Escape Velocity by Cosmos Video

Karan Baweja

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Technology
Biweekly

Escape Velocity is a show about breaking away from how work has always been done. Unscripted conversations with founders, operators, people leaders, and the teams building products — covering remote work and culture, the tools they tried, the rollouts that stalled, and what actually moved the needle. No theory, no playbooks: just the people doing it, telling it straight. Hosted by the team at Cosmos (https://cosmos.video).

Oct 14

How a Remote Insurance Agency Keeps Its Sales Team Connected — Fallon Insurance

What do remote sales teams really miss? For Leland Fallon, who runs a fully remote insurance agency from Wisconsin with agents across the US, the answer is simpler than you'd expect: not feeling alone. Leland joins Cosmos founder Karan Baweja to break down how he runs a remote sales floor on Cosmos. He makes the case that going remote is a hiring edge — you fish in the ocean, not a little pond — but only if you build the right systems: a cameras-on "sales floor" where the team can see each other working without being watched, and live call coaching where he or a team lead drops into an agent's screen-share to help them close. The biggest value, though, isn't the monitoring. It's that nobody feels alone. Isolation is the number one reason remote teams fall apart, and Leland ties it straight to the numbers: lonely agents get distracted, make half the calls, underperform, and eventually quit — and turnover is expensive. Keeping the team connected is, in his words, a good 60% of the value. What you'll hear: - Why remote hiring is like fishing in the ocean, not a pond - Why you can't run a remote team like an in-house one - The cameras-on "sales floor" that gives accountability without constant monitoring - Live call coaching by screen-share, instead of dialling into a phone system - Why isolation is the #1 reason remote teams fail, and what it costs - Why "not being alone on the island" is 60% of the value Guest: Leland Fallon, Founder of Fallon Insurance Agency, a fully remote independent agency in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Host: Karan Baweja, founder of Cosmos. Try Cosmos free → https://cosmos.video (00:00) Remote as a growth edge (01:08) Don't run remote like in-house (01:30) Everyone on one sales floor (02:17) Coaching agents on live calls (03:06) Not alone on an island (04:12) The cost of lonely agents (05:26) One-on-ones, just like the office (06:14) Affordable, and worth it
Sep 3

How a Marketing Agency Kept Its Hallway Conversations After Going Hybrid — HippoCampus

How do you keep the quick, unplanned conversations — the idea someone overhears by the coffee machine — alive when your team goes hybrid and half the week is remote? That was the question facing HippoCampus, a data-driven marketing and customer-experience agency in Ramat-Gan, Israel, with clients like L'Oréal, Nintendo and Kornit Digital. When the team moved to hybrid, co-founder Lior Peleg didn't want to lose the thing small teams run on: someone hearing a conversation across the room and jumping in with "hey, I have an idea, you can try this." Lior joins Cosmos founder Karan Baweja to walk through how they solved it. The team wasn't even aware virtual offices existed until a chance conversation with a gaming company — they went looking, tried Cosmos, and it stuck. Now, instead of booking a Google Meet and sending a link for every quick question, people just walk up to each other's desks and talk. The two-minute friction that used to make Lior think "I'll just figure it out myself" is gone. He's candid about what wasn't working — Slack, with its endless channels, was never right for talking to your own team ("we use it because our customers use it") — and how they rolled Cosmos out not as a mandate but as a way to keep doing the small talks the team already valued. Everyone logs in each morning and stays all day. Nearly six months in, Lior also shares the one thing he'd build next: a way to pull the audio out of Cosmos meetings and feed it to HippoCampus's own AI transcription engine. What you'll hear: - Why the quick "hey, I have an idea" moments disappear when small teams go hybrid - How a chance chat with a gaming company led them to virtual offices - Walk-up conversations vs booking a Google Meet for every quick question - Why Slack works for clients but not for talking to your own team - Rolling out a new tool by leaning into what the team already valued - The feature Lior wants next: audio export for their own AI summariser About HippoCampus: Data-driven marketing and customer-experience agency in Ramat-Gan, Israel (founded 2016; clients include L'Oréal, Nintendo and Kornit Digital). Co-founders: Lior Peleg and Ori Indursky. Uses Cosmos as its everyday hybrid office. Try Cosmos free → https://cosmos.video (00:00) Click and talk (01:07) How they found it (02:26) Small team, big ideas (03:57) Where Slack falls short (04:57) Clicking, not booking (06:21) Bringing the team along (07:24) Used all day (08:07) Feed it to our AI (11:05) What's on the roadmap
Sep 2

