Scaling smarter in 2026: lessons from the frontlines of global company building

A few weeks ago, we hosted two incredible evenings with Accel and Two Sigma — one in San Francisco and one in New York City. Each event brought together a room full of founders, builders, and operators focused on scaling resilient, high-performance companies heading into 2026.

I had the chance to sit down for candid fireside conversations about the realities of hypergrowth, the hype and substance of AI, and how the world’s top companies are approaching distributed work, talent strategy, and execution at scale.

Here are some of the key takeaways from those discussions.

Build your values before you need them

In the past few years, startups have faced no shortage of shocks: a global pandemic, recessions, wars, banking collapses. In moments like these, it can feel like everything is on fire. But it’s in these moments that you define who you are as a company.

When Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) collapsed, it was payroll week at Remote. That meant we were preparing to move millions on behalf of our customers, many of whom depended on SVB. We had a healthy balance sheet, but making payroll across our customer base would mean putting Remote itself at financial risk.

Still, there was no debate. We called an emergency board meeting. The question wasn’t should we fund payroll. It was how fast can we do it.

That clarity came from a simple principle: customers come first. We were ready to act, even if it meant putting the business on the line — because we’d built Remote around the idea that we exist to serve others.

In moments of crisis, your decision-making gets clearer when your priorities are already set. Define what you stand for before things go sideways. Then, when they do, you’ll know exactly what to do, and why.

Execution is the only currency that matters

Our unique vantage point at Remote gives us insight into how the best companies operate. What do they have in common? It’s not their stance on remote work, or how many offices they have. It’s how well they execute.

We work with companies from two-person startups to global brands like Aston Martin and Burger King. Whether they're fully distributed or hybrid, the top performers focus relentlessly on outcomes.

You can have a beautiful org chart, distributed or in-office, but if you're not delivering, it doesn't matter. Execution is the currency that wins.

AI isn’t magic. It’s infrastructure

There’s no shortage of AI hype, but very few teams are getting real leverage from it.

At Remote, we treat AI as infrastructure. It powers how our three-person IT team supports 2,000 people. It drives our customer experience, enabling support agents to answer complex tax and payroll questions in seconds.

The lesson? Use AI where it creates measurable value. We didn’t just plug in tools, we built AI around our operations, starting with the pain points we knew best. That’s where the leverage is.

Build for long-term pain, not short-term gain

Most companies take shortcuts. They outsource infrastructure, duct-tape systems, and optimize for speed. That might work at small scale. But if you're building for the long haul, you need to go deep.

At Remote, we built our own legal and payroll stack in 160+ countries. That wasn’t easy, but now it’s our biggest advantage.

Hire for ownership, automate the rest

Founders often equate growth with headcount. I don’t. We plan to grow revenue in 2026 with the same or fewer people than we had last year. Why? Because we automate everything we can.

Our engineering team is lean. Our IT team is three people. Our internal AI tools help leaders make hard decisions faster. We hire only when automation won’t do the job.

Scaling smart doesn’t mean scaling headcount. It means scaling execution. That’s the mindset we’ve hardwired into Remote.

The future of global teams isn’t about "remote work"

The term "remote work" misses the point. What companies really need is operational flexibility. That means being able to hire, pay, and support talent anywhere, as business needs evolve.

Global talent strategy is becoming a defensive moat. And the companies that master it will out-execute everyone else. The best companies operate across borders because that’s where the talent, and opportunity, lives.

Global growth starts with Remote

I often say Remote isn't a remote work company anymore. We're an infrastructure company helping businesses build and scale across the world. That comes with complexity. But it also comes with incredible opportunity.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s this: do the hard things first. Embrace complexity. Automate what you can. Focus on execution. And build for resilience.

Remote gives founders the freedom to scale without limits.

Whether you’re building your first five-person team or expanding into new markets, Remote makes it simple to hire, pay, and support people anywhere. No entity setup. No compliance guesswork. Just execution.

Remote can help you scale smarter.

If you’re a VC-backed startup, take advantage of our special pricing for companies like yours. Book a demo today!