Remote Year

Last updated
Remote Year
Industry Travel
Founded2014
Key people
Greg Caplan, co-founder and CEO, [1] [2] Sam Pessin, Co-founder and COO
Website www.remoteyear.com

Remote Year is a company that facilitates travel and accommodations for people working or interested in working remotely. [3] [4] For $2,000-3,000 per month, Remote Year organizes accommodation, workspaces and professional and local activities to enable participants to travel while continuing to work and to foster a sense of community amongst the group traveling together. [5] [6] The program includes a 12-month trip across 12 cities in various countries. [7] [8] across four continents [9] [10] Remote Year has hosted employees from over 300 companies participating in the program. [11]

History

Greg Caplan and Sam Pessin launched Remote Year in 2014, [12] [13] [14] after finding it difficult to travel with friends whose work schedules didn't allow for the ability to travel freely. [11] [15] Prior to launching the company, Caplan founded the fashion company, oBaz, which was eventually acquired by Groupon, [16] where Caplan remained until 2013. [17] [18]

Applications for the first Remote Year program opened in December 2014. Over 50,000 people signed up to be notified when the application went live. [11] Three days after the site launched, there were 3,000 inquiries from potential applicants and 15 companies interested in hiring workers participating in the program. [19] For each of its programs, Remote Year arranges travel between cities, housing, co-working spaces with Wi-Fi, and personal and professional group activities. [20] [21]

In summer 2015, Remote Year facilitated the first program for 75 participants. [14] [22] [23] [24] The initial group received over 25,000 applicants, from 40 different countries ranging from 22 to 65 years old. [21] The trip, which started that June in Prague, included Ljubljana, Cavtat, Istanbul, Penang, Ko Pha-ngan, Hanoi, Kyoto, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Santiago and Lima. [25] [26] [27] The second trip left the US in February 2016 and began in South America. [28] The third group, which left in June 2016, was scheduled for destinations including Prague, Czech Republic; Lisbon, Portugal; and Buenos Aires, Argentina. [29]

In October 2016, Remote Year received Series A funding led by Highland Capital Partners with participation by Airbnb co-founder Nathan Blecharczyk, and Flybridge Capital Partners. At that point, Remote Year had worked with employees from over 100 companies, including 20 from the Fortune 500 and employed 85 people around the world. [1] [30] [31] Remote Year has developed co-working spaces for its programs in locations such as Croatia in order to scale company operations. [32] [30]

In October 2020, Selina, a Panama-based hospitality brand, acquired Remote Year for an undisclosed amount. [5]

In December 2024, Remote Year, announced its closure after nearly a decade of operation. The company, which had been acquired by Collective Hospitality just four months earlier as part of the purchase of struggling hostel operator Selina, cited "circumstances beyond our control" for the shutdown. This sudden closure came despite previous assurances from Collective Hospitality's CEO about expanding Remote Year's offerings, leaving customers out of pocket for booked travel. [33]