Trust, Not Surveillance: Inside a Remote-First Gaming Studio | Bring It On

Most remote-work advice is about tools. Leo Frankel's is about philosophy. Leo Frankel, co-founder and CEO of Bring It On — a fully-remote mobile gaming studio — sits down with Cosmos founder Karan Baweja to make the contrarian case for how remote teams should actually work. Leo built Bring It On remote from day one (his third startup). He's blunt about the trade-off: you give up some of the raw productivity of everyone in one room, but you gain a wider talent pool and people who can be present in their families' lives. You win the productivity back by killing friction — walking up to a teammate's desk in Cosmos and being in a conversation instantly, instead of pinging on Slack and waiting. He takes the obvious objection head-on (won't open communication just create chaos?), explains why enabling communication is an upside, not a downside, and shares how he onboards a team on trust rather than surveillance: no hour-tracking, workations in Thailand, choose-your-own days — but a shared four-hour window where everyone's present in the Cosmos office. He's also refreshingly honest about what remote still can't replace. What you'll hear: - Why "just walk over" beats pinging and waiting on Slack - The productivity case for a virtual office, and how Leo pitches it - The "won't it create chaos?" objection, and why open comms is an upside - Onboarding a remote team on trust, not surveillance - The four-hour shared office window that anchors the day - Why a remote-first gaming studio was a deliberate choice - An honest take on remote's limits, and what a constant video stream fixes About Bring It On: Remote-first mobile gaming studio building skill-based, real-money games like Big Cash Bingo. Founded 2022, fully distributed from day one. Founder & CEO: Leo Frankel (previously VP Business Development at Plarium). Try Cosmos for your team → https://cosmos.video (00:00) Just walk over (01:18) Productivity without the wait (03:23) Open comms, not chaos (05:28) Trust, not surveillance (07:49) Four hours together (08:49) Remote by design (11:25) A place to meet (12:11) An office with magic (13:54) What remote can't replace
Jul 21

Nine to Five in a Virtual Office: A Remote PR Agency That Feels Like a Team — Top of Mind PR

How do you onboard two new hires who live in different states and will never set foot in your office — and still make them feel like part of the team from day one? That was the problem facing Top of Mind PR, a 7-person PR agency in Florida led by founder Paola Iuspa-Abbott. Fully remote since the pandemic, the team's default plan for onboarding was bleak: "I guess I'm just gonna stay on Google Meet eight hours a day, and if they need something they can unmute." Then a LinkedIn post surfaced Cosmos — and the whole team, in their words, got "giddy." In this conversation with Simon from Cosmos, the team walks through how they rebuilt their office online: three main tables where everyone claims a spot, a kitchen corner for the teammate who doesn't want to be bothered, a locking two-person table, and a Christmas tree that doubles as a status signal (when the boss parks her avatar there, she's walking the dog — and nobody's allowed to take it down). Hear how a 9-to-5 actually runs in a virtual office — walk in at nine, find your seat, disperse through the day, exit at five — why "listening mode" lets everyone set their own comfort level, and how walking over to a colleague's table quietly replaced picking up the phone. What started as an onboarding experiment became the company's default office, with the owner now logged in and "available" all day, just like she would be in person. What you'll hear: - Why "Google Meet eight hours a day" is no way to onboard remote hires - How a 7-person team claims spots and runs a 9-to-5 in a virtual office - The Christmas-tree-as-status-signal trick (and other small culture hacks) - Why "listening mode" beats always-on for people wary of being watched - How walking over replaced phone calls and scheduled meetings - Using a virtual office even on the days some of the team is co-working in person About Top of Mind PR: 7-person PR agency based in Florida, fully remote (with an occasional South Florida co-working space). Founder: Paola Iuspa-Abbott. Uses Cosmos as its everyday office. Read the full case study → https://cosmos.video/case-studies/top-of-mind-pr Try Cosmos free → https://cosmos.video (00:00) A tour of the Top of Mind office (00:45) Everyone's favourite spot (and the table that locks) (02:25) Why they started: onboarding two remote hires (03:30) The LinkedIn post & the "giddy" first day (04:53) Beyond onboarding: access without feeling invasive (06:32) What the team feels — decorating your own desk (08:10) How to describe Cosmos to someone new (09:00) A 9-to-5 in the virtual office (10:07) Do they still have a physical office? (11:47) The honest downsides
Jul 21

Cancelling the Lease: How a Design Agency Went Fully Virtual — Maya

What happens when a design agency that poured its identity into a physical studio suddenly can't use it — and realises it doesn't want to go back? Adam Telford, founder of Maya, joins Rahul from Cosmos to tell the story of going fully virtual. Maya is a 9-person UK design agency that built its small studio into something that felt like the brand — clients walked in and instantly "got" Maya. Then the pandemic emptied it for nine months, and the team was left juggling meeting links and missing the vibe. Adam names the three pains exactly: tool fatigue (too many links, too many apps, everyone needing a different download), lost identity (the studio felt like Maya, but Zoom just looks like Zoom), and the diary problem (five-minute conversations booked as hour-long meetings). A client recommended Cosmos — and Maya rebuilt their studio as a space, not a video tool: design team around a table, dev team in the corner, a conference room tagged "welcome to my TED talk," and lockable client meeting rooms upstairs. Hear how the Maya day runs (10am stand-up with a funny question, then everyone scatters — some behind a tree, some on a rug — in listening mode all day), why they cancelled the lease for good, and the outcome nobody expected: at least three of Maya's clients have since built Cosmos studios of their own. What you'll hear: - The three reasons a design agency ditched Zoom, Teams and Meet - How to make a virtual space feel like your brand, not a meeting room - Why "listening mode" beats always-on video for a small team - Running client meetings — and client breakout rooms — in a virtual studio - What it actually takes to cancel the office lease and not look back - Why clients started building their own Cosmos spaces About Maya: 9-person design agency based in the United Kingdom. Cancelled its physical studio lease and now runs fully remotely in a custom Cosmos space. Founder: Adam Telford. Read the full case study → https://cosmos.video/case-studies/maya Try Cosmos free → https://cosmos.video (00:00) Meet Adam & Maya (01:41) