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<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Zirtual may have been saved by an acquisition, but&#xa0;its 400 or so former employees are&#xa0;still left picking up the pieces.<p>The virtual assistant company dissolved overnight on Monday and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/zirtual-suddenly-laid-off-400-employees-via-email-2015-8">fired its entire workforce with an e-mail at 1:34 a.m</a>. Within the next 48 hours, its CEO Maren Kate Donovan <a href="https://medium.com/@marenkate/zirtual-what-happened-and-what-s-next-f9bd493ecc49">apologized for the last-minute shutdown</a> and said the company has found an acquirer, Startups.Co.</p><p>Donovan, <a href="http://fortune.com/2015/08/13/zirtual-maren-kate-donovan-2/?xid=inc&amp;cid=sf01001">in an interview with Fortune</a>, insisted that she was working hard to save the company until the last minute and that an external CFO firm made an error with projecting payroll in April. (The same <a href="http://fortune.com/2015/08/13/zirtuals-outsourced-cfo-gives-his-side-of-the-shutdown-story/">CFO firm told Fortune</a>&#xa0;that they are not&#xa0;to blame for any of this).</p><p>It's clear Donovan knew she needed more funding, but&#xa0;it appears she was counting on a round that never came through.</p><p>"<span>We thought we were going to pull through until Sunday because things kept lining up," Donovan <a href="http://fortune.com/2015/08/13/zirtual-maren-kate-donovan-2/?xid=inc&amp;cid=sf01001">told Fortune</a>.&#xa0;</span><span>The funding fell through after an investor pulled out, and the company was forced to close its doors.</span></p><p><span>But a lot of former employees are saying&#xa0;that&#xa0;things had soured long before Sunday.</span></p><h2><strong><span>Benefits only paid through July</span></strong></h2><p><span> The company's HR chief had quit abruptly a week before, <a href="http://www.brandoneley.com/zirtual-shut-its-doors-what-does-this-mean-for-outsourcing/">allegedly posting in a Facebook group</a> that she didn't want to be party to doing anything illegal. (Donovan told Fortune that the HR chief's departure was because she&#xa0;wanted to let the employees go and Donovan wasn't ready to give up on securing the funding.)</span></p><p>But former employees say that Zirtual&#xa0;had already stopped paying for benefits in July even though it charged employees for this month. Insurance coverage had stopped July 31.&#xa0;</p><p>"A<span class="s1">nyone who went to the doctor in August won't have it covered," said Katy Boyle, a former Zirtual Assistant or "ZA". Her visit to the&#xa0;</span><span class="s1">doctor on August 3, while still employed with the company, now has to come out of her own pocket.</span></p><p><span class="s1">Moreover, employees were only paid through August 7 - but they didn't know this until the email arrived in the early morning of&#xa0;August 11. </span></p><p><span class="s1">The <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/zirtual-ceo-maren-kate-donovan-explains-what-happened-2015-8">acquisition by Startups.Co</a> won't be a saving grace for many employees, either. </span></p><p><span class="s1">While Zirtual is scheduled to turn its lights back on Monday, its new workforce will be made up of independent contractors, not full-time employees, according to an announcement on the site. This means they will not be eligible to receive benefits like health insurance or paid time off, like they were in their old positions.&#xa0;</span></p><p><span class="s1"><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div></span></p><p><span class="s1">Re-hiring all 400 ex-Zirtual employees is also unrealistic, especially since burn was a problem to begin with.</span></p><p><span class="s1">"<span>Ideally we'd like to keep everyone, but given that the previous state of the company was unsustainable, it's not reasonable to think we can continue to do so. Prior to the announcement, the company had employed over 400 professionals, so we have a lot of work to do to determine how many we can retain," the acquisition announcement said.</span></span></p><p><span class="s1">While there are some Zirtual assistants who are interested in returning to the company, many like Boyle have said they've opted to leave or sign their own contracts directly with their clients. </span><span class="s1">By signing their own contracts without the Zirtual middleman, they can keep 100 percent of the money themselves, said Daniell Wells, another contractor who is not returning to the company either.</span></p><p>Those who have applied to return will be accepted based on client demand, according the Startups.Co announcement, and they're already trying to re-book clients - although some assistants on Twitter are claiming that the company is also going about that in an honest&#xa0;way.</p><p>We've reached out&#xa0;Startups.Co for comment and will update if we hear back.</p><p><div></div></p><p><span class="s1"><div></div></span></p><h2 class="embed-spacer">Next up: A lawsuit</h2><p class="embed-spacer">Even once it reboots, Zirtual has a new hurdle to face:&#xa0;a class-action lawsuit.</p><p class="embed-spacer">Business Insider has a copy of a lawsuit filed in Delaware - where Zirtual is incorporated - alleging that the company violated the WARN act (short for Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification) by not giving employees enough notice. The WARN act is supposed to protect workers from sudden shutdown by requiring a 60 days notice if its reasonably foreseeable.</p><p class="embed-spacer">If Zirtual is found to have violated it, the company would be responsible for 60 days of backpay and benefits.</p><p class="embed-spacer">Wil Schroter, CEO of Startups.Co, <a href="http://lasvegassun.com/news/2015/aug/13/lawsuit-alleges-zirtual-violated-federal-law-unann/?utm_source=dlvr.it&amp;utm_medium=twitter">told the Las Vegas Sun</a> that he had no comment on the lawsuit at the moment because the company was still working through the acquisition process.&#xa0;</p><p>Whether or not the layoffs violated federal law will be an issue left up for the courts, but in the hearts of Zirtual Assistants, many are left feeling betrayed and blind-sided.</p><p>"You knew long ago it was not going to be able to be sustained and you did nothing morally and ethically responsible toward fixing it," one anonymous ex-Zirtual Assistant <a href="https://medium.com/@vegalightsmyway/to-maren-and-the-rest-of-the-zirtual-management-team-14878f0649bf">said on Medium</a>. "If you had only been fair and honest with us all along, as you said you were being, things could have been so much different."</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/french-startup-invents-household-robots-blue-frog-robotics-2015-7">This robot wakes you up in the morning and checks if you turned off the oven when you leave the house</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="lwNWY3djo98dO87l2EM12lVZHzL-MhXO" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

