Remote Year Archives - Page 2 of 4

Jan 28

Where we lived and worked in Bogota

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Here’s my monthly update video as we say goodbye to Bogota, Colombia and make our way to Medellin:

And here is the month told in photographs:

Walking around Bogotá on my first day there

Parque Virrey was a 2min walk from our apartment. I ran there multiple times each week. So great.

They still had the Christmas decorations up when we got there.

First night in Cartagena with my friend Lana Banana

Cartanea at night. Fico took an identical photo when he was there- great minds...

One of many car and bus rides in our travels around Colombia

Finca Barlovento near Tayrona was INCREDIBLE

This giant condor landed and was sunning himself on the railing

I would have stayed a week here had I known it was this awesome

Private beach down from Finca Barlovento

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Things that stand out:

We had two awesome city managers, Luis and Cata. Can’t say thanks enough for all they did to make us feel welcome in Bogotá.
There are so many perros in the city. We lived right next to Parque Virrey and it’s bustling every day with all kinds of dogs. So cool.
The altitude is definitely noticeable at 8,600+ feet. I’m sitting now in a taco joint in Medellin which is a substantially lower altitude and I feel like I can breathe again.
Colombia is a huge country. I spent the first two weeks of Bogotá traveling all over the country and we only scratched the surface- didn’t realize how huge this country is.
I don’t know why they don’t believe in toilet seats. It’s just weird.
8 cities down, 4 more to go… can’t believe we’re 2/3rds the way through this adventure. The regular conversation now is “what are you doing after RY?” and I feel like most of us don’t know the answer at this point. Will be an interesting next few months as plans start to crystalize.
I know a couple people this month who were a bit depressed (the term “altitude sadness” was coined by one). While I didn’t personally hit those same blues in Bogotá (Valencia was that way for me) I can certainly respect that some people are starting to hit a wall in month 8. Medellin is a welcome change and I think will inject some literal fresh air in our lungs and reinvigorate some.

Gear shout outs

Three pieces of gear this month merit a shoutout:

I picked up a Michael Kors down puffy jacket at Macy’s in a Christmas sale for $100 and it’s probably my single favorite purchase this past year. It compresses down to about the size of a tennis ball can and is super warm. I treated it with Scotchgard as well as Permetherin before leaving the States so now it’s both waterproof and mosquito proof. Highly recommend it. They have it for the same price on Amazon here.
The Amazon Firestick has been a gem on this trip. It performs the same function of an Apple TV giving you apps like Netflix and Spotify on any TV that supports HDMI but it’s 1/4 the size of an Apple TV and just plugs into the back of the TV. There’s a mobile app you can use as a remote. It’s so nice to be able to throw on background music when you’re working at home or to veg out and watch a Netflix when you’re feeling like a hermit. The voice remote feature is really cool too- you can say “play Miles Davis” and it’ll immediately start playing Miles Davis jazz tunes via Amazon Music… pretty incredible.
TRX. This is a resistance training apparatus that let’s you use your own body weight to perform a number of exercises. It’s been my preferred way to stay in shape this past eight months and while we’ve been doing it all along I came to really appreciate it Bogotá. I normally do it outside but there was quite a bit of rain this month so I started using the attachment that comes with it that allows you to hang it off a door inside. It’s about the size of a softball when stored so it travels really well and is more convenient than finding a gym in each city. The basic kit runs $150 on Amazon.

Tunes

Lastly, the songs below will forever remind me of our time in Bogotá.

