The Memo: #26 (81+ remote jobs)

Dec 06, 2019

Hey folks,

Last week, I mentioned Peanut, the community for new mothers, and their excellent video that explains the need for their app in a very clever way.

Well it seems that the people at Peanut are just all-round pretty clever. The app draws inspiration from Tinder’s swipe left/swipe right model. But, in this YouTube video, Peanut’s founder, Michelle Kennedy, mentions how the team didn’t want people to fill rejected when others swiped left. So they changed the actions: you swipe up to wave at someone and swipe down for maybe later. It’s subtle but I think it’s a great way of reframing/rebranding an action to minimize the negative feelings people might have when they use your product or service. Side note: if you’re a mom, or you have moms involved in your side project, the Peanut app could potentially be an interesting place to find early users.

Lean Luxe, a newsletter focused on direct-to-consumer luxury businesses created by Paul Munford, has a unique way of on-boarding users into its Slack group. Anyone looking to get in has to first be a subscriber to the free newsletter for at least a month and they have to maintain an open-rate of at least 60%. Hunter Walk of Homebrew wrote a blog post on the model and I’ve seen others deploy it since learning of it. One reason I think it’s quite clever: newsletters typically have an open-rate at or below 50%. This model, if deployed successfully, could lead to a 10% increase in the open-rates compared to peers and could be valuable for differentiation when pitching potential sponsors.

Things to think about if you’re thinking about building a community.

There’s been quite the influx of emails, new sign ups and new paying members since the last newsletter. So, let’s step back and talk about why I started The Memo.

Stock options. I noticed that many remote positions did not include stock options and I wanted to be an advocate for startups to find a way to grant stock options to their remote staff.
A new model. Lots of people talk about how the future of work is remote but the models for in the hiring space seem to be the same. What would it look like if we placed the emphasis on the candidate and their career?
Out of office. My own inclination is to design a career around not working in a corporate environment. I’ve spoken to many subscribers & members, and you expressed the same idea: finding a way to minimize office politics seems to be a priority.

Why am I building this community now?

No love for LinkedIn. I personally don’t get much value out of LinkedIn, ane there seems a general backlash against LinkedIn. There’s an opportunity to build a career community, with a new model, specifically for remote workers.
Hidden positions. In talking to founders, I realized that many companies would consider hiring remote but don’t actively brand themselves as “remote-first” or
“remote-friendly.” There’s an opportunity to connect people to those roles.
Large opportunity. There’s lots of people that are interested in remote work, but I suspect that there are many many more that have never considered and would find it valuable.

Right now, we are a job board delivered via email. We’re like Scott’s Cheap Flights but for remote jobs. (There’s additional perks for members who support us.)

How are we different from other remote job boards?

A fair amount of the jobs and companies that we feature aren’t also published on AngelList, WeWorkRemotely or the other job boards.

Support the newsletter and community by becoming a founding member.

So, all that to say, if you’re interested in supporting this project as we try to rethink how remote workers connect to new roles and launch side projects, I’m extending the founding member deal, where you can join for just $69/lifetime (one-time fee) by using this discount coupon:

Join for $69/lifetime

Note: I need to manually switch accounts from annual to lifetime and will confirm the switch and I reach out to you with the welcome email.

Why join?

Founding member status
CV + cover letter review whenever you need it
Community 1-on-1s
Early access to each newsletter
No ads ever
Best practice tips on building your own side project (let’s set up call/Google chat to talk about what you’re building)

We’re working on other benefits for founding members, which you can read about on our about page.

Newsletter sponsorships do not seem to be worth it. I’ve been reaching out to companies about sponsoring the newsletter and then using those funds to support one or more community-led side projects. The quoted rates are far too low and I don’t think it’s worth moving forward on that front, at the moment.

I did, however, speak to a coding bootcamp that offered a referral fee if anyone signs up. If anyone is thinking about doing a coding bootcamp, I’ll get the referral link and give you back the 5%-10% that the company would be giving me. Happy to do this for anyone in the community, subscriber or member. Also happy to do this for other services, if you let me know what service you’re looking for.

One more thing:

Interesting blog post by The World Economic Forum on how people can remain competitive in an evolving job market that’s being increasingly reshaped by technology. Two things they recommend: adopt the mindset of the lifelong learner and build a portfolio career. Basically: learn new stuff and build new stuff. (As always, if you’re thinking of a side project or working on one, reach out. I’d love to hear about it).

Cheers,

Chris ✌️

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