How Leverege Enables Effective Remote Work

Remote work at many companies feels like an afterthought—bolted onto existing systems, or worse, just replicating in-person workflows. At Leverege, we've taken the opposite approach. Since we went fully remote in 2020, we’ve designed our entire organization to fully realize the advantages of remote work. 

At Leverege, we've created an intentional structure around three reinforcing pillars—tools, processes, and culture—that help our team achieve their fullest potential, no matter where they’re geographically located. These pillars work together in a virtuous cycle, each reinforcing the other. Over time, we’ve proven that remote work can be a strategic advantage that outcompetes in-person companies, when done right.

But don’t just take it from me. As COO, I regularly conduct “user interviews” with everyone at Leverege to identify areas for improvement and ensure new tools and processes amplify our people, not encumber them. Throughout this post, you’ll get to hear directly from people across the company about the remote work experience at Leverege.

Pillar #1: Tools

Slack as the Central Nervous System

Slack is core to work at Leverege, and we’ve iterated over many years to find an organizational structure and set of norms to reduce noise and boost signal. That includes:

• Defaulting to Public Channels: When companies rely on DMs, information becomes siloed and hard to find later. With a few exceptions (e.g. something sensitive/personal, coordinating a meeting time, etc.), we use public channels for all our Slack communication. This maximizes transparency, keeps context readily accessible, and reduces knowledge silos to empower the entire organization.
• Thoughtful Channel Organization: We strongly encourage leaving and muting channels that feel irrelevant to you, but sometimes other people need you in a channel to share announcements. How to strike a balance? We’ve established five channel archetypes, each clearly identifiable by a suffix on the channel name:
  
  • _collaboration: for small teams working closely together with frequent communication from all individuals (e.g. pitcrew_colllaboration). This facilitates high bandwidth communication, but only for those who need it.
  • _announcements: for broadcasting information to a larger group (e.g. operations_announcements). This lets us share key updates, without overwhelming people with all the day-to-day convos (those are kept in _collaboration channels).
  • _help: for getting help from a particular team/department (e.g. design_help). This prevents people from getting tagged into channels for one-off requests, and creates a central place to go for help. Unless you’re one of the helpers, muting is encouraged.
  • _notifications: for automated alerts (e.g. operations-admin_notifications). This declutters the _collaboration channels by segmenting out potentially noisy alerts
  • _fun: for a variety of non-work topics such as video-games_fun or music_fun.
• Responsive and Helpful Culture: People at Leverege are highly responsive and quick to help, with people at all levels jumping in to help even if they weren't tagged directly. This makes Slack especially useful, since people get unblocked quickly and information flows continuously.
• Human Communication: We also nurture a relaxed, emoji-rich Slack culture. Our custom emojis and relaxed communication style helps maintain the human connection and levity often lost in remote environments. A silly emoji, a celebratory gif, or a quick thumbs-up can go a surprisingly long way toward building camaraderie.

“Our Slack channel organization is excellent. Everything has its place, from work discussions to water-cooler talk, making communication easy and effective.” – Rushil Popat (Engineering)

Loom as the Meeting Killer

We use Loom extensively to share detailed asynchronous updates or to get feedback from teammates, giving everyone flexibility to engage at their own convenience and pace, plus reducing the number of meetings we need. Loom videos do what Slack messages often cannot, conveying rich information and context with minimal effort to create and consume. And as an added bonus, Loom videos enable the viewer to rewind/rewatch and/or to increase the video playback for deeper and faster absorption than a standard meeting.

“Our organized approach using tools like Loom, Slack, and Coda allows us to collaborate asynchronously without needing meetings for every small thing.” – Corey Redd (Product)

That said, meetings still have an important role to play (as we’ll discuss below). But Loom significantly reduces the number of meetings necessary, creating more time for heads down work.

Other Tools: Coda, Jira, Figma, and More

I’ve highlighted Slack and Loom because they’re used universally across teams, but we also use many other powerful tools for specific teams and workflows (including Coda, Jira, and Figma, among others) to support asynchronous collaboration and create a trusted single source of truth. Additionally, Google Workspace is integral to our operations. Our tooling stack isn't accidental—it's been thoughtfully refined by our operations team through practical experience and continuous iteration.

“Figma allows us to work together remotely, almost like we’re side-by-side in person. You can work independently but still easily get live feedback.” – Lauren Winkler (Design)

“The internal tools at Leverege, particularly Coda for documentation, are incredible. You can easily find documentation from years ago, making remote collaboration effective.” – Matthew Ok (Design)

Pillar #2: Processes

Weekly Town Hall

Every Friday, the entire company comes together virtually for our Town Hall—a rhythm that keeps everyone connected and informed. We celebrate new hires and team milestones, give shout-outs, share big-picture updates, and end with Q&A.