Jan 01

Where we lived and worked in Mexico City

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This last month flew by. Here’s my monthly update video showing a bit of our living and working arrangement in Mexico City with my commentary:

Here is the month told in photographs:

Near the entrance to the Castle de Chapultapec

This wasn't at all how I had imagined Mexico City looking

View of the skyline from the Chapultapec Castle

Touring Chapultapec Castel on our first day

TRX session with Chris in the park by our apartment

Eating grasshopper pizza at our first EatWith.com event

One of the guests at this EatWith event was a guy who had been on the very first cohort for RemoteYear

Vetting a mariachi downtown at Plaza de Garibaldi for Jacinda's bday

Walking through Tepoztlán to the base of the mountain we hiked

These little guys (Cotomundi) were everywhere atop Tepoztlán mountain. They looked cute but were super aggressive. These two eye Rob's banana peel

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And here are a few of the songs that will forever remind me of this time period:

We’re now in Bogota, Colombia. Happy New Year and thanks for following along with my travels. If you want to get periodic update emails from me that serve as a recap of the highlights, add yourself below:

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Dec 05

Recap of our time in Spain and Ireland

Remote Year, Travels 1 Comment »

Well we just broke the halfway mark of Remote Year having left Valencia, Spain and rounded out month six. Here’s my normal video recap that shows where we lived and worked there:

I was fortunate to get outside of Valencia too this past month and travel around Ireland and to Barcelona. Here is the month told in photos:

Walking around the first morning in Valencia

We did a half-day workshop with entrepreneur Balvinder Polvar. Interesting dude.

We surprise flew out our Broatian boat captain our first weekend. So great to see Bruno

Fezza and Chase being awesome in our kitchen for Around the World.

Post ATW fiesta with Kevin Kelly and Cara

Street musician playing Sinatra in the square at night

Chase Chris and I bounced over to Ireland for a few days.

No big deal- three dudes saving some money and sharing a hotel room ;-)

Campus at Trinity College in Dublin was gorgeous

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Salient things that stand out about this past month:

Spain spanish is very different from latin-american spanish. I learned my español in Ecuador so it was a bit of an adjustment to get the Valencian Spanish. They speak very fast and with the “theta” accent.
Ham, ham and more ham. Spain must do 5x average pig consumption per capita as we do in the States. Jamon was on every menu (we even went to a restaurant called “Jamon Jamon.”). If you get a chance to try Iberic ham, do it. It’s delicious. Paella too, but be prepared to take a nap after.
Valencia was a beautiful, quiet, walkable city with clean streets and nice parks. It was a great R&R stop after Rabat and before diving into the 2nd leg of our journey in Mexico and S. America.
Our Ireland trip was the highpoint of the month for me. The Cliffs of Moher were stunning and just driving the countryside was super relaxing. Driving on the left side of the road with the steering wheel on the right is a mental curveball but such a great experience.
Strong month for sales at Pagely and I’m engaged in two efforts now setting up our business intelligence and implementing a marketing automation framework for improved nurture and conversion.

Anyways, I’m headed back to Phoenix to see friends and family over the Christmas break. If you’re in Phoenix the evening after Christmas we’re doing a happy hour. Hit me up if you want to join and I’ll add you to the FB event. Here are some of the songs that will remind me of this month:

cliffs-of-moher

Nov 04

Where we lived and worked in Rabat

Remote Year 1 Comment »

We’re winding down month five of Remote Year Darien and it’s time for my monthly video update showing friends and fam where our group has lived and worked over the past month:

Here’s a photo album that tells the month’s stories in pictures:

Just off the plane- first time in Africa for most of us!

Welcome to Morocco where ATMs run on Windows...

3 guys on a bobsled means "stop" in Arabic. Got it. Makes sense.

Chillout spot ontop of our workspace 7AY coworking.

Cost to bowl: $.40/game. Closing the biggest deal in Pagely history from a Moroccan bowling alley: priceless.

My roommate Montrey with a sick desk setup at the Riad

Awesome dinner at Le Ziryab. We thought this was the dinner and it turned out just to be the appetizers.