Zirtual employees: Benefits were left unpaid and most of us aren't going back

<p><span style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none; font-size: 13px; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><em><span style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none; font-size: 13px; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><em><span style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none; font-size: 13px; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><em><span style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none; font-size: 13px; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><em><span style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none; font-size: 13px; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><em><span style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none; font-size: 13px; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><em><span style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none; font-size: 13px; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><em><span style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none; font-size: 13px; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><em></em></span></em></span></em></span></em></span></em></span></em></span></em></span>This post is part of the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/category/future-of-business">"Future of Business"</a> series, which examines how cutting-edge technologies are rapidly reshaping our world, from how businesses run to how we live. <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/category/future-of-business">"The Future of Business"</a> is sponsored by SAP.</em></span></p>
<p><span style="color: #000000; text-decoration: none; font-size: 13px; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><em><strong><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/category/future-of-business"><span><em>See more Future of Business &gt;&gt;</em></span></a></strong></em></span></p><p><div class="image-container float_right click-to-enlarge" style="width:420px"><div class="image"><a title_source="McKinsey Quarterly " title_caption="" class="zoomin" href="http://static3.businessinsider.com/image/50b8db37eab8eab83c000005-960/mckinsey.png"><span class="click-to-enlarge-icon" title="Click to enlarge"></span></a></div><p class="source"><a href="https://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Economic_Studies/Productivity_Performance/Preparing_for_a_new_era_of_knowledge_work_3034">McKinsey Quarterly </a></p></div>The future of work in America is changing dramatically. As companies continue to streamline their operations, low-skill jobs are increasingly <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/kyle-westaway-career-in-beta-2012-11">going offshore, to robots, or being outsourced</a> in some way. According to a <a href="https://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Preparing_for_a_new_era_of_knowledge_work_3034">new report by McKinsey</a>, we are moving full-force into a knowledge economy, where high-skilled workers will be valued more than ever before. Tech companies are accelerating this trend. </p>
<p>The consultancy finds that there <a href="https://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Talent_tensions_ahead_A_CEO_briefing_3033">could be an 18 million person shortage</a> in the supply of high-skill, college-educated workers by 2020. And that's just in advanced economies; countries like China and India are going to demand more of those workers than they can supply. </p>
<p><span></span>That means that companies will have to work harder than ever to attract the top talent, focusing on the sorts of amenities <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-manage-millenialls-2012-12">and workplace cultures</a> that will attract and keep the millennial generation. <a href="https://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Preparing_for_a_new_era_of_knowledge_work_3034">According to McKinsey</a>, that means accommodating more flexible hours and a more virtual workforce. It also means keeping those scarcer, more expensive, highly-skilled employees focused on the specialized tasks that create the most value.</p>
<p>The flipside of that is that they're going to have to replace less specialized work. One of the biggest trends you can see in the above chart is that there's been a massive decline in the number of office support jobs. Increasingly, companies are going to look to innovative solutions and new technology to replace them.</p>
<p>One of the ways they're doing that is by engaging with digital technology, freelancers, and startups to do work remotely that used to require contract workers. According to <a href="http://management.fortune.cnn.com/2012/11/27/freelance-jobs/">an Elance survey</a>, 42 percent of employers say they expect to hire more freelancers in 2013 than in 2012, and a majority of freelancers expect their incomes to rise. </p>
<p>And it doesn't mean companies are getting lower-quality work; it's just in shorter bursts, and in a different way. As the demand rises, companies are coming up with innovative ways to supply it. <a href="http://www.crunchbase.com/company/zirtual">Anders Jones</a>, the COO of <keyword id="419817" type="POSITION" weightage="60" keywordseo="virtual-assistant">virtual assistant</keyword> company <keyword id="1779345" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Zirtual">Zirtual</keyword> explains.</p>
<p>"We’re looking at this as collaborative consumption for human capital," says Jones. "We split the revenue 50/50 between the assistant and Z<span class="il">irtual</span>. If you look at the makeup of our specific demographic, many assistants have just graduated and aren't interested in a 9-to-5 job. ZAs have the ability to move to a different city every month. The service is just transactional. It’s high-touch." </p>
<p>A service letting you hire a virtual assistant for a few hours at a time, or other, on-demand services like Fancy Hands probably couldn't have existed just a few years ago. It's the culmination of a number of trends, Jones explains. </p>
<p>"There are a number of things happening. The infrastructure — including the cost of laptops, etc. — is getting cheaper. There are coworking spaces and incubators. If you look at the Millennial generation, people are not content with 9-to-5 jobs. There are lots of solo practitioners doing web design. Freelancing is a big thing that’s increasing."</p>
<p>The workplace used to be about everyone being in the same office, able to meet at just about any time. Companies and managers will be challenged by keeping everyone on the same page, but also have more resources than ever. </p>

