“Four-Day Workweek? I Hate It.” Top Fintech Founder Max Faldin About Building a Remote-First Startup

Building a remote-first startup offers a myriad of opportunities for growth, innovation, and cost savings.

By embracing the future of work and addressing the unique challenges of remote operations, entrepreneurs can create a thriving business that harnesses the power of a global talent pool while adapting to the evolving landscape of work in the digital era.

However, it does come with challenges. Effective communication and collaboration become paramount when team members are dispersed across various locations.

Employing the right digital tools and platforms, implementing clear communication channels, and fostering a culture of transparency and accountability are vital to ensuring a cohesive and productive remote team.

To truly comprehend the intricacies of building a remote-first startup in the UK, we delve into the personal experience of Max Faldin, an entrepreneur who embarked on this transformative journey by setting up a fintech company called Silverbird in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.

How many remote workers do you have at Silverbird, and what is the proportion compared to your office workers? What is your daily routine of communicating with your remote team?

Silverbird doesn't work that way. We have several remote teams across the globe, across Europe, to be exact. We have a team in London, about 30 people, and about 40 people in Moldova.

In London, we meet twice a week, so two working days at the office. In Moldova, it's between three and five days a week. It's a little bit more complicated because those who are new to the team (junior staff) work from the office five times a week.

And those who work with us for more than three months or more than six months, they go to the office three times a week.

 The rest of the team is completely online, completely remote. So, about 30% of our team members never come to the office at all.

Was your company remote-first from day one, or is it fair to say that you actually have a hybrid work routine? How have you adapted to working remotely?

We have a hybrid work routine today, as I described above, but it was remote first. Not even remote first, but remote native, I would say, from day one. Because we started during Covid-19, and we didn't have a chance to start working from the office for the first 18 months.

We didn't have an office for a good reason.

As a fintech founder, do you think it’s safe to have a remote-first team in terms of financial security?

I think it's totally safe. I think that safety and security comes not from the people coming to the office every day or regularly, but it comes from robust processes in your security checks, compliance, etc.

Do you have a policy for monitoring your remote workers’ jobs?

We do only for junior workers and only for those who work the first three or four or five months. Otherwise, we think the less policy, the better.

When it comes to the 4-day workweek concept that’s now becoming so popular in the UK, what’s your stance on it? Do you believe you will ever consider it for your remote team to keep them more concentrated?

Honestly, I hate it. I think it's just so out of touch. It just has nothing to do with the way business works. And I think people who are trying to promote this four-day week, or three-day week or whatever number of days per week concept, are just after the wrong cause.

The right course is just to build businesses and office spaces and companies that people find interesting working in and find exciting to be part of. And find it worthwhile to welcome in their lives rather than decrease the number of days, hours, or limit ourselves in any other ways.

Yes, I hate this four-week concept. I think it's actually got killed by remote work itself.

What do you do as part of your company culture to establish a sense of belonging for your remote hires?

We engage people obviously online. Any online tool you can imagine, like Slack, and like doing one all-hands meetings every month. But we also do offsites. I think offsites are extremely important when you do remote work, especially if the team is distributed across the globe as we are now across Europe and we make sure that our team members meet every six weeks, every eight weeks, or every nine weeks.

In some cases in person, and spend at least two, three days together, sometimes a week together in some locations in the world. Offsites become extremely important when you do remote work.

We did offsites in Moldova, Dubai, and in Amsterdam during the largest fintech conference Money20/20.

Do you think remote mode will continue to play such a central part in the future of work?

I do, but I think that working from offices is also important. I think that meeting people in the office and engaging and having these impromptu conversations around the water cooler and putting everybody in one room and exploring — that's where the magic happens. And that, I think, is totally absent in remote work.

So, I don't think the world will ever evolve to this, to the point where you will never meet each other again in the office space. But I also think the world will never get back to a five-day week at the office anytime soon or ever.

Navigating the remote work landscape can present significant challenges, but Max Faldin and his startup, Silverbird, are demonstrating the right approach to achieving success.

With a focus on effective communication, leveraging technology infrastructure, and fostering a strong company culture, Max has positioned Silverbird to thrive in the remote-first model.

Their commitment to addressing challenges head-on and embracing the opportunities of remote work sets them on a promising path toward achieving their goals and realizing the full potential of their startup.