Stop at a seaside town on the way to Assilah beach

Cute kittens abound in these Moroccan towns

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Gear Shoutouts

Two pieces of gear I’d like to celebrate this month:

My Brookstone mini pocket projector. We’ve done movie nights on the roof of our Riad once each week since we got here and it’s really been a nice break from the grind. Spinal Tap, Swiss Army Man, The 9ines, Napoleon Dynamite and Life Aquatic have been keeping us entertained and sane. Nothing like throwing down some magic carpets and hookah on the roof to watch an American film. At night this little projector is plenty bright and projects a 12′ crystal clear HD image. It only lasts for about an hour on battery so you have to use a power converter but it’s pretty slick and small enough to fit in your cargo shorts (hat tip to Stephan b/c he loves my cargo shorts).
My Aker iPhone case/battery. This thing is a gem- I don’t know what I’d do this month without it since it seems Maroc telecom for whatever reason drains my battery 2x as fast as it should. This thing provides great protection as a case, is only slightly thicker than a normal iPhone case and gives me 2 extra battery charges. I regularly 2 full charges here in Morocco so like I said, I don’t know how I’d do without this thing.

Major takeaways

Morocco is home to some of the warmest people I’ve met. It’s ragged and rough around the edges and precisely the type of experience that we signed up for in joining Remote Year. Anyone can go to London but I would likely never have come to this place if it weren’t for this program.
Between the air pollution and the mold in our place it’s definitely been a respiratory challenge. We leave in two days for Valencia and I’m ready for the change of scenery and air. There are very few grassy parks with lush foliage here and as silly as this sounds that grinds on your psyche. It makes you appreciate places like Prague that had ample greenery and parks scattered throughout the town.
The very first night we had dinner with the RY group that was leaving and got a chance to chat with them. I remember making a mental note that everyone just seemed… tired. I understand now. I think it’s the combination of the extra cognitive load of being on alert and maintaining more thorough situational awareness at all times + the language barrier + the scarcity of greenery that has left us all a bit drained. I don’t have a suggestion there other than to be prepared for that going into it.
The Sahara was amazing. Asilah beach and Hercules’ Cave were both beautiful. The medina in Fes was crazy. All these places we’ve visited here have been super interesting. I’m grateful for the opportunity to have experienced this place, for our guides in the desert, our city managers, cook and support staff at the workspace and all the Careem drivers who took us places while we were here.

Tunes this month

Some of the music that’s been in my ear buds this month:

Good bye Marroco. Inshallah we’ll meet again.

BTW, if you’re not already signed up to get my quarterly impersonal update emails, now would be a good time:

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Sep 30

Where we lived and worked in Lisbon

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We’re wrapping up our time in Lisbon and are headed to Rabat, Morocco tomorrow so I took the morning to shoot some video that shows a little of the town and where we’ve lived and worked over the past month. Check it out:

A couple points of clarification to the video:

Lisbon, your gelato game is strong, very strong. I commend you for this. I failed to mention this in the video but it’s one of your greatest attributes.
Indeed my sales numbers are up 72% for Pagely since being on Remote Year. In hindsight though the calculation I used overstates the effect. I averaged my sales from the past four months vs. my 11mos at Pagely prior to RY. Some of the lift in that is attributed to other factors (for instance we raised prices back in March, we’re progressively getting larger and larger clients now so deal sizes overall are bigger than they were, I had a ramp up period when I first started, etc). I realized after shooting the video that a better computation would be to compare the past four months to the four months prior to RY. When I refactor with those numbers it’s actually only a 42% lift since being on RY… but still a 42% increase!! If you’re an employer with remote employees consider allowing them to try working abroad. Not only is it possible to match performance but as with my case employees can actually outperform their prior domestically-based selves. I have some theories as to why this is that I’ll explore in a future video.
This is the guy we just hired for the Growth Marketer position. So stoked to have Rod on the USS Pagely.
I wrote more about our Startup Weekend Lisbon experience in my last post. Worth reading if you’ve never attended one. There are some good video testimonials in that from participants.

Here’s a chronology of our time in Lisbon told in photos:

Doing TRX in the park near Timeout Market

Arco da Rua Augusta in the background and Praça do Comércio in the foreground

Making traiditioal Piri Piri hot sauce at our welcome party

Night on the town with other remotes and our piri piri chef after the welcome party

Cara doing a chest hair reading at the Round the World party

Sara sporting matching hand-crafted knee tattoos courtesy o' Andrew

The old aqueduct on the way to the bus station

This guy set up cairns on the beach each day

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This month’s gear shout-out goes out to my REI Saturn pack. Love this thing. It fits in an overhead carry-on space on the airplane (even though I’ve been checking it since I have a laptop and guitar as carry-ons). Lots of compartments, pockets, webbing, straps, zippers and everything else you’d want in a pack. Solid gear.

