive.

Remote Working Tools

With team members working remotely, distance plays a significant role. But here we use a number of services and tools to bind us together even when apart. To name a few:

• Slack: We are using the chat system Slack all day for any kind of communication. I also joined the digital nomad slack community #nomads which has channels for cities around the world so that I can connect with those nearby.
• Skype: For meetings we do video calling with Skype and often use the screen sharing options. Screen sharing is definitely a must-have when it comes to remote working.
• FaceTime: Whenever I just want to call a colleague I am using FaceTime, due to the fact that all team members have an iPhone.
• Rackspace is the email hoster of our choice.
• Trello: For project management we are using Trello as our Kanban Board.
• Dropbox: works well enough for file sharing.
• Github: The best way to manage our code and collaborate in team.
• KeePass: Due to the fact that we have a unique password per service, we need KeePass to manage and store safely our passwords.

You probably noticed that we are using many vendors where traditionally one would suffice. When it comes to IT outsourcing and applying services in a startup multisourcing plays a key role, because of reducing fixed costs and increasing cost flexibility, as well as increasing data security and stability in services (see George Kimball, Outsourcing Agreements published in the Oxford University Press).

Outsourcing, entrusting major operations to outside contractors, at home or abroad, represents one of this century’s important trends, made possible by broadband technology and operation of the law of comparative advantage in a word with fewer boundaries than ever before. — George Kimball, Partner, IT/Telecommunications Practice Group, Baker & McKenzie

12 Cities in 6 Months

The collaboration between the people involved in the startup worked well. I worked more than 40 hours a week, building and launching the startup, despite travelling to 12 cities in six months (Oslo, Reykjavik, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Stavanger, Vienna, Svolvær/Lofoten, Stockholm, Bergen, Helsinki, Berlin, London, and Prague). Between my trips I also returned to Vienna, my home town, because even for a digital nomad, meeting the team face-to-face is very important.

All this was only made possible by working seven days a week with flexible working hours. This allowed me to take time off to move or travel whenever I wanted. I love to get out there and to explore the world as often as possible. I didn’t see my travels as a vacation however, because I had to stay productive in order to realize my ideas. So I figured out, if I stayed in a city longer than I would on a regular holiday trip, I would have enough time to explore the city. I can explore a city for a few hours and then still manage to get a lot of work done. Sometimes I even came up with better solutions that way, because new experiences fueled my creativity and challenged me to look at my problems from a new perspective.

At the same time, being in a new place means adjusting to many new things, like finding accommodation or figuring out where the closest grocery store is. Everything takes a little longer in the beginning and that can be a challenge. The most important thing, while travelling from city to city is to schedule the trip as well as possible. Good time management is a fundamental requirement.

One issue that might arise is an inappropriate working space e.g., a coffee shop where the wifi is not quite fast enough. If you set up a skype session in such an environment, it will be waste of time for the entire team. If every team member knows what the others are doing, it is easy to set up a meeting via skype on an appropriate time. A nice tool for that is Idonethis, which lets everyone see what everybody else is working on even without having a meeting. Hence, team communication (verbal & non-verbal) is another very major factor for a good collaboration while being abroad.

Another challenge, which is probably only typical in Austria, is the bureaucratic obstacle, especially with personal signatures. Even with a quite modern E-Government Act a lot of banks and public authorities struggle with an electronic signature, although a qualified certificate equate to a hand-written signature. Obviously they are keen on getting in touch with me in person. ;)

Lessons Learned

After my exchange and the process of building a startup abroad I really believe in the potential of distributed teams. It’s incredibly fascinating how working on a digital product enables me to contribute from wherever I am. The thing that matters most is that you feel comfortable, productive and connected.

But there are also the pain points distributed teams are confronted with. The challenges of co-located teams are the same distributed teams face and from my point of view distance doesn’t make it easier. So you have to be quite careful when it comes to organizational culture, team communication and collaboration. Remaining serene in the midst of turbulence is always important in such a situation.

I can really recommend you give the digital nomad lifestyle a try. You’ll be able to exchange ideas with interesting like-minded people and receive tips and new input for your startup. I’ll be on tour again during the summer, so perhaps we’ll meet someday in a co-working space, in a coffee shop or on the beach.