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Pushing Your Business Forward

Evan Stewart
Evan Stewart
@heyecs
$45,951,404 raised and counting 🤯
$45,951,404 raised and counting 🤯
👋 This week, I’ve been thinking a bit about the future, and what a world built around democratization, decentralization, and transparency would look like. We’ve seen these themes on full display with ConstitutionDAO actively working to buy the constitution (yes I am in that pool of magic internet money with strangers I met online… don’t judge), but as these themes play out in niche threads online, I can’t help but wonder when traditional companies will start to shift their models.
In my opinion, this change couldn’t come fast enough.
The follow up question for many founders both new and experienced, is “how do I adopt without breaking the threads of my organization?”
Here are a few thoughts to shift towards a more sustainable future of work at your company.
1. Focus on "Unbundling the Workplace"
Deloitte recently published a fantastic article that addresses shifts to decentralization in the workplace. In their words.
“Why is unbundling the workplace especially advantageous now? It’s because many of the problems created by contemporary ways of working no longer find their best solutions through warehousing workers and work in the same building or site. In fact, many features of how work is done today make the physical co-location of people and resources not the enabler it once was, but a barrier.”
Unbundling can be accomplished by first addressing these questions:
  • “What is the primary use of my physical office space?”
  • “How does a remote team affect culture, productivity, morale, or other KPIs?”
  • “What specific task or operation is going to be hard to shift to a remote or hybrid environment?” with the follow-up, “What specifically about that task or operation causes difficulty?”
Regardless of your current situation, there is always room to step back, address your hybrid structure, and lean into a culture that’s not 100% attached to a physical office space.
Need a head start? Check out some of my favorite resources for this “unbundling” concept on my ProductHunt collection, “business essentials.”
2. Evaluate Productivity, not Just "Time Working"
I am officially sold on the 4-day workweek. I love the idea of not sacrificing family time in the name of labor, and fully believe such shifts would positively impact the work/life balance of the entire workforce. While that may not be an option for your company, use this movement to challenge your thoughts on how you’re measuring productivity. Here are some questions I asked of myself that might help you as well:
  • “What metrics positively impact the [position, company, KPIs] long-term?” and “How do I measure those metrics?”
  • “Where do inefficiencies exist in our current workday?” and “Would these problems be expanded or minimized in a less rigorous schedule?” (Consider: Are you creating an environment that supports healthy productivity, one that overworks employees, or one that promotes a culture of complacency?)
  • “What important moments are my employees missing out on/sacrificing because of a less-flexible working schedule?”
If you don’t have the answer—especially regarding how your employee’s lives are affected by their schedule at your company—ask. If last year taught us anything, we now know that flexible schedules and hybrid environments aren’t detrimental to productivity… in fact, the opposite is usually true. (Additional reading: PwC US Remote Work Survey).
Source: PwC US Remote Work Survey
Source: PwC US Remote Work Survey
3. Establish an Internal Feedback Structure
Tools like Blind establish anonymous communication between employees in the open market, and Gusto’s team survey allows employers to better understand how their management styles are affecting culture and productivity. Regardless of how you collect this information, a few points need to be considered:
  • You likely have an NPS score for your product/service; develop one internally, for your employees. Keep attention on this metric!
  • Ensure you’re building a culture where grace and space are applied in tough conversations (I’ll post another thread/newsletter about this in the future). In brief, all parties (the one giving feedback, the one evaluating feedback, and the one executing on decisions based on the feedback) need to give grace (understanding the right intentions behind the feedback and execution) and space (time to adjust, figure things out, etc). If this culture does not exist, transparent feedback will not happen, and negative cycles will endure.
All adjustments whether small or large can be tough to execute and even tougher to adopt. It’s no secret that running a business in a shifting market can feel exhilarating and exhausting at the same time; just keep executing on decisions that make a substantial, positive impact, and great things will come.
Have a fantastic rest of your week! Hit me up on Twitter if you want to continue the conversation.
✌
- Evan
What I'm Talking About:
I’ve spoken publicly a few times about the issues I’ve seen in the VC world. Lack of transparency, gate keeping access, missing accountability, etc. While I’m not planning on fixing these issues right now (we’ve got a bit of a full plate building Basewell), I did write out a thread on a few changes we would implement when we launch our VC firm in the future. Read through that below 👇
Evan Stewart (📜,📜)
One day @ItsBrittStew and I will open our own VC fund and treat founders in ways we wish were treated.

Here are a few things we are going to do differently...
The world is changing… mainly, because people are starting to give a crap about more than just profit. I had a conversation with a founder I’m advising this last week about the relevance of a “triple bottom line.” Never heard of it? The concept is simple: design a company that leaves a positive impact on people, the environment, and your finances. My brief summary can be found here. 👇
Evan Stewart
It's more possible than ever for companies to achieve a "triple bottom line."

✅ Profit: a given in any sustainable biz
✅ People: uplifting talented employees is the right thing to do
✅ Planet: a positive benefit of many tech co's (especially B2B) = less of a carbon footprint https://t.co/RpdDKZt6Sg
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Evan Stewart
Evan Stewart @heyecs

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