Future of Work 
Part 3 of our interview series with Canadian unicorns about the future of work, Peter Muench sits down with Dapper Labs’ Sam Gharegozlou to hear how the groundbreaking tech company is preparing its workplace for a post-pandemic future.
There are few Canadian startups that are as intriguing as Dapper Labs. Having carved itself a leadership role in the world of blockchain-based technology, the company has amassed a thrilling portfolio of products, starting with NBA Top Shot, that is designed to connect people to the entertainment that they love in ways that had not been possible before.
While no stranger to remote work, the pandemic has shifted how Dapper Labs thinks about the workplace and working together.
Peter Muench: What was your pre-Covid policy for working away from the office?
Sam Gharegozlou: We generally gave people the flexibility to work from where they wanted to work as long as it doesn’t impact the day-to-day. But it was always dependent on the team and the managers. Every now and then people would pick a day to work from home. But for the most part, we were in the office.
PM: Dapper Labs is on the cutting edge of this decentralization trend. Do you think that ethos prepared you for remote work better than other companies?
SG: That’s a good question. Actually, pre-Covid my perspective was that remote work was going to eventually take a hit. I wasn’t sure companies would be able to maintain connections and culture without people having a place to gather. Then Covid hit and we had to go remote regardless. But as it turned out, being in the same physical space wasn’t as important as I had expected.
PM: Tell us about your post-Covid return to work strategy (timing to return; whether you’re hybrid, remote, digital-first, etc.).
SG: We have officially transitioned to a remote-first strategy. We’re going to leave the office open for collaboration and meetings with team members. Currently, the office is capped at no more than 50 people due to Covid restrictions and we closely follow BC health guidelines to update the rules and regulations accordingly. We aim to go back to full operations once the restrictions are lifted.
For us, the ideal long-term scenario would be a mix of the majority of people working from home and coming into the office for a few days when needed. I think it’s going to be a trial-and-error situation. We’re planning to carry this out for 6 months and then see how people feel about the set-up and take it from there.
PM: With that 50-person threshold, what’s the uptake at the moment by your staff? Are you seeing the office reach that capacity?
SG: No, not at all. On any given day the maximum we may have is about 12 to 15 people. We just had a welcome back party where around 60 of our staff gathered in the office (outside). But in general, the average day sees about 12 to 15 people come into the office.
We have to be very mindful of remote team members, to make sure they don’t feel left out.
Sam Gharegozlou, Board Member at Dapper Labs
PM: How do you foresee building culture in a remote environment?
SG: It’s certainly going to get more difficult. In the past when everyone was in the office, it was easy for us to all go out for team gatherings. But we can’t do that anymore with our people spread out over different parts of the country and world.
We have to be very mindful of remote team members to make sure they don’t feel left out and that’s why we have had to shift our mindset. For example, we haven’t ruled out building regional hubs in the US and maybe in Canada and encourage concentrating our teams around those hubs in order to foster company culture.
PM: Do you have any tools, that you didn’t before, to bridge the gap between remote-work and in-office employees?
SG: We facilitate regular social games on Slack to get everyone to socialize and get to know each other. Aside from using Zoom for our All-Hands meetings, or what we call Show & Tell, we also actively use Google Hangouts. At any of those meetings, we encourage team members to keep their cameras on so we can maintain some face-to-face time.
We’re also making all of our meetings video-first. Meaning that, even if we have two people in the office who are meeting with someone remotely, we ask that those in the office join the meeting individually so that no one feels left out. We also use the Donut app to stimulate fun conversations across our team by randomly pairing team members with each other.
PM: What was your process for building your return to work strategy? And has that changed from what you initially envisioned to what you anticipate going forward?
SG: Yes, when we first started this last year we thought – very optimistically – this would only last a few months and then we’d go back to normal with no long-term changes in our style of work. That wasn’t the case. So we started flirting with the idea of going either fully remote or hybrid-remote. We went back and forth on these two models for quite a while and even surveyed our teams to get their input. Eventually, we decided to go fully remote.