A More Decentralized Workplace Is Becoming Inevitable

<p class="source"><span>Michelle Penczak</span></p><p class="caption">Michelle Penczak, founder and CEO of Squared Away.</p><ul class="summary-list"><li>Michelle Penczak is the founder and CEO of Squared Away, which matches skilled virtual assistants with consultants, entrepreneurs, and executives at high-profile startups, entertainment studios, and venture capital funds.</li><li>She launched her business, which has brought on more than 100 clients and doubled revenue year over year since it was founded, after her previous company - where she worked as a virtual assistant - went under.</li><li>Her secrets to success include developing a rigorous process for vetting virtual assistants, keeping personal relationships with her employees, and encouraging collaboration among assistants, even remotely.</li><li>She's proud to say that the "why" that keeps her going is providing a space for military spouses to pursue their passion without being limited by their location.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/prime?module=article&amp;area=summary">Click here for more BI Prime stories.</a></li></ul><p>A quick glance at her business metrics and you'd think Michelle Penczak was a natural entrepreneur. </p><p>Her company <a href="https://gosquaredaway.com/">Squared Away</a>, founded just over two years ago, matches skilled virtual assistants with consultants, entrepreneurs, and executives at high-profile startups, entertainment studios, and venture capital funds (and, full disclosure, my company <a href="https://www.sweetspotcontent.com/">Sweet Spot Content</a>) to help with everything from scheduling to bookkeeping to crafting social media posts. Since the company was founded, she's brought on more than 100 clients, built a team of over 80 assistants, and doubled revenue year over year - all without a dime of outside funding. <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/B6TIH8znikO/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link">Penczak reported</a> that in November of 2019, the company's annual recurring revenue was $983,856.</p><p>But before she founded Squared Away, she never envisioned herself running a company. "I always wanted to be doing something I loved, but I never saw myself as a CEO or entrepreneur," Penczak told Business Insider. "The prospect at the very beginning was a little bit terrifying."</p><p>It was a series of events that took her from that hesitancy to where she is now. First, she met, fell in love with, and married a US Marine - nearly guaranteeing that "home" would be a moving target for most of her life. She had a job she loved as a personal assistant, but she couldn't take it with her wherever she and her family went. Worse, she found that many employers were hesitant to hire her because of her inevitable need to move. </p><p>She eventually landed a job at virtual assistant company Zirtual, which felt like the perfect fit. The company's VAs were stationed all over the country, she had the chance to work with multiple clients at once, and she loved the camaraderie of being part of - and ultimately managing - a team. That is, until the company <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/zirtual-suddenly-laid-off-400-employees-via-email-2015-8">ceased operations</a> in 2015. (It's since been acquired and resumed business.) </p><p>A few of Penczak's Zirtual clients stayed on with her, and soon she saw the capacity to grow her own business. So she hired a fellow military spouse, Kelsey Opel, to help build it out.</p><p>But it wasn't until a few months later that she saw just how big of an impact running a company could have. "[Opel] called me and said, 'I just want to tell you how grateful I am for you and for everything that you're doing for me and for our family.' She was three months postpartum, had been in the ICU with her little girl, and had interviewed at 25 different places and nobody wanted to hire her because she's a military spouse," Penczak recalled. </p><p>"When she told me that, it was like my heart jumped out of my chest. And I thought: <em>This</em> is why. My people are why. I wanted everybody else to be able to say, 'Squared Away took a chance on me, and it was the best move I ever made.'"</p><p>Since then, she's been tirelessly growing the business, exclusively hiring women and men whose spouses are in the armed forces.</p><p>Having <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/i-was-the-first-employee-of-startup-what-i-learned-2019-7">worked at a growing startup</a> myself, I know what a challenge scaling a company can be. So, what have been her secrets to finding success so quickly? I sat down (virtually, of course) with Penczak to learn more. Here are her tips on hiring the right people, staying connected to a growing (and remote) team, and finding meaning in your work every single day.</p><h1>Trust the process - and your gut</h1><p>With a steady flow of applications coming in every single day, Squared Away's process for hiring virtual assistants is now down to a science. Some prospective hires come through <a href="https://www.hireheroesusa.org/">Hire Heroes</a>, a nonprofit that helps military members, spouses, and veterans secure employment, while others apply directly through Squared Away's website. Qualified candidates then move through the interview process, which involves completing task-based assignments - like creating detailed travel plans or workflows in Asana - and conducting behavioral-style interviews with Opel and Penzcak. The most promising are invited to complete a rigorous training program, and anyone who passes with flying colors gets hired. </p><p>And that's definitely not everyone. "It's very selective," noted Penczak. "I'd say we're hiring probably 10% of the people who apply."</p><p>It's a process that has been honed and refined over time. "It's based on the best assistants we've seen succeed," noted Penzcak. "We started out very basic with our requirements and tightened them up as we've grown to allow for a better client match."</p><p class="source"><span>Michelle Penczak</span></p><p class="caption">Though Squared Away is a fully remote team, Penczak and her team try to connect in person regularly. In 2019, she joined a New York City fireside chat hosted by Squared Away client Callie Schweitzer.</p><p>Despite the super-streamlined process, Penczak is quick to note that her instincts still play a part in who she ultimately brings on board. "I essentially follow my gut," she said about the interviewees that make it to her stage in the process. "If I think they're going to be a really good addition to our community, then I invite them to do training." One example? Following a feeling to hire an assistant with an extremely non-traditional background - a former radiology technician. Despite her lack of previous assistant experience, Penczak said she's been an incredibly effective teammate who's now managing multiple clients.</p><h1>Keep personal connections as the company grows</h1><p>Penczak makes it clear that, even as the team has grown, she still has a one-on-one relationship with everyone she's hired. "I can give you the background of each and every one of them right off the top of my head," she said. "Getting to know them and their reasons for working for Squared Away is extremely important to me." </p><p class="source"><span>Michelle Penczak</span></p><p class="caption">Squared Away assistants share a virtual "high five" at the end of each team call.</p><p>Though she has hired managers to oversee teams of eight to 12 assistants, she makes it clear that anyone, at any time, can come to her or Opel with questions, concerns, or simply thoughts they'd like to share. She hosts virtual all-hands meetings every other week and is also regularly available on Slack for assistants to check in with her. (Not exactly an easy task: She lives in Hawaii and wakes up at 3:30 a.m. each day to be online when her east-coast-based assistants start their day.) </p><p>She plans to double the team next year and hopes to maintain that level of contact as the company scales. "We always want to have that personal one-on-one relationship, even if it's just a couple of times a year," she explained. "You never want your people to be a name on a list or a number on a spreadsheet."</p><p>Penczak added that this personal connection isn't just a nice to have, it's a business imperative that breeds employee loyalty. "This [military] lifestyle pulls us away from our relatives, and we still need that loving and supportive environment from people who have our back," she said. "Some don't have that community in their physical location, but via Squared Away they do … it's the core of who we are as a company."</p><h1>Build collaboration into your business model</h1><p>The nature of a virtual assistant role is, understandably, a one-on-one relationship with a client. But Penczak learned at Zirtual just how powerful working together as a team can be. When one assistant had an issue, others would readily support them with ideas based on their own experience. </p><p>She wanted to take this idea to the next level at Squared Away and has built what she calls an incredibly supportive network among the assistants. They're in daily communication on Slack, have regular video check-in calls, and are encouraged to reach out to each other when working on projects or tasks they're not familiar with. </p><p class="source"><span>Squared Away</span></p><p class="caption">Squared Away assistants celebrating a client's success - posing with longtime client Nicole Lapin's new book.</p><p>"They really collaborate together with different ideas for clients, which is great for them, and good for the client, because they have access to 75 different minds," she said - minds that include former teachers, attorneys, paralegals, nurses, and all kinds of corporate employees. (An example from my own life: I needed a last-minute photographer to be a source for an article, and my virtual assistant found one in 15 minutes through the Squared Away network. I can't imagine that happening so quickly if I only had access to one person.) </p><p>It's a lesson for managers of any team, virtual or not: Often, the more brains trying to solve a problem, the better. And encouraging collaboration, rather than isolation, can help both your employees and your clients get to solutions faster.</p><h1>Never lose sight of your "why"</h1><p>Penczak admitted that the journey hasn't always been easy, especially as it relates to her personal life. She's the mother of two sons, three-year-old Sawyer and six-month-old Jameson, who she had while in the throes of building the company. </p><p class="source"><span>Squared Away</span></p><p class="caption">Squared Away assistants enjoy great perks. This year, Sephora sent each assistant a gift card to buy self-care essentials for the military-ball season and everyday life.</p><p>"I've been so driven to make this successful for so many different families that I could have been a better mom," she said. "I still feel a lot like I should take more time to put my phone down, put my computer down, and enjoy the moment with my boys." </p><p>But what keeps her going is the story that she heard from Kelsey those few years ago - and the similar ones she hears now - about how Squared Away has changed its employees' lives. "I hear stories from our people like that almost every week," she said. "And to this day I don't get tired of hearing it because that's our mission: to employ military spouses."</p>            <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/maye-musk-on-raising-successful-children-leveling-up-her-career-2020-1">Elon Musk's mother, supermodel Maye Musk, talks about raising successful children and leveling up her career at every age</a></h3>

