A little over six months ago, Toptal CEO Taso Du Val told Business Insider he believed in what he called an 80/20 model: 80% remote work and 20% in-person work at quarterly off-sites.
Now, that 80-20 ratio means something different to him: 80% of the workforce can be fully remote and 20% should show up in person.
While he said still believes remote work is here to stay — and plans to keep his roughly 700-person company largely structured that way — he said he’s come to believe over the past few months that some complex AI-related work is better done in-person.
“I hate to say it, because I wish everything could be done remotely just as proficiently as it could in person,” Du Val told Business Insider. “But there’s just something about the intensity, and the brainstorming, and the sparking of ideas that needs to be in person.”
The revised 80/20 model
Du Val has operated the global hiring company remotely since its founding in 2010, and he’s still bullish on that structure. However, he’s now considering building a headquarters for the fraction of employees focused on highly innovative AI work.
Du Val said the shift reflects changes in the software development lifecycle. Until recently, most software development — even advanced SaaS — was relatively straightforward, he said. Teams could tweak features, and ship updates as needed.
Now, he said, the nature of the work is evolving. While some traditional development cycles still exist, developers increasingly need to focus on building datasets that AI models can effectively use. That means thinking carefully about how large language models create agents that can perform narrow and specialized tasks, he said.
“It’s much more scientific work. It’s much more creative. You have to actually do math and science, and talk about new techniques, and there’s a lot of brainstorming,” Du Val said.
The CEO said that in some ways, remote workers are thriving in this new development cycle, especially when it comes to managing AI agents and related workflows. But in other areas, Du Val said, being in person can make a meaningful difference, particularly when certain technical teams are trying to drive breakthroughs.
As an example, he pointed to seven recent PhD hires specializing in AI and reinforcement learning who report directly to him. The group is focused on “intense” work and transforming data into new initiatives.
A pause on off-sites
Du Val said the company has moved away from its previous goal of bringing employees together 20% of the time. For now, only Toptal’s “very innovative pockets” are meeting in person, rather than routine quarterly gatherings for every team.
He said Toptal ramped up off-sites in 2021 after the pandemic, holding as many as 62 in a single year, and spending “many” millions. The company has hosted off-sites in a number of locations including Turkey, Thailand, France and Spain.
Cost wasn’t the main reason Toptal reduced its number of off-sites, Du Val said. He said the company ultimately found that many of the gatherings weren’t productive enough.
“It really wasn’t driving value, so I realized, ‘wow, this is really pointless, unless you’re doing very specific intent-driven work,'” Du Val said.
Du Val said Toptal paused routine company off-sites in the last six months because the firm lacked the right leadership for its gatherings. However, he said it plans to hire people who can help facilitate more productive gatherings in the future.
Du Val said he still sees value in off-sites under the right circumstances, though. He said he recently spent a month in a 15-bedroom villa in Turkey with a team building a fintech branch for the company. He said the setup worked well.
Even as Du Val considers creating a physical office for innovation-focused teams, he said he remains unconvinced that even the teams that benefit from concentrated in-person time always need to be together. In Turkey, he said, there came a point when the brainstorming had run its course, and people needed to return home to execute.
“It’s still like, ‘OK, we’ve brainstormed enough, now let’s go do the work,'” Du Val said.
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