As far as game-changers go, the internet was pretty much akin to the Big Bang.

It didn’t just open doors for new opportunities – rather, it set off an exponential explosion of growth, creating entire industries that never could have existed before.

We take it for granted now… but it really wasn’t that long ago that people and businesses alike functioned with no connectivity at all.

Today – especially in startup-land – businesses run more of their operations online than they do in offices.

There are plenty of benefits to doing it this way: increased security, better use of data, easier analysis, and lower costs of operation, to name a few.

But you should be wary of a startup that does everything online. I’m talking about virtual teams – founders who live in different regions and do most of their work remotely.

More and more startups are working virtually these days, and some folks will tell you that working from home is the future.

I don’t agree – and I have a good reason.

When people aren’t working together in an office, there are communication gaps.

Although the internet allows us to receive communications 24/7, a lot of information is lost between the lines.

Here’s an exercise for you: as you watch the video above, try to transcribe every word I say in real-time.

It’s not easy – maybe even impossible. In just 96 seconds of conversation, I covered paragraphs of text, comprising hundreds of words.

Email, Skype, and Slack simply don’t lend themselves well to this kind of long form communication. And, while working remotely may be fine for some employees of large corporations, building a business is a whole other ball game.

When you’re an entrepreneur, you’re making big decisions almost constantly. Workflow slows down quite a bit if you have to wait for your partner to answer your text – and don’t get me started on time differences.

Not to mention the fact that virtual businesses are often seen as less legitimate to customers.

People like to know that, if there’s a problem, they can call, write, or visit a physical address and sort it out. To many people, a business with no address looks a bit like a scam.

That’s why I tend to avoid “virtual” startups – they’re more likely than not to run into issues down the line.

Until next time,

Neil Patel