The secret to hiring and managing top talent, according to the CEO of a virtual assistant company who grew her business to over 80 assistants and 100 clients in just 2 years

<p></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div><p>In the middle of the night, a startup that had raised $5.5 million&#xa0;dissolved and disappeared. It&#xa0;deleted its Twitter accounts, Facebook pages, and Google + profile. It changed its website to say its "pausing operations."</p><p>At 1:34 a.m. PT, <a href="http://zirtual.com/">Zirtual</a>, a virtual assistant company, sent an email to all of its employees saying that it had ceased operations, effective immediately. &#xa0;</p><p>A follow-up note to its clients said that it was "pausing operations" to re-organize their current structure.&#xa0;</p><p>The news stung because there was no warning from the company at all, according to several former employees who spoke to Business Insider.</p><p>The company and its CEO, Maren Kate Donovan, did not respond to requests for comment on this article.</p><h2><strong>Everything seemed normal...</strong>&#xa0;</h2><p>Even 13 hours before it shut down, Zirtual&#xa0;was still accepting sign ups and their money, according Aaron Weber who posted photos of his short-lived run with Zirtual on Twitter.</p><p><div></div></p><p class="embed-spacer">Its CEO and co-founder, Maren Kate Donovan, had <a href="http://fortune.com/2015/07/20/maren-kate-donovan-leading-through-change/">just written three weeks ago in Fortune</a> about the need for transparency during a company shift, preaching that employees need time to adjust:&#xa0;</p><p class="p1"></p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"></div><p></p></div></div>Yet, today's email was not a warning to employees, but a door slammed in their face. Employees said they felt blind-sided and not prepared at all for the news, according to the employees Business Insider spoke to and the <a href="https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&amp;vertical=news&amp;q=zirtual">outpouring of shock on Twitter</a>.&#xa0;<p class="p1">"<span class="s1">I woke up this morning thinking it was a normal Monday morning. I was going to wake up, have my coffee, and have my weekly morning call with my client," Carol Murrah, who had worked for Zirtual for 2.5 years, told Business Insider.</span></p><p class="p1"><span class="s1">Before Murrah had a chance to read the email, the client broke the news over the phone as Murrah tried to fire up her computer and found herself locked out.</span></p><p class="embed-spacer">&#xa0;"<span class="s1">I always knew I was going to get my paycheck, until today," Murrah said. "I expected to get paid this Friday, and that's not happening."</span></p><h2>Growing, but too fast?</h2><p>Former employees told Business Insider that the company has been on a rapid hiring spree during the last 18 months, ballooning its numbers from around 150 to the 400 employees it laid off today.</p><p>In an interview on Friday with Jason Calacanis - who is also an investor in the company - on This Week in Startups, its CEO Donovan&#xa0;said the hardest part of scaling Zirtual is "growth capital."</p><p>"Since we're employees versus contractors, it's hiring ahead, building out this stuff," Donovan said of the challenges, just three days before the startup shut down. "It's seeing the future and playing the game right now."</p><p><div></div></p><p class="embed-spacer">Over the past few months, work had slowed from some of its virtual assistants, but many thought it was because of the summer vacation season.</p><p>"<span class="s1">In the last two months or so, work has slowed down significantly. We were pretty confused as to why. We weren't having client cancellations,</span>" Murrah said. "W<span class="s1">e were never once told that was something to worrry about it."</span></p><p><span class="s1">For employees, it seemed like growth was on the up-and-up, according to several virtual assistants we spoke to. Donovan's monthly "state of the union" emails never hinted at problems, and there was even talk of gradually raising the minimum wage of virtual assistants from $11/hour to $15. Zirtual was beta-testing a teams product that could allow whole teams to sign up.&#xa0;</span></p><p><span class="s1">"</span><span class="s1">We were looking at it as 'oh, there's progression, we're growing,'" Daniell Wells, a virtual assistant who was with the company since February, told Business Insider.</span>&#xa0;</p><h2><span class="s1">What goes up, must come down</span></h2><p>In the end, it's unclear why Zirtual has shut down, although it's clear that it was in haste. While the company had raised $5.5 million, all of its rounds after seed funding were debt rounds, including one at the end of July.</p><p>When it started, Zirtual was a personal, virtual concierge service that only charged $99 a month for unlimited tasks, Donovan said on the show. The company has been loyal to some of those plans, though, and that may have cost them.</p><p>"A completely unsustainable business model, but we still have some legacy plans that are sticking around," Donovan told Calacanis. "We grandfathered a crap ton of stuff."</p><p>Calacanis, who had interviewed Donovan on Friday, said on Twitter he only found out as investor that there were problems on Saturday, although he <a href="https://twitter.com/Jason/status/630828376870096896">hopes it</a> can make a comeback.</p><p>Calacanis did not immediately respond to requests for comment.</p><p><div></div></p><p>While some may be more positive about a re-start, the shock is still fresh for those who lost their jobs.</p><p>Wells said they have only received the notice of the company ceasing operations, but no other massive direct communication from leadership.&#xa0;Important information&#xa0;like severance and health insurance are still unresolved.</p><p>Former employees said they don't know if Zirtual will even be able to make this Friday's paycheck for the employees' last week of work.</p><p>Despite the lack of communication from leadership, former employees have created a Facebook group and a Slack team so they can stay in touch and share what little information they have received. They are scrambling to educate themselves on how to be come 1099 contractors, how to get in touch with old clients and&#xa0;how to rebuild the careers they had taken away from them abruptly.</p><p>"There are 400 employees who were given the notice this morning. They are all available for work," Wells said.&#xa0;"It was a really poor move. I'm at a loss for words."</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/microsoft-virtual-reality-2015-6">This is Microsoft's ambitious plan to own virtual reality</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="9ycHhzdTqL67bqlrNKSYnldvoGMbLNgM" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

