by Kent Height
"Big Tech made remote cool. Then they ruined it. Now they’re running back to the office—and finally, we’ve got our hiring advantage back."
For nearly two decades, remote work was a cheat code for bootstrapped startups. We couldn’t compete with Big Tech salaries, but we could offer something they wouldn’t: flexibility, autonomy, and the chance to work from anywhere. That alone gave us access to top-tier talent and allowed us to stay bootstrapped for longer.
Then COVID happened. The world shut down. And overnight, every company on the planet became remote.
The playing field tilted hard. Suddenly, Google was hiring in Guatemala. Meta was poaching from Portugal. And the $80K developer we used to hire from Indiana now had a $160K offer from Amazon. We lost one of our biggest advantages, and founders everywhere scrambled to adapt to a global talent market that had been flooded with capital and dominated by the highest bidder.
Suddenly we weren’t just competing with the startup down the road – we were competing with the FAANGs of the world. They had bigger war chests, shinier perks, and were throwing comp packages around like confetti. We were playing poker with people who brought a money printer to the table.
The Pendulum Is Swinging Back
Now, in 2025, we’re seeing the remote tide recede – fast.
Apple. Amazon. Meta. Disney. Dell. Uber. One by one, tech giants are clawing back control. They’re ending fully remote roles, enforcing RTO (return to office) mandates, or quietly pulling perks once used to attract remote workers.
And let’s be real – most of those mandates aren’t because people collaborate better face-to-face. It’s about visibility. Control. A desire to go back to the way things were, even if the world has moved on.
But here’s the thing: their loss is our opportunity.
A lot of highly skilled, highly capable people don’t want to go back to an office. They don’t want a daily commute to a cubicle farm. They don’t want to attend meetings that could’ve been a Zoom.
And that’s exactly the opening founders like us needed.
Why This Is a Win for Startups Again
Remote-first is no longer a default. It’s a differentiator again.
Great people who once chased Big Tech comp packages are now:
Burnt out from layoffs and instability
Frustrated by mandatory office days
Craving autonomy and meaningful work
And that’s where we win. We’re small, scrappy, and fast. We cut the politics. We let people build. We hire across borders without the BS. The kind of work experience Big Tech used to promise is now back in our hands. Because all things being equal, it’s just more fun to work at a startup than a micromanaged, hierarchical corporate.
Tech startups have evolved beyond the ping pong tables and kombucha on tap you’ll get at corporate HQ. Instead, we’re offering an opportunity to create real impact. If you ship something, people notice. If you have an idea, it gets discussed – not buried under 37 layers of middle management.
That hits different for the kind of talent who actually wants to create, build, and drive change.
The Bigger Opportunity: Remote Hiring Without Borders
While Big Tech tries to reel teams back within a 27-minute commute (the UK/US average), progressive startups can capitalise by going global.
Remote-first hiring opens up far more than flexibility – it unlocks the kind of talent Big Tech can’t easily reach anymore:
Benefits of tapping into global talent include:
Increased diversity – which Harvard Business Review links to up to 19% higher innovation-driven revenue.
Better employee wellbeing – when people work where they thrive.
Lower attrition – because flexibility breeds loyalty.
Stronger innovation – diverse, distributed teams solve problems differently.
Higher ROI – thanks to smarter hires, not just local ones.
You’re no longer limited to who lives near HQ. You’re building with the best people on the planet – not just the best people within driving distance.
69%
of Millennials and Gen Z workers are more likely to stay five or more years with a company that has a diverse workforce.
What Founders Are Seeing in Real Time
Across the startups I’ve spoken with, hiring has gotten noticeably easier because corporates are desperately seeking to control their teams, wrestle them back to the office and get back to being the overlords of all they survey – and the talent just doesn’t need that crap – so they’re bailing.The remote talent advantage is swinging back to us.How to Win: Hiring Smart in 2025
You don’t need to post on 15 platforms or run a full-blown recruitment campaign. Focus on quality job boards built for remote-first startups – here’s our pick of the best:
Dynamite Jobs – Niche, curated, founder-friendly. You won’t get 100 resumes, but the ones you do get are high intent.
We Work Remotely – Still the gold standard for remote roles, especially devs and designers.
Authentic Jobs – Great for technical and creative hires, especially product-minded engineers.
Final Thought: Remote Work Isn’t Dead – It’s Just Not Policy for Big Tech
And that’s great news for you.
If you’re running a small, remote-first startup, the landscape just tilted in your favour again. The talent pool is loosening. The salary inflation is softening. And the people who truly want to build meaningful things, on their own terms, are finally looking your way again.
This moment won’t last forever. The best founders will move fast and scoop up A-players while Big Tech fumbles its RTO comms and issues another round of layoffs.
The window is open. Make your next hire count.
Author: Kent Height
Thought leader, growth marketer and consultant to innovative start-ups and scale-ups - Kent is the founder of Techtonic, and a leading voice on successfully scaling businesses with value-driven strategies. Based at Cambridge Science Park in the UK, he helps ambitious organisations cut through the noise to drive real commercial results and audience engagement with impact.
