Danny Smith

Consultant

Armakuni

Pole Star EAM

Chief Operations Officer

Oyster®

Consultant - Remote Workplace Design & People Ops

Delocate (acquired by Oyster)

Principal Consultant

RED Academy

VP Technology

Global Curriculum Director, Technology

Lead Instructor

Ada. National College for Digital Skills

Curriculum Designer & Lecturer

CharlieHR

Senior Software Engineer

Sparta Global

I wore *a lot* of hats as we grew from a 3-employee startup to 80+ folks

All Sorts

Royal Air Force Air Cadets

Adjutant, Central Training Team, HQ RAFAC

COO & Consultant | Creating high-performance remote organisations 👨‍💻🌍

I work with leaders to intentionally design remote organisations & ways of working, laying the foundations for rapid scaling, long-term organisational health, and a globally distributed workforce.

I spent 2021 at Oyster, scaling their fully-remote (globally distributed) company from 14 to 500 people (and a $1bn valuation). Which was absolutely wild.

I work mostly at the intersection of system design, human behaviour, remote work & operations. I'm convinced that knowledge work has no borders and the "remote work revolution" has the power to make the world a fairer and more equal place for everyone. Globally distributed companies are the future.  And the remote workplace should be diverse, safe & supportive for all.

I talk about "Organisational Health" a lot because healthy orgs feel calm when ploughing through unknown waters at 1000mph and can operate on the edge of chaos without being chaotic: much better for our people, and our business. Since systemic health problems have a disproportionately large effect on distributed remote teams (and quickly compound with scale), I'm on a mission to help folks be more intentional about how they design & transform remote-first orgs.

➡️ Read more on this → https://danny.is/writing/organisational-health

I love meeting new folks, so hit me up if you wanna chat 🙂☎️

⎯⎯⎯⎯⎯

Wanna learn about remote best practices? 👇

· Oyster Reef → https://oysterhr.notion.site/Welcome-to-The-Reef-Oyster-s-Open-Source-Employee-Guide-fc482e3f107c4afd8c85ed217f1d0c1d
· Some tiny remote working tips → https://danny.is/remote

If you've read this far you *might* be interested to know...

· I've a sporadic sideline in personal coaching and team facilitation.
· I used to be a software engineer, but realised I have a much bigger impact when I help others do their thing better. And now that's my thing. (I still code, but just for fun.)
· Before that I was a blues musician. I still perform and jam lots: music has this weird ability to transcend language and cultural barriers.
· I'm a generalist. Obviously. Sorry not sorry.


In the past, my desire to "make work better for everyone" saw me doing:

· Education → curriculum design, learning design, teaching etc.
· Engineering process → DevOps, architecture etc
· Agile coaching & delivery process (SAFe still gives me nightmares).
· Design systems before they were hip.

The Thing

Co-Founder

building the "media arm" for a growing industry
increasing AI and opensource literacy, for all. 
 Sponsored by👋 Jan

Host - unsupervised learning podcast 

Growth Contributor 

Wrivu Consulting

Growth Consultant 

Optible AI

criteria-matching AI for grant assessment use-case 🤖
supported founder-led sales/HR initiatives/event marketing

Head of Operations

Genvis

Growth Operations Coordinator 

Stealth Startup

Product Marketing Manager

Locafy

special projects monkey 🐒 for COO and CTO

Continuous Improvement Manager

Digital Operations Specialist

Business Analyst

on page SEO/CRO
clients included:
Ray White
Glam Corner
Hello Social
Web Profits

Marketing Strategy Consultant

Wordpress CRO Consultant

Hi, I'm Renee, co-founder of "The Thing". 
Vibe curator, nerd-to-normie api, fostering CBCs (community building communities) & post-internet building at The Thing (open project for community building infra & experimental media/events).

You might've come here because of a silly comment I've made, but I'm glad you stayed!

I'm always eager to speak with folks in the open-source space.