A startup blew up overnight and laid off its 400 employees via email with no warning

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Zirtual</span></p><p class="caption">CEO Maren Kate Donovan</p></div><p></p></div></div>Earlier this week, a virtual assistant startup <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/zirtual-suddenly-laid-off-400-employees-via-email-2015-8">that had raised about $5 million dissolved</a>, suddenly laying off about 400 employees via email and changing its website to say it was "pausing operations."</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/zirtual-suddenly-laid-off-400-employees-via-email-2015-8">Employees told Business Insider's Biz Carson</a> that they felt <span>blindsided by the news. Clients felt left in the lurch too. </span></p><p>Today, CEO Maren Kate Donovan <a href="https://medium.com/@marenkate/zirtual-what-happened-and-what-s-next-f9bd493ecc49">explains about what happened in a Medium post</a>, writing that she "cannot express my deep sorrow at letting down our employees, our clients, and our investors."</p><p>What went wrong? Her short answer: "Burn."</p><p>A company's burn rate is how much money the company spends above what it makes. </p><p>"At the end of the day we grew faster than we could handle," Donovan writes. "Our burn spiraled out of control even with our high revenues, and that led to the pausing of Zirtual's services."</p><p>That pause didn't last long though.</p><p>Donovan also announced that Startups.co, led by Zirtual investor Wil Schroter, will be buying the company's assets and restarting the service, "to offer our clients support and give us the opportunity to hire some of our Zeople back."</p><p>Here's the key part of her essay about Zirtual's burn:</p><p>Here's <a href="https://medium.com/@marenkate/zirtual-what-happened-and-what-s-next-f9bd493ecc49">Donovan's full post</a>.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/the-last-guardian-2015-6">Sony has been working on this PlayStation game for 8 years - and the trailer is absolutely beautiful</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="NnbHdvdTo4gdTuPMoFuIYK4ITAATfORt" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

The CEO of the startup that dissolved overnight explains what happened: Burn

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Zach Ware</span></p><p class="caption">Zach Ware, managing partner of VTF Capital</p></div><p></p></div></div>Startups shouldn't implode overnight, but it happens. And when it does, they leave an ugly debris field of hurt feelings, broken promises, and people waking up with no financial security whatsoever.</p><p>These last-minute closures should never ever happen to a startup, argues Zach Ware, managing partner of VTF Capital, formerly known as the Vegas Tech Fund. </p><p>"You should never run out of cash. Ever. I don't understand how it happens," Ware said.</p><p>Ware witnessed it with one of his portfolio companies, Zirtual, but he made sure it didn't happen to his own startup, Shift.</p><p>The two experiences have taught him a lot about what happens when a company is in trouble, and the two paths it can take. </p><h2>It's a 'selfish' decision</h2><p>For Ware, the realization came when his company, Shift, had 10 months worth of cash left in the bank. The company had reached the point where it needed to expand into a new city, but doing so would have scaled back its cash supply to five months. That would also have put Ware in the position of needing to raise capital immediately.</p><p>"If we moved to Denver, we'd have moved it down to five [months]," Ware said. "We would have put the company at existential risk."</p><p>Ware realized that throwing a Hail Mary by relying on venture cash to keep the business going and fuel its expansion could have had devastating consequences for his employees if it didn't work. Instead, he decided to unwind the company and do the right thing for his employees.</p><p>In April 2015, two years after launching his car-sharing project, <a href="https://pando.com/2015/04/02/vegas-based-shift-carshare-project-shuts-down-founder-zach-ware-to-become-full-time-vc/">Shift laid off its employees</a> with generous severance packages, helped them through the transition, and liquidated its assets to return some money to its VCs.</p><p>"There is absolutely no reason for a company to shut down overnight. That's a result of a selfish set of decisions a founder made," Ware said. </p><h2>But it happens</h2><p>Then, Ware went through it all again a few months later with Zirtual, a Vegas Tech Fund-backed company that shut down overnight and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/zirtual-suddenly-laid-off-400-employees-via-email-2015-8">laid off its 400 employees via email</a>.</p><p>Its CEO, Maren Kate Donovan, later blamed in a <a href="http://fortune.com/2015/08/13/zirtual-maren-kate-donovan-2/">Fortune article </a>an external CFO for numbers that were "completely f***ed." The <a href="http://fortune.com/2015/08/13/zirtuals-outsourced-cfo-gives-his-side-of-the-shutdown-story/">CFO denies</a> that his projections are to blame.</p><p>"There are very few times when you don't know that it's coming. You had less cash than the day before and the day before that," Ware said. </p><p>In <a href="https://medium.com/@marenkate/silicon-valley-has-a-vulnerability-problem-5c314bf5b005#.pj9dtol41">her own explanation</a> of its shutdown, Donovan said she failed to secure the VC funding she needed to save it after a deal fell through at the 11th hour. "And at the end of the day… 'burn' is what happened to Zirtual," Donovan wrote. "The reason we couldn't give more notice was that up until the 11th hour, I did everything I could to raise more money and right the ship."</p><p>To Ware, any startup shutting down overnight is unacceptable. Startup founders and CEOs should have a firm grasp on their numbers and how much longer the company has to live. Securing funding shouldn't be a hail Mary to save a company because at that point, the CEO has already selfishly chosen to put his or her employees at risk.</p><p>"Every founder should have a real time understanding of their business. It doesn't matter who does it. You have to know it. You have to know your horizons," Ware said. </p><p>"I have absolutely no tolerance for that situation at all," he added. </p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/incredible-augmented-reality-headset-2016-3">The things you can see through this Florida startup's augmented reality headset will blow your mind</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="tzNDNpMTE6DOA1pCXtOejqiHr7XmplPY" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

If a startup shuts down overnight, it means the founder was 'selfish'

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Kevork Djansezian / Getty Images</span></p><p class="caption">Analysts don't expect to see Apple CEO Tim Cook announce streaming service in September.</p></div><p></p></div></div>Good morning! Here's the tech news you need to know today.</p><p><strong>1. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/samsung-announces-galaxy-s6-edge-plust-and-galaxy-note-5-2015-8">Samsung has announced its latest Galaxy phones, the Galaxy Note 5 and the Galaxy S6 Edge+.</a> </strong>No word on pricing yet, but they will both go on sales on August 21.</p><p><strong>2. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/apple-tv-service-launch-rumors-2015-8">Analysts don't expect Apple to announce plans for its own TV service at September's launch event.</a> </strong>The rumoured streaming service, which is expected to offer a slimmed-down bundle of TV networks as well as local TV stations, could still launch later this autumn.</p><p><strong>3. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/zirtual-employees-benefits-were-left-unpaid-and-most-of-us-arent-going-back-2015-8">Even though virtual assistant startup Zirtual is re-opening its doors after being acquired by Startups.co, most employees aren't planning to return.</a> </strong>Its new workforce will be made up of independent contractors.</p><p><strong>4. <a href="address%20a problem that prevented iCloud Music from turning on and one that showed the wrong album art for a certain artist or song  Read more: http://uk.businessinsider.com/apple-music-iphone-update-2015-8#ixzz3ila57mwQ">Apple has released a new iPhone update that fixes some of the bugs found in Apple Music.</a> </strong>iOS 8.4.1 includes fixes for a problem that prevented iCloud Music from turning on and one that showed the wrong album art for a certain artist or song.</p><p><strong>5. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/jessica-albas-startup-raises-100-million-at-a-17-billion-valuation-2015-8">Jessica Alba's startup The Honest Co.<span> just raised $100 million at a $1.7 billion valuation. </span></a></strong>It sells natural and eco-friendly household products.</p><p><strong>6. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/dating-app-spotted-raises-145-million-like-happn-2015-8">German dating app Spotted has raised $14.5 million.</a> </strong>Like French app Happn, it lets you reach out to potential partners you may have passed in the street.</p><p><strong>7. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/intel-has-a-long-way-to-go-before-reaching-its-2020-diversity-goal-2015-8">Intel spent $300 million on its diversity problem, but the company is still mostly white men.</a> </strong>Based on Intel's latest workforce demographics from August 2015, 54.2% of employees are white, 32.2% are Asian, and 1.4% are Hawaiian, Pacific Islander, mixed, or unknown race.</p><p><strong>8. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/htc-cuts-15-percent-of-jobs-2015-8">HTC is cutting 15% of its global workforce as part of an attempt to cut 35% of its costs.</a> </strong>Sales and stock have tumbled as the smartphone maker faces intense competition from Samsung, Xiaomi and Huawei.</p><p><strong>9. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/facebook-aran-khanna-internship-rescinded-marauders-map-messenger-privacy-2015-8">Facebook cancelled a student's internship after they pointed out a major privacy issue before starting there.</a> </strong>Aran Khanna built a browser plugin that made use of the fact that people who use the Facebook Messenger share their location with everyone they message with by default.</p><p><strong>10. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/amazon-leads-8-million-investment-in-whowhatwear-2015-8">Amazon has invested $8 million in Clique, the parent company of celebrity fashion site WhoWhatWear.</a> </strong>This is only the second time the company has raised outside funding.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/killing-off-disease-spreading-mosquitoes-2015-6">Should we kill off one of the most dangerous creatures in the world?</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="lpd3lodTpxXMq8NSPc-xe5q-zK106WUF" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