Lastly, here are the tunes that were in my earbuds most of Lisbon:

Lisbon you’ve been amazing. Obrigado for everything. I will be back someday.

Sep 21

Pics and vids from Startup Weekend Lisbon

Entrepreneur, Remote Year No Comments »

We held a mini Startup Weekend event in Lisbon this past weekend. For the uninitiated, Startup Weekend is a hackathon-type event in which strangers come together in a weekend and sprint to build and launch a product by Sunday night. It’s a global phenomenon (there were 18 different SW events running simultaneously in various cities around the world this past weekend). Ours was unique in that it was exclusive to our Remote Year group but it followed the same structure in terms of concept pitches and team formation Friday night, work all Sat/Sun and then demos of the product on Sunday night. This was my 8th SW event (you can read about some past ones I’ve been involved with here here here and here).

Here are a few interviews with participants following the conclusion of the event to give you an idea of what the experience was like in their words:

(video credit Chris Peloquin)

We had 24 participants from Remote Year who gelled into the following five teams:
Loo Review – Yelp for Restrooms
DiscoverPath – Self-guided walking tours
Carrot App – Intercept eCommerce impulse buys and encourage savings
Swipe Up – Disintermediate the airline industry
Volunteer Everywhere – eHarmony for volunteering (site not live yet)

Carrot App took first place and DiscoverPath and Volunteer Everywhere tied for 2nd. All of the teams did incredible work pulling this stuff together in a weekend. I had originally proposed doing a SW event with Remote Year folks back at our final Town Hall in Belgrade. With the help of many people working behind the scenes we pulled this together on a greatly-accelerated timeline than normal SW events.

My pitch and deck below for DiscoverPath:
(video credit Chris Peloquin)

Our team had awesome chemistry and was able to get an entire functioning MVP of the app built. This is us creating the next tech unicorn in the streets of Lisbon:
team-prosim-startupweekend

The current version of the app is a pure MVP and has 3 monuments in Lisbon tagged with audio narrations. It enables an example free-form walking tour whereby the listener gets the wikipedia description of each landmark as he/she comes within the specified geofence of each. It’s a phonegap app so cross-platform support. The backend is served on a free Heroku server utilizing Keystone (node.js-based CMS), opensource maps, Leaflet js and other free open source libraries. It’s a bit surreal to think the entire tech stack for this (including the hosting) was free (as in dollars and licensing) only the time of the developers working over the weekend to pull it all together. How far we’ve come since the days of $10k in Windows server and MSSQL stack licensing… I’m hopeful we’ll continue to hack together on it and refine the app to get it to a more useful state during the course our travels over the next eight months. This is something I want myself.

Lastly, I wanted to give quick shout-outs to the 25 Remotes who took a leap of faith on this event and gave up their weekend in Lisbon to build a product. To Wout Laban who flew all the way from Amsterdam to facilitate the event. Maria-Christina of TechStars for helping coordinate the intro to Wout and giving us approval to do this one a bit differently than the traditional SW. Aline, Jenna, Goncalo and Tomas from RY for supporting us with coordinating food, logistics, venue, etc for the weekend. To Pagely for buying us all lunch on Saturday. Thanks also to Andre Marquet, Miguel Arroja, Afonso Ramos and Toby Gutsche (local Lisbon entrepreneurs) for mobilizing on such short notice and donating time to be judges at the event. And an extra shout-out to Miguel for giving up a Saturday to help provide mentorship for the teams. Lastly, thanks to my friend Andrew Hyde for making the initial intro that set this whole thing in motion. If you’d like to get in touch with any of the teams please leave a comment here and I’ll be happy to coordinate an intro. Check StartupWeekend.org to find out when this event will be in your city next.

sw-dinner
(photo credit Chris Peloquin)