20% of people said they would come in more than 3 times a week. The other 80% said they would come in 1 – 2 times a week.
Sam Gharegozlou, Board Member at Dapper Labs
PM: When you surveyed your staff about their post-Covid work preferences, were there any trends that jumped out?
SG: The biggest thing that our people said was that they would miss the social aspect of coming into the office. For example, we used to offer catered team lunches every Friday which were a big part of promoting social interactions, especially for teams who don’t generally have to interact in the office due to their work functions.
On the other end, another interesting trend was that the majority of our people said they would prefer to work remotely — I think only 20% of people said they would come in more than 3 times a week. The other 80% said they would come in 1 – 2 times a week, if at all.
PM: When you look forward, do you think those preferences will change?
SG: I think so. I think once people start coming back into the office and start seeing their colleagues, they’ll begin to remember what it was like pre-Covid. After that, I think more people will be inclined to come into the office regularly to interact with their teams in person. Perhaps not every day, but on a more regular cadence.
PM: Earlier, you mentioned the creation of several anchor hubs. Is the idea here that these will serve as cultural nodes where people can come together? Or are they more to provide support to people you’re hiring?
SG: A little bit of both. These hubs will provide a space for our people to gather and be able to collaborate with each other. And yes, it will also be easier for us to hire if we have a physical presence somewhere — a place where potential recruits can visit to see our teams working together.
PM: Have you, or will you, change your physical workplace to address your new remote-first approach?
SG: Yes, we’ve already started removing desks that we aren’t going to use anymore and have replaced them with collaborative spaces. We’re also thinking of adding more 1 – 2 person meeting rooms to give people the option of private spaces when they need them. We have also transitioned to a reservation-style hot desks that people can pop in to use if they are not frequently at the office.
PM: Are you going to track the utilization of these new spaces to see what your uptake is?
SG: With Covid, we have to track who is coming in so we’ll know on average how many people are coming in daily and what seats they’re using. We’re going to continually look at the data and make adjustments from there.
I don’t think offices are going away. For some, that may work. But I just don’t think that’s something we’ll ever do, because we would really miss out on the key collaboration time with each other that I believe is crucial for culture building.
Sam Gharegozlou, Board Member at Dapper Labs
PM: When you implement your strategy, do you have any contingencies if things don’t go as planned? What are they?
SG: None of our changes are written in stone. We will continue to experiment and see how it goes, keeping our team members and government guidelines in mind every step of the way
PM: If you look forward to the Fall of 2023, how will things change with respect to in-office and at-home work?
SG: I don’t think office spaces are going away. I know a lot of companies are going remote-only (rather than remote-first) and doing away with the office completely. For some, that may work. But I just don’t think that’s something we’ll ever do, because we would really miss out on the key collaboration time with each other that I believe is crucial for culture building. From my perspective, I think we’ll see a lot more companies shift towards a hybrid model where the workplace becomes a much more flexible concept.
About Dapper Labs
Dapper Labs, the company behind NBA Top Shot and the Flow blockchain, uses blockchain technology to bring NFTs and new forms of digital engagement to fans around the world. Dapper Labs has given consumer enthusiasts a real stake in the game by bringing them closer to the brands they love, building engaged and exciting communities, and producing new pathways to become creators themselves.
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About Sam Gharegozlou – President & Co-Founder, Axiom Zen | Board Member, Dapper Labs
Sam Gharegozlou is the President & Co-Founder of Axiom Zen as well as a Board Member of Dapper Labs, the company that went on to build products including NBA Top Shot, CryptoKitties, and Dapper Wallet. As President of Axiom Zen, Sam oversees all operations that steer the Axiom Zen portfolio and is at the center of commercial and community activity for the business. Sam holds a B.A. in International Politics and History from The University of Western Ontario.
