Episode 445 | Gonçalo Silva - Highly Productive Teams

Gonçalo Silva is obsessed with building the future he wants to work in, where location is irrelevant to being part of a highly productive team. That’s why he joined Doist almost a decade ago, and it’s why he remains there today as CTO, building tools like Todoist and Twist that help almost 20 million people combined worldwide be more productive and live a more fulfilling life. The Porto-based Gonçalo started doing freelance work for Doist when the company only had 3 employees. Fast forward eight years, and he has risen the ranks from Android developer to software engineer to CTO, all while working remotely for the same bootstrapped company and helping to scale it to over 70 employees in 25+ countries while remaining profitable. Being a part of that journey from the foundation opened Gonçalo’s eyes to major flaws in the workplace today. Namely, the limitations that most companies place on employees by forcing their talent to be co-located, often in expensive global hubs. As CTO, he’s strived to tear that model down by developing systems and building a culture that enables Doist’s teams to be fully distributed and communicating asynchronously. Still a developer at heart, Gonçalo believes in the value of learning the latest skills in order to be a more respected leader. When he isn’t reading up on practices for being a better manager, he often spends his spare time on Hacker News.