Remote.ly: Born of Necessity

Hi Friends,

I'm Oliver, Founder of Remote.ly, one of Portland’s newest coworking spaces. Popping in to say hello, thank you for reading our newsletter and tell you the (condensed) story of why Remote.ly exists.

I’m an Oregonian and a few years ago, I moved to Portland as a remote worker. With laptop in hand, I scoured every coffee shop I could find in search of three seemingly simple things: 1) comfortable seats 2) enough power outlets and 3) easy parking.

This search lasted two years…but I found the ideal spot. When I set up shop there for the day, I was happy for two hours - until the WiFi went down. To my surprise, I was told that I had to buy $2.75 worth of items every two hours to continue using the WiFi.

Fair enough, but wow. That was all I could think in the moment but it triggered a question: "Why is it so hard to find a good place to work for the day?" I didn't need a coworking membership or office, so that was out. Libraries? Not secure enough. Work from home? It's ok, but it can be very isolating.

Someone had to do something about this problem - so I got to work.

Today, the pain of working in a hard, wooden cafe seat all day can be avoided - you won't find a single hard-surface seat at Remote.ly. You don't have to stress when your "low battery" indicator pops up on your laptop - every one of our 150 workstations has an outlet. Even the productivity-killing search for parking can be a thing of the past - dozens of free street parking spots surround our building.

Selfishly, I look forward to coming to the office each day since Remote.ly changed my life as a remote worker.

But I didn't build it for me - I built it for you. Come see how much better remote work can be, and pop by my office on floor 5 to say hello!

Thanks for reading,
Oliver