10 things in tech you need to know today

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Facebook</span></p><p class="caption">Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Good morning! Here's the tech news you need to know today.</p><p><strong>1. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/facebook-mobile-notification-breaking-news-app-2015-8">Facebook is working on a stand-alone mobile news application</a>. </strong>Like Twitter, it will let publishers send breaking news alerts to the masses.</p><p><strong>2. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/apple-stock-crashing-2015-8">Apple's stock was down 5% on Tuesday</a>. </strong>While there was no clear reason for the drop, although investors have expressed concerns about iPhone and Apple Watch sales.</p><p><strong>3. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/zirtual-ceo-maren-kate-donovan-explains-what-happened-2015-8">Virtual assistant startup Virtual has been acquired and will resume service.</a> </strong>The offer came from <span class="skimlinks-unlinked">Startups.co, a company led by Zirtual investor Wil Schroter.</span></p><p><strong>4. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/ibms-watson-wants-to-read-medical-scans-2015-8">IBM's Watson could learn how to identify cancer and heart disease from X-rays and MRI scans.</a> </strong>IBM plans to train Watson using 30 billion images - including X-rays, CT scans, and MRI scans - from Merge, a healthcare company it recently acquired.</p><p><strong>5. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/google-alphabet-split-eu-antitrust-not-a-factor-2015-8">Legal experts say Google did not split its search engine from the rest of its businesses because the EU wanted it to.</a> </strong>The company's search business is still part of a smaller version of Google under a new holding company called Alphabet.</p><p><strong>6. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/iphone-6s-analyst-predictions-2015-8">Analysts are predicting that the next iPhone won't be good enough to grow Apple's smartphone business.</a> </strong>KGI Securities is now forecasting zero or negative growth of iPhone sales in the fourth quarter of 2015.</p><p><strong>7. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/tinders-pr-just-went-ballistic-on-twitter-over-a-vanity-fair-expos-2015-8">Tinder's PR went on a 30+ tweet tweetstorm lambasting Vanity Fair magazine for a recent feature story in the September issue of the magazine.</a> </strong>The article uses Tinder to talk about the effects of technology and smartphone dating apps on youth "hook-up" culture and dating.</p><p><strong>8. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/oracle-cso-goes-against-bug-bounties-and-security-researchers-2015-8">In a now-deleted blog post, Oracle security chief <span>Mary Ann Davidson said that the company does not welcome security researchers who point out flaws in its software.</span></a> </strong>She warned customers that anybody who tries to reverse-engineer Oracle code to find security vulnerabilities is "almost certainly violating [their] license agreement."</p><p><strong>9. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/police-raid-uber-offices-in-hong-kong-and-arrest-5-drivers-2015-8">Police raided Uber's offices in Hong Kong and arrested five drivers.</a> </strong>The police said the drivers lacked the required hire car permits or third party insurance.</p><p><strong>10. <a href="http://uk.businessinsider.com/tim-cook-and-eric-schmidt-invest-in-nebia-shower-head-startup-2015-8">Apple CEO Tim Cook and Google's Eric Schmidt invested in a Silicon Valley startup that makes shower heads.</a> </strong>Nebia designed a new kind of shower head that it says can reduce the amount of water used by up to 70%.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/killing-off-disease-spreading-mosquitoes-2015-6">Should we kill off one of the most dangerous creatures in the world?</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="lpd3lodTpxXMq8NSPc-xe5q-zK106WUF" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Flickr/Michael Goodin</span></p></div><p></p></div></div>There's a nifty new calculator that every tech startup should have, although they might not like the feedback it provides. </p><p>The tool can basically determine whether a startup will live or die. </p><p><span>Y Combinator founder and partner </span><a href="http://growth.tlb.org/#_.eyJyZXYwIjoyNzM0LCJleHAwIjoxMDExOTF9">Trevor Blackwell created the so-called growth calculator</a> and fellow cofounder Paul Graham says it provides scary, but important answers about whether a startup is on the right course or not - or as he puts it, "default dead" or "default alive."</p><p>Will the startup run out of cash based on its revenue growth? Or will it make it to profitability? </p><p>"<span>The reason I want to know first whether a startup is default alive or default dead is that the rest of the conversation depends on the answer. If the company is default alive, we can talk about ambitious new things they could do. If it's default dead, we probably need to talk about how to save it. We know the current trajectory ends badly. How can they get off that trajectory?" <a href="http://paulgraham.com/aord.html">Graham wrote</a>.</span></p><h2>The "fatal pinch"</h2><p>The calculator takes your monthly, weekly, or yearly expenses and assumes they stay constant. A startup founder can set revenue and by how much it is growing to determine how long it will take the startup to reach profitability - and how much money it will need in the interim.</p><p><span><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span><a href="http://growth.tlb.org/#">Trevor Blackwell/Startup Growth Calculator</a></span></p></div><p></p></div></div></span></p><p>The calculator assumes expenses remain constant, although many startups grow their headcount and expenses along the way. That's why founders need to be constantly evaluating whether they are still on path to profit, or if they are by default dead and on track to being caught in what <a href="http://paulgraham.com/pinch.html">Graham describes as "the fatal pinch."</a></p><p>The "<a href="http://paulgraham.com/pinch.html">fatal pinch</a>" happens when a company is by default dead, can't raise money, and doesn't have enough time to reach the point of profitability. It can be saved by lowering expenses, which generally means firing people, or increasing revenue.</p><h2>Ring the alarm</h2><p>In the past few months, we've seen some startups implode after hiring too fast and not managing their burn rate. In August, Zirtual laid off its 400 employees in an e-mail over night. Other startups (and big companies) are also taking <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/tech-company-layoffs-are-increasing-2015-10">steps like layoffs to stay on the path to profitability</a>. Flipagram <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/flipagram-cuts-20-percent-of-its-staff-2015-10">cut 20 percent of its staff</a> in October and Zomato <a href="http://techcrunch.com/2015/10/16/restaurant-search-app-zomato-lays-off-300-10-of-staff-in-shift-away-from-live-data-collection/#.ighfj4:foSd">laid off 300 employees</a>. Bigger companies like Snapchat, Evernote, and Twitter all trimmed staff recently too.</p><p>In early startups, the problem is most often that the product is only moderately appealing and not the hit that it needs to be. While some companies start hiring to "build out" their product, they're only really building up their expenses and possibly setting themselves on the trajectory to be default dead and caught in a fatal pinch.</p><p>"Asking whether you're default alive or default dead may save you from this. Maybe the alarm bells it sets off will counteract the forces that push you to overhire," <a href="http://paulgraham.com/aord.html">Graham wrote</a>.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/fanduel-founders-daily-fantasy-sports-craze-2015-10">How FanDuel, the billion-dollar New York City startup, launched the now-controversial daily fantasy sports craze</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="8waWM4eDqD9-ixpIztKtsAYltXR0yPeQ" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