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References

  1. 1 2 Kavi Guppta (October 25, 2016). "Remote Year Raises $12 Million Series A To Transform Workforce Mobility". Forbes.
  2. ↑ Linda Kinstler (March 15, 2017). "The Provincial Life of the Digital Nomad". Bloomberg.
  3. ↑ Kavi Guppta (February 9, 2016). "Three Group Travel Services Aim To Make Remote Work Effortless". Forbes.
  4. ↑ Patricia R. Olsen (June 8, 2017). "Working While Traveling Around the World". New York Times.
  5. 1 2 O'Neill, Sean (2020-10-05). "Selina Nabs Remote Year in Bet on Subscription Travel for Digital Nomads". Skift. Retrieved 2022-02-01. Remote year doesn't yet have a timetable on when it will resume accepting customers. It had until now offered 1, 4, 6 and 12-month programs, in a dozen cities, including Mexico City, Medellin, Lima, Santiago, Split, Lisbon, Valencia, Cape Town, Hanoi, Kuala Lumpur, Chiang Mai, and Kyoto. The program had cost between $2,000 and $3,000 a month plus an initial payment.
  6. ↑ Rin Hamburgh (December 10, 2015). "Working gap years: how going Remote can connect you with like-minded people". The Guardian.
  7. ↑ Tiffanie Wen (May 9, 2016). "What I learnt from making a plane, ship and train my office". BBC.
  8. ↑ Margaret Jacoby (September 8, 2016). "The Trend Toward Working From Almost Anywhere". Huffington Post.
  9. ↑ Judith Ritter (May 18, 2017). "Home, suite home". The Globe and Mail.
  10. ↑ Miguel Lopez (September 11, 2014). "Remote Year wants you to spend a year working all over the world". Genbeta.
  11. 1 2 3 Libby Kane (December 15, 2014). "Why This Man Plans To Shpherd 100 Remote Workers Around The World For A Year". Business Insider.
  12. ↑ Victoria Mujica (February 17, 2016). "Remote Year: work each month in a different city for one year". El Observador.
  13. ↑ Harriet Minter (September 26, 2016). "Working holidays: a good idea or just plain exhausting?". The Guardian.
  14. 1 2 Brooke Edwards Staggs (September 5, 2015). "How much would you pay to live – and work – in a different country every month?". Orange County Register.
  15. ↑ Juan Martinez. "Duty & Pleasure". Revista Nueva.
  16. ↑ Michael Castillo (July 16, 2017). "For $27,000 a year, Remote Year will let you take your job overseas". CNBC.
  17. ↑ Rodrigo Capelo (September 26, 2014). "A year of remote work and travel: startup wants to make it work". Globo.
  18. ↑ Dominique Mosbergen (July 1, 2016). "Here's How To Travel The World But Still Keep Your Job". Huffington Post.
  19. ↑ Jessica Hullinger (September 24, 2014). "Want To Work While Traveling The World For A Year? This Startup Might Be Able To Help". Fast Company.
  20. ↑ Cortney Clift (February 22, 2016). "This Company Will Help You Travel the World for a Year While You Keep Your Job". Brit + Co.
  21. 1 2 Jena Mcgregor (June 5, 2015). "A New Company Offers You To Keep Your Job While You Travel Around The World". Independent.
  22. ↑ Tim Nudd (March 1, 2016). "How an R/GA Designer Dreamed Up a Way for Anyone to Take the Most Creative Vacation". AdWeek.
  23. ↑ Elizabeth Anderson (August 18, 2015). "Fed up with the daily grind? Working from a tropical island is easier than you think". Telegraph.
  24. ↑ Mark johanson (November 10, 2016). "The people who pay $27,000 to work abroad". BBC.
  25. ↑ Erika Adams (May 5, 2016). "Remote Year Promised to Combine Work and Travel. Was It Too Good to Be True?". Atlas Obscura.
  26. ↑ Jena McGregor (June 5, 2015). "Got wanderlust? Now you can go without leaving the job". Chicago Tribune.
  27. ↑ Steve Hargreaves (June 8, 2015). "Work, travel, get paid". CNN.
  28. ↑ Libby Kane (July 8, 2016). "A developer who started working over 4,000 miles away from his office explains what it takes to succeed at a distance". Business Insider.
  29. ↑ Ana Connery (April 7, 2016). "Work and Wanderlust: Take Your Job Abroad". Parade.
  30. 1 2 Anthony Ha (October 11, 2016). "Remote Year raises $12 million to combine remote work and global travel". Tech Crunch.
  31. ↑ Alison DeNisco (November 14, 2016). "Rise of the digital nomad: Why working remotely could draw more millennials to the tech industry". TechRepublic.
  32. ↑ Joshua Jamerson (November 29, 2016). "Out of Office: Workers Try a Year on the Road". The Wall Street Journal.
  33. ↑ Ali, Rafat (2024-12-22). "Remote Year Shuts Down Despite New Owners' Earlier Promises of a Bright Future". Skift. Retrieved 2024-12-22. The abrupt end comes just four months after Collective Hospitality, a Singapore-based hospitality group, had acquired Remote Year as part of its purchase of struggling hostel-and-hotel operator Selina. At the time, Gary Murray, CEO of Collective Hospitality's parent company Destination Group, touted Remote Year as a "fabulous business" and signaled plans to expand its offerings for digital nomads.
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