Joyous voted a top place to work in the US, never mind there’s no local office

Some of the best companies to work for in the US don’t have an office, nor even much of a presence in the country.

Mike Carden, the founder of enterprise tech company Joyous, and AirTree partner Elicia McDonald. Picture: John Feder

A New Zealand-founded software start-up backed by an Australian venture capital fund has nabbed a US award recognising it as one of the best companies to work for despite not having a single office in the country.

Joyous, a tech start-up which provides a human resources-like solution to gather internal staff data, has picked up the Will Reed Top 100 Early Stage Company to Work For.

It took the company’s founder Mike Carden by surprise for the sheer fact that the majority of Joyous’s less than 50 staff live in Australia and New Zealand. The company employs six people in the US across four states, all on remote-work contracts. “I’m not sure who nominated us,” he said.

The process that followed saw the judges request to see Joyous’s employee benefits. When Mr Carden found out Joyous had won, they requested an address to send the plaque.

“I guess we can put it in the reception of the office we don’t have,” he said. “Turns out it is being shipped to New Zealand. I really have no idea how that came to pass, but sadly at this stage it hasn’t arrived yet.”

Joyous’s benefits that won over the judges include a free home office set-up which includes an electric standing desk, stock options, six long weekends per year, health insurance, counselling services and extra leave for parents.

Mr Carden said Joyous had forgone the corporate route of trying to convince the world how good wat and had just spent the money on designated benefits.

As it turns out, almost 50 per cent of the companies that won an award for being the a place to work didn’t have physical offices.

“It’s interesting … if you look at the top 100 early stage businesses to work for, 48 of them are fully remote,” Mr Carden said.

The premise of being the best place to work without an actual place to work at was a sign of the times, Mr Carden said.

“Everyone talks about getting more skilled migrants but we’re actually having skilled workers taken away from us,” he said. “What we’re seeing in Australia and New Zealand now is US employers are employing engineers in Australia with no Australian presence. Once upon a time, only a fairly well known company could do that. Now they’re start-ups and the engineers are being put on a pretty decent wicket too.”

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— Will Reed (@willreedHQ) July 25, 2022