Building a Fast-Paced, Fully Distributed Startup with Gather

All startups face the reality of a ticking runway clock, but the Web3 ecosystem moves especially fast. When Intuition Systems started building, they knew they needed to create a culture of quick feedback loops and product iterations, and traditional collaboration tools weren’t working.

Josh Bechtler-Levin, UX Research Lead at Intuition, summed it up best: “Before Gather, you had to schedule the meeting, then wait for the meeting…It was lots of wasted time. And we can’t afford to waste time.” 

Creating a fast-paced culture with Gather

When Intuition Systems started using Gather, the pace of work accelerated. They didn’t have to wait for meetings; they could just walk over to someone and start problem-solving. They’ve built a collaborative culture where if you’re online and available at your Gather desk, teammates know they can swing by and start chatting – just like in a physical office. 

“The beauty of an ‘open door’ policy in Gather is that it allows us to work faster and more efficiently. Rather than spending time coordinating schedules, preparing for meetings, and sitting through lengthy discussions—only to follow up with summaries later—we can tackle many conversations in real-time. This eliminates unnecessary delays and frees up time for execution.” _{– Josh Bechtler-Levin, UX Research Lead at Intuition Systems} 

To Josh, these quick and direct discussions are far more effective than relying on formal meetings with structured agendas. There’s a place for those, but not every conversation requires that level of formality. 

The “open-door” culture also makes it easy for people to overhear conversations and learn information. Even if someone doesn’t actively participate in a conversation, they can be a fly on the wall and absorb context about the product and business—something that’s traditionally difficult for a distributed team but critical to keeping work moving forward. 

“We’ve built a culture of openness, where there’s truly no such thing as a dumb question. This invites everyone to contribute, fostering thoughtful, respectful, and productive dialogue. It’s all about staying connected and engaged, without the overhead of traditional meeting structures.” _{– Josh Bechtler-Levin, UX Research Lead at Intuition Systems} 

Keeping engineers aligned for a critical launch

As they approached the beta release of their app, the backlog of launch-blocking items continued to grow. They knew they needed to stay in flow and keep work moving, so they set up a virtual war room in Gather themed as a virtual pirate ship. 

Beyond the novelty of the work environment, inside the ship was a large table where the whole team sat together. If anyone had a question or needed something, they’d simply unmute their mic and speak up, allowing the entire team to hear and stay 100% aligned. It kept everyone in sync in an informal yet incredibly effective way.

"I’ve always loved the energy and focus of a war room during crunch time—it’s where the magic happens. Gather has given us the ability to recreate that intense, collaborative environment remotely, which is absolutely invaluable. It’s not just about being connected; it’s about fostering that same shared momentum, urgency, and camaraderie that drives great teams to achieve extraordinary results, no matter where they are." _{- Billy Luedtke, CEO of Intuition Systems}

When the launch announcement went live on Twitter, it was so successful that they had to freeze service temporarily. Despite the hectic pace, Gather helped the team stay aligned and make real-time decisions to support the influx of new users.

You can see this rapid collaboration reflected in their Office Insights dashboard. 30% of conversations during launch month were less than 10 minutes long – a signal that team members were solving problems quickly rather than being stuck in slow-moving meetings. 

Advice for distributed startups

Communication is everything in work, regardless of where it happens. According to Josh, the faster you can get everyone aligned and moving in the same direction, the better positioned you’ll be to achieve your goals. 

“It’s a race to product-market fit, and using high-impact tools like Gather that boost team productivity and build a strong culture is key to setting up the internal processes that will get you there.” _{– Josh Bechtler-Levin, UX Research Lead at Intuition Systems} 

The Intuition team can’t imagine working for a remote-first company without a virtual office. Those who remember how challenging it was to collaborate pre-Gather, have no desire to go back. 

"Gather has been a game-changer for us—I genuinely can’t imagine working fully remotely without it. I’m incredibly grateful to the team for building this platform; it’s revolutionized how we collaborate. If more organizations embraced Gather, I believe global productivity could skyrocket in our increasingly remote world." _{- Billy Luedtke, CEO of Intuition Systems}

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Intuition Systems is a fully distributed, global startup building an Ethereum-based attestation protocol to easily store, monetize, and track insights. They provide information that aids decision-making and helps developers reduce trust assumptions, lowering errors and vulnerabilities online. Learn more about them here.