In the fast-moving, volatile world of Web3, building effective teams can be particularly challenging, as companies compete for the same specialized skills while navigating an industry where projects rise and fall quickly.
Few HR leaders understand this landscape better than João Ricardo, who positions himself as the longest-serving HR leader in Web3, having been the first HR person at Tether.io and Bitfinex, both fully remote companies. Based in Lisbon, he hosts the podcast “Diary of CHRO,” which has amassed 20,000 subscribers in less than one year.
Before embarking on his Web3 journey, he served as HR director at OLX for five years. An entrepreneur at heart, he also founded his own HR agency in 2010 at the age of 25, growing it to a team of nine consultants over the following seven years.
In this conversation, João Ricardo shares strategies for managing remote teams, including how to maintain motivation and how to hire professionals who thrive in remote environments. Yet he emphasizes that any work arrangement — whether in-office, hybrid, or remote — can succeed in tech as long as companies manage their workforce intentionally: “It really depends on how companies plan to manage their workforce, physical offices, or locate their talent. Any work model can work in tech.”
He also notes that remote work blurs the lines between in-house employees and freelancers, as a company can hire an IT worker — from anywhere in the world — as a freelancer on paper while treating them as a core team member. “This way, companies are able to hire anywhere and fast, while on the ‘employees’ side, it gives them more flexibility in managing the taxation of their income,” he says.
João Ricardo also discusses the impact of AI on HR and what it’s like to work with HR in a Web3 company.
TechTalents Insights: You have extensive experience with remote teams. When did you start working remotely?
João Ricardo: I started working remotely before COVID, when I was managing international HR projects at OLX. Although I was in a physical office in Lisbon, my work was done only with people distributed all over the world, from Asia to Latin America.
TechTalents Insights: How do you maintain motivation and proactivity within a remote team?
João Ricardo: Managing teams remotely requires some adaptations, such as overcommunicating and ensuring transparency regarding decisions, goals, and blockers. It’s also crucial to clearly define expectations and ownership.
Additionally, you should establish weekly planning meetings to discuss priorities and success metrics. While encouraging team connection, it’s essential to avoid “forced socializing.” Throughout this process, you should lead by example.
TechTalents Insights: What strategies work better when hiring tech professionals to work remotely? How important is previous experience working remotely?
João Ricardo: Previous experience in a “real remote environment” is important. When working remotely, people are typically isolated, working from home, or from a co-working space, or working while traveling. This means that, when needed, there is no one from the team physically around them to help.
During the recruitment process, candidates need to be evaluated to ensure they are senior and professional enough to work alone and deliver as expected. They should be able to find answers on their own as much as possible, without the need for micromanagement.
TechTalents Insights: In a remote tech company, how do you evaluate when to add a new in-house member and when to hire a freelancer?
João Ricardo: To be honest, the reality that I’m most aware of — and that I see working well for both the company and individuals — is hiring people as “freelancers” from anywhere in the world while treating them daily as core team members, not as “expendable” resources. This way, companies are able to hire anywhere and fast, while on the “employees” side, it gives them more flexibility in managing the taxation of their income.
TechTalents Insights: Based on your experience, is there a work model that tends to work best in tech? (Hybrid, in-office, or fully remote?)
João Ricardo: The reality is that any model can work. It really depends on how companies plan to manage their workforce, physical offices, or locate their talent. Any work model can work in tech.
TechTalents Insights: How do you see AI reshaping the HR function in the next few years?
João Ricardo: Being straight to the point, I’ve seen very “scary” stuff with the usage of AI that could potentially replace the work being done by HR people currently. I’m sure that the work of a “first-interview recruiter” will be totally replaced by AI. I’ve been interviewed by AI already, and from that first interview, the AI system will be able to summarize the pros and cons of every candidate, interview multiple candidates at the same time, go through a pipeline of hundreds of candidates at lightning speed, and, in the end, filter a shortlist of the best candidates for a high-level human interview.
Also, at the engagement level, algorithms will be able to better detect patterns in data by proactively cross-referencing several data sources — from surveys, HRIS, or public chat conversations on Slack or Teams. These algorithms will highlight potential patterns internally before they become a bigger engagement disruptor.
TechTalents Insights: You’ve built HR teams from scratch in Web3 companies. What’s unique about managing HR in Web3?
João Ricardo: Web3 is a train that never stops. Every day, hundreds of new projects pop up, and it is difficult to keep track of everything happening. And we all know that not all these projects will thrive, which makes this sector a frontier land for the bravest.
TechTalents Insights: What advice would you give to an HR professional who has just joined a Web3 company?
João Ricardo: When joining a project, make sure the project is well-funded and understand who’s behind it. From the company side, be aware that most companies in the space are looking for the same kind of engineers, the same type of AI professionals, etc., which naturally affects the salaries and turnover rates.
TechTalents Insights: How did you start the “Diary of CHRO” podcast?
João Ricardo: I felt that there was space out there for my version of an HR podcast, aiming to enrich the lives of HR professionals and People Managers in general. I love being the “vehicle” for great stories in this sector. People can find the Diary of CHRO podcast on YouTube and subscribe.
TechTalents Insights: You reached 20,000 subscribers in less than one year. How was that journey?
João Ricardo: I believe that the fact that it has already reached 20,000 subscribers just shows the global interest people have in these topics, and how important it is for them to have these videos popping up on their social media feeds and reminding them of what good HR practices look like.
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