We've even added new segments to evolve the format, including an "AI Show and Tell" where team members demo creative uses of AI tools. These moments spark curiosity, build shared knowledge, and celebrate experimentation—a big part of our culture.

“Town halls are great because leadership is open about what’s happening at the top levels. This transparency keeps everyone aligned.” – Jeffrey Briner (Engineering)

Donut Chats

Our bi-weekly Donut chats randomly pair teammates for casual conversations, bridging connections across departments and seniority levels. These 1:1 chats and group chats provide low-pressure opportunities to build relationships, spark camaraderie, and maintain a sense of human connection in a digital workplace. These chats make our remote culture feel less isolating and more personal.

“The donut chats are dedicated time to hang out and casually check in with folks, which really helps build relationships across teams.” – Joe Walsh (Engineering)

Our Annual Big Meetup

Our annual in-person meetup has consistently been a cultural cornerstone at Leverege. While we do some real work during the meetup, the primary focus is on fostering human connection, laughter, and genuine interaction. These meetups give us a rare and valuable opportunity to spend time together face-to-face. These few days go a long way in reinforcing team trust, empathy, and unity and, even for more introverted folks, I consistently hear that people leave feeling reenergized and more deeply connected to the people they collaborate with daily.

“Meetups have always been a great experience. Everyone is encouraged to be their authentic selves—it’s genuinely fun and strengthens our bonds.” – Alison Leddy (Customer Experience)

Effective Meetings

We don’t believe in meetings for the sake of meetings. If a recurring meeting no longer adds value or someone doesn’t need to be there, we cancel it or encourage them to skip—no guilt, just shared respect for time.

“We actively stop joining pointless meetings. If your presence isn’t needed, you’re encouraged to skip—no questions asked.” - Angela Cantrell (Quality Assurance)

That said, when meetings are necessary, we make them count. We default to 25-minute blocks to keep discussions focused, and use Slack huddles to jump into quick conversations when more context is needed. Our norm is also "camera on (most of the time)"—not mandatory, but encouraged for stronger engagement and human connection. This only works because our meeting culture avoids waste; when a meeting is on your calendar, it’s worth showing up and being engaged for it.

“We have a strong ‘camera-on’ culture because seeing faces is nice, but we never force it if you’re traveling or not directly engaged.” – Dani Mann (Product)

During onboarding, we often include daily check-ins between new hires and their managers. These short, consistent meetings accelerate ramp-up, build rapport, and make it easier to ask questions early and often.

Pillar #3: Culture

Hiring for Remote Readiness

Effective remote work starts with hiring people who thrive autonomously. Our interview process is rigorous and intentionally designed to identify those who communicate clearly and manage themselves effectively. We even conduct Slack-based interview rounds to simulate our real-world working environment.

Beyond skills, we look for people who genuinely like remote work—people who don’t just tolerate the flexibility, but flourish in it. Folks who create structure for themselves, take ownership, and aren’t afraid to reach out when they’re stuck.

“Good remote employees naturally manage their schedules without needing direct supervision—exactly the kind of people Leverege looks for.” – Michael Quinn (Engineering)

Transparency & Psychological Safety

Transparency at Leverege isn't just encouraged, it's foundational. We openly share performance feedback, strategic insights, and even challenges. This transparency reduces anxiety and builds trust, which is even more important in a remote environment where it’s easier to assume the worst (e.g. misinterpreting a Slack message).

We also maintain a culture where asking questions—even "dumb" ones—is met with genuine support and where people at all levels are quick to offer help in areas outside their direct responsibility.

“If you make a mistake, there’s no judgment. It’s always about learning and improving, creating a supportive environment.” – Rushil Popat (Engineering)

Flexibility with Accountability

We don't enforce strict working hours. Our philosophy is simple: communicate effectively, be there for your teammates when needed, and get your work done. This autonomy empowers our team to work when they're most productive, whether that's midday or late at night.

“I appreciate the flexibility in scheduling. I realized I do my best work at night, and Leverege fully supports that.” – Shela Duong (Design)

This flexibility also recognizes that life doesn’t happen outside work—it happens alongside it. Doctor’s appointments, child care, mental health walks, even errands—we support it all. What matters is outcomes, not clock-punching.

Join Us in Redefining Remote Work

At Leverege, remote work isn’t just effective—it’s a strategic advantage that we believe can outperform most in-person companies. We believe that by intentionally and iteratively combining the best tools, thoughtful processes, and an empowering culture, we create an environment where highly talented people thrive.

If you’re someone who values meaningful autonomy, genuine collaboration, and continuous improvement, we’d love to have you join us :)