FINALLY! Someone willing to say remote development is hard and that it takes time to get it right. Great job! We just merged with our development partner in Costa Rica and we do nothing but remote development. I think we're pretty good at it but that's because we spent the time to do that, to understand what type of engineer it takes and how you manage the project. Here's what I would add: - You should always hire awesome developers remote or not. The bar should be high even if you sit together. - The best engineers we have found for remote dev are the ones who know how to ask questions back. The product owner is counting on you 100% to see when the product is not coming together and to escalate that up. Like when you spoke with Joel, he is counting on you to know what needs to be discussed most of the time. - Remote with only 1 guy? Really tough to do well. Plus, most guys who are good enough to create killer products alone don't touch the ground between jobs. Bob Benedict Avantica Technologies