Those who are forced to acclimatise to remote work understand what pain can be. Of course, there are certainly advantages in not having to go to work every day, but by the way you lose a lot when you eliminate human interaction. Apps like Zoom and Slack have their place, of course, but none of them do a particularly good job by replicating the work environment in person.
Made up of three former Palantir employees and a former googler, Sidekick supported by Y Combinator has impeccable timing. The startup (which is conveniently divided remotely between the Bay Area and New York), has created a hardware solution designed to bring an always active video connection to the desk of remote workers (which, as happens, is most of us not - essential, these days).
Project development began seriously when the startup started interviewing over 100 teams to discuss the challenges of remote working.
"We reflected deeply on what is needed to allow these organic conversations. We came from a background of IC and managers who worked in teams distributed at Palantir and Google, where we had all the brightest collaboration tools available: Slack, Zoom, Notion , Tandem, "Sidekick writes in a recent blog post." Despite this whole suite of shiny tools, we would still want to go out for a week every month from our home office in New York to join our remote halves in London - over 20 hours. of travel and thousands of dollars of expenses every month. "
Sidekick claims that teleconferencing apps like Zoom create too much friction between the user and create a sort of virtual open office. The teams the company spoke to suggested that a dedicated hardware device was the way to go here, so Sidekick re-proposed an OEM tablet, forcing Android to do it. The company's roadmap includes a proprietary hardware device that has key aspects such as a depth sensor.
For now, however, it is selling its version of the existing consumer tablet through a hardware-as-a-service plan. Customers will be charged $ 50 per month, per device.
"They should only pay us as long as we provide that value and stop paying us if we are not," Sidekick told ProWellTech when asked about the subscription method. "We see hardware as the best way to deliver it, but we believe that the right thing is that our users pay exactly for the continuous value we provide, not the hardware itself."
There is a physical button that puts the system into hibernation, but when it's on, it's on. Users cannot turn off the camera and remain invisible. Personally, I would hesitate to have a camera always on sitting in my living room (small one bedroom apartment in New York) with a direct line to my colleagues. One of the things you risk working from home is getting a little too ... comfortable, if you want. After a few hours of non-interaction, it's easy to forget that there is a video camera trained on you.
The startup tells ProWellTech that the system is not for everyone. "Sidekick is meant for fast-moving teams, often forced to work remotely, who really need to be in the same room to make progress," says the company. "Team as founding team of startups, product leadership, managers / employees and sales".
There is probably something to be said for the executives themselves who are looking for an easier way to keep an eye on employees now that they cannot simply swing from their cubicle. Sidekick has a purchase option "for teams of all sizes and configurations", although it is hoped that the product will remain more on collaboration and less on monitoring for most teams.