In the US, ten prominent tech companies are striving to have a remote workforce. Having the luxury of access to global competent labour, they have achieved astounding success and reached billions of dollars in evaluation. Essentially, many of them started what used to be considered a radical experiment of working from home before COVID-19. Today, they have become a crème de la crème of remote employers and a proven market example that a geographically dispersed team is capable of successfully growing the project in the US market.
The data about these companies has important implications for the tech market. Most tech companies still are conservative about having workers working from home all the time. For example, Facebook, Google, and Oracle still have gigantic offices. The agency cost of governing such a centralized corporation is enormous, and their access to talents outside the US is heavily dependent on the US immigration policy, which changes with each administration.
Unlike work-in-office companies, the work-from-home companies covered in this article involve little to no cost of having an office, worrying about bureaucracy, or sourcing talents considering geography. Why, then, do the majority of companies insist on having their stuff come to the office?
The prevailing answer is controlling and predictably disciplining staff. Whether this is true depends on a particular company. Yet it is not true in every case, and this is exactly what the table below aims to demonstrate.
Valuation: $7.5B (Private)
Total Headcount: ~1,300
Remote Policy: 100% Distributed
Average Engineer Salary: $120,000 – $150,000
Key Engineering Domains: Web Development, Open Source, Publishing Tech
Unique Culture Aspects:
No physical headquarters
Communicates primarily through Slack and internal blogs
Hires globally across 96 countries
Valuation: $6.5B Market Cap (Public)
Total Headcount: ~1,400
Remote Policy: 95% Remote
Average Engineer Salary: $130,000 – $180,000
Key Engineering Domains: DevOps, CI/CD, Software Development Tools
Unique Culture Aspects:
The entire company handbook is public
Transparent decision-making process
Quarterly all-hands meetings with full video recording
Valuation: Estimated $5B (Private)
Total Headcount: ~600
Remote Policy: 100% Remote
Average Engineer Salary: $110,000 – $140,000
Key Engineering Domains: Automation, Integration Platforms, Web Services
Unique Culture Aspects:
$1,000 annual wellness budget
Encourages side projects
Regular virtual team-building events
Valuation: ~$20M Annual Revenue (Private)
Total Headcount: ~90
Remote Policy: 100% Remote
Average Engineer Salary: $100,000 – $130,000
Key Engineering Domains: Social Media Management, Developer Tools
Unique Culture Aspects:
Public salary spreadsheets
Mental health support
Emphasizes work-life balance
Valuation: $1.9B (Private)
Total Headcount: ~800
Remote Policy: Majority Remote
Average Engineer Salary: $115,000 – $160,000
Key Engineering Domains: Digital Product Design, Collaboration Tools
Unique Culture Aspects:
Strong emphasis on digital collaboration
Regular virtual design sprints
Global diversity in the engineering team
Valuation: $5.2B Market Cap (Public)
Total Headcount: ~1,600
Remote Policy: Hybrid Flexible
Average Engineer Salary: $140,000 – $190,000
Key Engineering Domains: Cloud Infrastructure, DevOps, Automation
Unique Culture Aspects:
Open-source community engagement
Technical leadership programs
Quarterly hackathons
Valuation: Bootstrapped SaaS Doist Grows ARR to $14 Million in 2020 With 70% (Private)
Total Headcount: ~100
Remote Policy: 100% Remote
Average Engineer Salary: $90,000 – $120,000
Key Engineering Domains: Productivity Software, Task Management
Unique Culture Aspects:
Team spread across 35+ countries
Emphasizes deep work
Quarterly personal growth budgets
Valuation: $1.7B (Private)
Total Headcount: ~600
Remote Policy: Flexible Remote
Average Engineer Salary: $120,000 – $165,000
Key Engineering Domains: Continuous Integration, DevOps, Cloud Services
Unique Culture Aspects:
Strong engineering community
Regular tech talks
Open-source contributions encouraged
Valuation: $2B (Private)
Total Headcount: ~300
Remote Policy: Hybrid Remote
Average Engineer Salary: $125,000 – $170,000
Key Engineering Domains: Web Development, JAMstack, Frontend Infrastructure
Unique Culture Aspects:
Emphasis on developer community
Technical blog and open-source contributions
Quarterly innovation time
Valuation: 7.6b
Total Headcount: ~2,400
Remote Policy: Flexible Remote
Average Engineer Salary: $130,000 – $185,000=
Key Engineering Domains: Search Technology, Analytics, Observability
Unique Culture Aspects:
Strong open-source roots
Technical conferences and sponsorships
Diverse engineering specializations
Thus, the success of these ten U.S. tech proves that the US market has proved unicorn businesses working with a remote or almost remote workforce. Leveraging talents outside the US, these companies save resources on renting, regulatory compliance, and immigration bureaucracy and achieve great optimisation of the operational cost. With the right tools, culture, and management practices, geographically dispersed teams proved to be capable of achieving billions of dollars of market valuation.
As the tech industry continues to evolve, these compelling examples increasingly challenge the traditional resistance to fully remote teams. Upstaff is eager to help companies transition to a diversified remote workforce on both sides of the Atlantic by providing access to its vetted developers. Now is the time to rethink traditional workforce models and embrace the future of remote engineering strategic opportunities.
Upstaff’s Role
Upstaff.com is a reliable partner for American businesses facing the evolving challenges of sourcing and managing remote engineering talent on the road. With a strong emphasis on offering top-tier engineering talent from Europe and other major countries, Upstaff ensures companies will have solid, agile, and reliable teams. Upstaff’s expertise in remote team integration and project support enables Israeli companies to maintain standards and scale, meeting their engineering requirements as they move forward in a volatile global market.
Ready to scale your innovation with top-tier R&D talent? Contact our team for a free consultation with our tech experts! Let’s build your dream team!
- Thus, the success of these ten U.S. tech proves that the US market has proved unicorn businesses working with a remote or almost remote workforce. Leveraging talents outside the US, these companies save resources on renting, regulatory compliance, and immigration bureaucracy and achieve great optimisation of the operational cost. With the right tools, culture, and management practices, geographically dispersed teams proved to be capable of achieving billions of dollars of market valuation.
- As the tech industry continues to evolve, these compelling examples increasingly challenge the traditional resistance to fully remote teams. Upstaff is eager to help companies transition to a diversified remote workforce on both sides of the Atlantic by providing access to its vetted developers. Now is the time to rethink traditional workforce models and embrace the future of remote engineering strategic opportunities.
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