A Partner’s View: Learnings from Working Remotely

How to support and motivate 70 entrepreneurs during a nationwide lockdown.

Six months of sourcing, vetting, take-home tests, video calls, face-to-face interviews, and then the day came: the launch of our second London program. On 2nd March, we welcomed 70 extremely skilled and ambitious individuals to our office at Techspace in East London.

And here we are.

We have now been running our program fully remote for almost two months. As we already had a nimble program in place, and thanks to learnings from other regions, we haven’t had to cancel any of our regular sessions. In fact, we have been able to leverage our global network even more by having advisors, no matter where they are based, hosting workshops, coaching sessions and masterclasses.

The main challenge for us has not been the program per se, rather how to help the entrepreneurs stay motivated when looking to team up with a co-founder. Team dynamic and chemistry is vital to the success of a startup, and having to get to know each other during a lockdown is hard.

If it wasn’t for such a remarkable group of people, our remote program would probably never have worked as efficiently as it has. During the recruitment process, we are actively looking for people who show strong resilience and can think on their feet, but little did we know how early on in the process the founders would be put to the test.

The last few months have been full of challenges and learnings, both for our founders on the program and for us in the Antler team. Here are three of my lockdown learnings, that I will continue to remind myself of even when we are back in the office.

• Tough love: Now is simply not the time to take anything for granted. The situation is what it is, and we, together, need to make the best of it. We need to carry on inventing and disrupting, not only to realise our own dreams and visions, but to help those whose situation has drastically changed. It is (more than) OK to feel down every now and then, we are only humans, yet sometimes we simply just need someone to remind us to ‘snap out of it’ and give us a reality check.
• Have fun with it: Challenge yourself and your team to try new ways to keep the energy and team spirit up, and why not even have a bit of fun with it? Don’t take everything too serious all the time. There are many ways this can be done, and it might take a few ‘trial and errors’ before finding the right ways. Try new tools, games, apps, workshops and structures, but don’t force something to happen or try to change behavioural patterns if it doesn’t feel natural. Bear in mind that people will ask for specific tools or activities, without knowing themselves what they actually need — instead, you should listen to what the need is, not necessarily what the ask is.
• Respect thy team: This might be the most obvious one, or at least it should be. Working remotely blurs the line between work and your private life, especially if you are not used to it or didn’t have a working from home structure in place already. Be kind to yourself, and even more kind to your team. It is now more important than ever to be mindful of how and when you interact with your team. It is no news that investors, founders and business owners have a tendency to work around the clock whether a pandemic is raging or not. The difference now is the added mental burden the current situation has on the people around you, and some of us might not be aware of it until it is a little too late. For the sake of you and your team’s health; be attentive, work on your EQ and foster a culture that promotes transparency.

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If you are thinking about founding your own company, kick-start your journey to successful entrepreneurship with the help of Antler Team and apply to the program here.

Interested in knowing more about our portfolio companies? Get in contact with me at Lars@antler.co.