With teams on the West Coast and the Great Plains, Recurrency has found the freedom to hire for the best talent, regardless of geography.
Recurrency is a recurring crowdfunding site for creative people looking to support other creatives. Supporters are given access to exclusive content including behind-the-scenes sneak peeks of albums, films, records, and other creative processes.
Instead of a one-time fundraising campaign, Recurrency allows supporters to donate once a month, every month to continually aid creators. Even those not already members of Recurrency are eligible for donations. Let them know who to support, and they’ll do the rest.
“We run Recurrency from Starbucks”
Recurrency was developed by Johnathan George at the LAUNCH Incubator in San Francisco. CEO and Wichita native Brian Alvey then brought his talents and business back home after making George his Chief Technology Officer.
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Alvey and George have a lot of experience navigating the world of two-city startup operations. Alvey began creating content and working in web design in 1995, constructing several of successful startups along the way. George is fresh off of his time with Evomail and Boxcar, bringing with him plenty of experience in the world of tech.
“Our team hasn’t worked in a proper office in a decade. Our company – and all the ones we’ve built leading up to Recurrency – is virtual. It’s probably simpler to just say we run Recurrency from Starbucks,” said Alvey.
Going multi-city is a competitive advantage
The most important factor holding everything together is communication, according to Alvey and George. They both stressed the vital nature of finding people with strong abilities to stay connected to one another. Productivity tools such as Slack, Github and Quip have also been essential to their operations.
Though outsiders may view the distance as a daunting challenge, Alvey and George claim it’s also one of their greatest assets.
“The benefit of this approach is that we can hire for pure talent, not just from the small pool of people within commuting distance of an office. Plus office space eats money and we’re a startup. We’d rather spend that money on people,” said Alvey.
George is in complete agreement.
“We are able to hire the best of the best, no matter where they’ve chosen to live at in the world,” said George. “That enables us to create amazingly competitive companies, no matter where we’re located in the world. The global economy truly exists. Companies that don’t take advantage of this are walking around with bright red targets painted on their backs.”
The power of breaking bread
Alvey and George also view the travel opportunities they’re presented with as a great perk to their work with Recurrency. Because they meet face-to-face with others so rarely, this personal time together has become something the two genuinely embrace.
“We’re able to focus 100% on building a great product by dropping the distractions of daily life. At the end of the day, we break bread together, enjoy great conversations, then start it all over again tomorrow. That’s magical,” said George.
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This story is part of our 2City Startup series, following Silicon Prairie companies with operations in two major cities.
Kaitie Foley is a writer from Wichita, Kansas.