Renée Shaw

brand @ tl;dv (meeting intelligence for orgs) 💙

so I'm being silenced....

the people I work with don't want me to talk about this.


but I don't play by the rules. here's an ever growing list of things my coworkers think is a bad idea: 

- buying a puppet that looks like my coworker and making it say heinous things

- putting 3 of us on an island (livestream the whole thing) and making us create content and slowly removing resources until the content becomes like squid game  (I haven't seen squid game)

- changing the logo to just my face 

- letting me put a GoPro on them and following their day like those videos of outdoor cats on adventures 

- me making thirst trap edits of them on tiktok 

please vote for your favourite. don't let them censor me 😔

in celebration of OpenAi allowing adult chat 😍

are you burnt out?

is Mercury in the microwave again?


here's a list of things I've tried recently so I'm not just living for the weekend, let me know if you try any of  them ❤️

- having friends over for potluck 
- going for a sunset walk
- pottery work
- amphetamines 
- casting spells on my ex using an Etsy witch 
- sending phishing emails manually to my coworkers at tl;dv (it shows I care)

i think he delivered the news pretty well?
who's next? 👇

(some of) you talk a big game for someone whose desk is beside their bed.

in other news i bought a kitchenaid

this could be us but you're too busy being corporate 🥲

not gonna lie i feel pretty privileged to let my freak out at my job (tl;dv) 


it wasn't always this way though. 
in preparation for the "spooky season", here's some random, horrifying anecdotes about previous workplaces. 

- at one place if it was your birthday, they'd make you 1) organise cake for everyone 2) stand in a humiliation circle and they'd chant only the "birthdaaaaay" part of "happy birthday"....while you stood in the middle 

- another place, the founder/ceo was known famously as a flat earther and once cornered me in the lunchroom to tell me how "there are no REAL photos of the moon, only composites". 

- i once worked as a funeral attendant for Chinese Buddhist ceremonies (i stood there and handed out paper money for the afterlife). the embalming crew held parties in the "cool room" and stored beer next to the cadavers. 

- at one job i had in a pet shop, i was stuck in the kitten area (the window display at the front) for 45 minutes  because while cleaning, my coworker accidentally locked me in, went to get us coffee and then fainted. i am allergic to cats. 


if you take anything from this it is that  most workplaces are a horror show. or maybe just the ones i've been at 🥰 

use tl;dv

oh you're a CEO?

name every C you've EOd

how does LinkedIn actually work?

here's a 2025 definitive guide with options for everyone. 


how to increase engagement:

- add intentional errors to your posts, leave obvious things out, wait for the "well ackshually" crowd

- create lukewarm posts about recruiters, how LinkedIn UX is broken, more platitudes on how as a hiring manager, you treat applicants like human beings

how to increase profile views:

- change your profile picture

- comment something divisive on a founders post

- make a video that causes people to feel "seen" but would jeopardise their employment if they reacted

how to increase followers:

- have "CEO" or "founder" or "VC" in your title

- post job listings

- work at tl;dv 

how to increase DMs:

- ask for seo help

- mention you've just raised funding

- be a woman

things you can say to your partner or your monthly active users: 


"can we up the engagement?"

"how can I make you sticky?"

"please don't leave"

"this wasn't on my 2025 bingo card"

b*tch... what do you know about bingo? 

you know the sweat and tears that go into maintaining a cordial relationship with the bingo master after you caught him having a fling with your husband of 30 years "we werE just drunk" okay SURE Gary tell that to the credit card statements longer than a Tolkien text with "HYATT- SUITE INCL" all over it. 

not to mention the constant rollercoaster of emotions knowing that despite all your steeling yourself for a hard sell, you stupidly purchased the new markers Lou-Anne was selling because her kid has decided she doesn't want to be a parent and how is Lou-Anne going to cope in this heat and humidity without a grandchild to visit? so you buy the markers knowing she won't experience being a grandparent and hopefully the $11 sale will take the edge off. 

and maybe she's milking her misfortune and maybe that's sales baby and maybe you should download tl;dv and we can finally call "bingo" but I know you won't because you're scared. it's not on your 2025 plans. you're just like your father :/

taplio

The Battle

Danny Smith

Renée Shaw

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreRenée Shaw's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Danny Smith

Renée Shaw

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Renée Shaw's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreRenée Shaw's LinkedIn Performance