Being a second biggest city in Croatia, Split has recently seen a valuable growth of its IT ecosystem. More and more companies, both foreign and domestic-based, are realising that Split will eventually become one of the most prominent regional centers in this industry. Today we will present a newest addition to the scene, a company that tends to change the way we percieve digital nomads. After a chat with one of the founding members, we proudly present to you – Remote Year!

This USA-based company was founded in 2014 by Greg Caplan and our interlocutor, Sam Pessin. The duo wanted to combine their mutual love for tenchnology and remote work into something really unique. The product of that desire is now known as Remote Year, a year-long program for digital professionals enabling them to travel, work, and learn with a community of other like-minded individuals. It is focused on changing the way the world thinks about work, in both individual and company points of view.

Given the fact that this year is only second iteration of the company’s main product, Sam shared some feedback regarding the first year:

„It’s been great! We’ve been having a blast organizing and improving each program. The biggest challenge in the first year was reliable and consistent internet – internet is like oxygen to Remotes (what we call our customers). We’ve invested quite a bit of time and manpower into improving that, especially in cities with less modern fiber infrastructure.“

And that was quite an achievement, to be honest. Just take a look at this year’s itinerary for the group that is currently situated in Split: Montevideo (Uruguay), Buenos Aires (Argentina), La Paz (Bolivia), Cusco (Peru), London (UK), Prague (Czech Republic), Belgrade (Serbia), Split (Croatia), Kuala Lumpur (Malaysia), Koh Phangan (Thailand), Phnom Penh (Cambodia) and Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam)!

Of course, we wanted to know how did Split, among many other cities, managed to find its place in their itinerary planning? What were the key factors that made Split more desireable than other, possibly more developed cities? Sam answered:

„Split is exactly what we look for in a city. It’s a manageable size, culturally unique, safe, and of course – on the sea. In addition, it has a growing community of entrepreneurs of tech professionals that we really want our groups to be connecting with, such as Startup.HR.“

On the other hand, he also states that one of the main disadvantages is the fact that Split doesn’t have plenty coworking spaces where digital nomads can conduct their business from. But things are about to change – this ingenoius team opened a new coworking space called WIP, that will surely help with putting Split under regional and global spotlight. Also, Sam says he hopes that the local community will embrace digital nomads, as this is one of the project’s main goals – establishing connections throughout the world!

Part of the WIP team: Sam Pessin, Jared Lee, Ružica Zekić, Tamara Ilić, Monika Krzywik

So what does it take to become a travelling professional with Remote Year? The team is looking for individuals that have remote work arranged, and an open and positive attitude about the experience and the world. For $27,000 total ($5,000 upfront + $2,000 per month for the first 11 months), Remotes will receive accommodations, travel, workspace, and an array of community activities and events. So expect that you’ll experience a year packed with many interesting things, as well as meet a bunch of awesome people from all around the world!

Future plans are growing bolder. As Sam states: „We really want to enable professionals that never could have traveled and worked like this, to do it with Remote Year. We work hard at helping individuals and companies think through the benefits and challenges of joining our mission. We’re seeing more success every day.“ So do your part, spread the word around, swing by to WIP coworking space, meet great professionals from all around the globe and help strenthening IT scene in Split!