The Death of “Got a Minute?”

Can AI tools help recreate the quick, high-impact moments that fuel early-stage success?

By Waverly Deutsch, guest blogger

The Ways We Work

Volume 1, Number 2

The Vanishing “Got a Minute?” Moments

“I leaned back in my chair and said to my co-founder sitting in a cube over in our co-working space, ‘Got a minute? I’m trying to get the language right for this outreach campaign.’ She responded, ‘Oh yeah, I just found this new tool for A/B testing. Let’s see what the bots think.’ We ran the post header through a couple of times and – bam – engagement went up by 62%.”

I heard this kind of story dozens of times as a startup coach before 2020 – I almost never hear it today. I worry about the loss of these spontaneous moments of insight when we’re all at home alone on our computers instead of together in the office.

The Shift to Remote

Ever since the COVID crisis forced office-based companies to learn how to support remote workers, even startups are choosing virtual versus in-person work. Data gathered by Gusto in 2023 reported that only 43% of startups were fully in-person. The trend seems to have accelerated: 2025 data from Technical.ly, which looked at startups across eight sectors, found just 10% were 100% in-person.

Early-Stage Milestones Are Slipping

My coaching focuses on the first 18-36 months of the company’s life. The key challenges startups face are:

·      Building the right team

·      Finding strong product-market fit

·      Developing a cost-effective MVP

·      Generating early revenue traction

·      Securing enough capital to keep things moving forward

Recently, my spidey senses have been tingling. I’m seeing founders take longer to hit these milestones. Some have less clarity around customer problems, have tried fewer go-to-market experiments — for example, focusing solely on Instagram ads and ignoring IRL guerrilla tactics where they actually get to talk to potential customers — and are showing less revenue traction than I’d expect for the time invested.

James Kim at Reach Capital may have had similar apprehensions when he surveyed their portfolio of 37 early-stage companies. He found that the in-person portfolio companies generated 3.5X the revenue of the remote startups. Revenue can be a proxy for product-market fit and certainly increases the odds of getting the next round of funding. While it’s a small sample size, the data support my observation that early-stage remote startups face extra hurdles.

The Blueprint for Remote Success

However, a deeper dive into the research shows those disadvantages can be mitigated with thoughtful policies, structured communication processes, and intentional team bonding. And once startups begin scaling, the advantages of remote or hybrid models often outweigh the downsides – opening access to a wider talent pool (who increasingly insist on having the “work from home” option) and reducing operating costs.

Successful remote-first companies offer a blueprint for new founders. GitLab, now employing more than 2000 people worldwide and generating over three-quarters of a billion dollars in revenue, is a case in point. Its company handbook is hundreds of pages and thoughtfully lays out cultural goals, transparent communication norms, salary models, and support systems. GitLab relies on Slack to preserve institutional memory and allow asynchronous, public communication across time zones.

Remote startups can succeed, but they must replace organic in-person benefits with deliberate systems.

Where AI Fits In

That’s where the next generation of AI tools can help. I am advising a company called Meerkat. While its product hasn’t yet been commercially released to the public, Meerkat is the first AI agent I’ve seen designed to support small teams by enabling opportunistic collaboration and accelerating team learning.

Meerkat plans to:

·      Maintain team threads for texting like Slack

·      Join video calls to capture key takeaways discussed in real-time and post them into the persistent thread

·      Use its foundation built on a top-tier LLM to answer research questions within existing conversations

·      Tap into team members’ LinkedIn networks to surface relevant connections

Founders can use AI agents (be it Meerkat or some other app) from day one to support company policies, act as project managers and hold people accountable, and be that brainstorming partner always at hand.

Having AI on the team can help remote startups build a shared reserve of conversations, experiments, stories, and processes that speed learning cycles and onboard new members faster.

Final Frame: Recreating the “Got a Minute?” Spark

AI isn’t a silver bullet — it can only amplify good culture and process — but founders who integrate it early stand a better chance of hitting viability milestones faster.

If we can design AI-enabled systems that recreate those “got a minute?” moments virtually, remote startups may not just keep pace with their in-person peers — they might even outpace them.

Follow our journey at trymeerkat.ai and connect with us on LinkedIn to get the latest resources, insights, and updates.