This tool can tell you if your startup is about to die

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table float_right"><div><div class="image on-image"><p class="source"><span>Paul English</span></p><p class="caption">Paul English dressed up as a vampire while driving for Uber.</p></div><p></p></div></div>On Halloween, Paul English dressed up as a vampire. Then he sat down behind the wheel of his $100,000 Tesla Model S and turned on the Uber app.</p><p>English didn't become an Uber driver because he needs extra money. A decade ago, English cofounded the flight-finding website Kayak. Priceline <a href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887324439804578107302243818568">bought the site for around $2 billion</a> two years ago, and since then English opened a $20 million startup incubator in Boston and has been driving for Uber.</p><p><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/sebastian-thrun-was-an-uber-driver-2015-11">Like other tech billionaires</a>, English found that being an Uber driver was a great way to do research. For English, that research will go toward his new company, <a href="http://www.lolatravel.com/">Lola</a>.</p><p>With Lola, English wants to bring back the <keyword id="6354692" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Travel">travel</keyword>-agent industry - an industry Kayak helped kill - by making accessing a travel agent as easy as opening an app.</p><p>"<span class="s1">Fast forward 10 years later, I'm trying to figure out how to reinvent the travel agency and make humans more valuable than the machines and where can humans help you get the perfect trip," English said.</span></p><h2><span class="s1">An executive assistant for everyone</span></h2><p>He was initially going to build a competitor to Zirtual, the virtual-assistant company <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/zirtual-suddenly-laid-off-400-employees-via-email-2015-8">that went bust overnight and laid off its 400 employees via email</a>. But it was a tough business to be getting into, and his investors suggested he first focus only on travel.</p><p>"<span class="s1">Just like in business travel, a lot of executives have executive assistants who book all their travel," English said. "And good executive assistants can be amazing in terms of simplifying your mind as a business traveler because they already know which airlines you prefer, what seating you prefer.</span></p><p><span class="s1">"We're trying to make travel that simple. That you have this person in your corner who knows all your preferences and will do all the research and booking for you."</span></p><p>That's when English turned to Uber. He started driving a few months ago because he wanted to feel how it was like to be rated.</p><p>"<span class="s1">In the app, you get to rate your travel agent on a scale of one to five, just like you'd rate your Uber driver," English told Business Insider. "I wanted to know what it felt like to get rated and how it changed the dynamic between Uber and the driver."</span></p><p>It turns out English is slightly less than perfect - he has a 4.95 out of 5 - but he has no idea what he did to deserve a lower rating.</p><p><span class="s1">"I think sometimes if you're just kind and you talk to people, they appreciate it and you end up getting a good rating," he said. "Probably because they like the car and hopefully they like talking to me."</span></p><p><span class="s1">For now, Lola users will be able to rate their travel agent, but not the other way around. One of the most interesting things English has learned since driving for Uber is how many passengers the company boots off the system for unruly behavior or a low rating.</span></p><p><span class="s1">He doesn't have plans to let agents boot customers from Lola yet, but it's not off the table either. </span></p><p><span class="s1">As for the travel agents, the first group of full-time workers will be based entirely in Boston so Lola's engineers can sit next to the travel agents and figure out what can be built to help them.</span></p><p><span class="s1">English hopes that by treating the company's travel agents well, while keeping the rating system as a check, Lola can be as big as Kayak one day.</span></p><p>"Uber believes if you take care of your drivers, then ultimately they'll provide the best care of their passengers," English said. "And we're going to do something similar with travel agents. We believe if we take great care of our travel agents, they'll take best care of our travelers. "</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/find-out-uber-passenger-rating-instantaneously-driver-2015-11">Here's how to find out your Uber rating</a></h3>        <div>            <div>        <div class="ooyala-video-player" data-video-autoplay="false" data-video-id="l0a2s4eTo4Zk6e0tey7l9C2gDBEbblAN" data-player-variable="ooyalapopvideo" id="ooyalaplayer_popvideo" style="width:1280px;height:720px"></div>        </div>        </div>            </div>

You Searched For "Zirtual" and got 11 results

Zirtual employees: Benefits were left unpaid and most of us aren't going back

Biz Carson

A More Decentralized Workplace Is Becoming Inevitable

Aimee Groth,Max Nisen

The secret to hiring and managing top talent, according to the CEO of a virtual assistant company who grew her business to over 80 assistants and 100 clients in just 2 years

Adrian Granzella Larssen

A startup blew up overnight and laid off its 400 employees via email with no warning

Biz Carson

The CEO of the startup that dissolved overnight explains what happened: Burn

JILLIAN D'ONFRO

If a startup shuts down overnight, it means the founder was 'selfish'

Biz Carson

10 things in tech you need to know today

Lucy England

10 things in tech you need to know today

Lucy England

This tool can tell you if your startup is about to die

Biz Carson

Why one of Kayak's cofounders took his Tesla and became an Uber driver

Biz Carson

Evernote, the first dead unicorn

Josh Dickson, Syrah

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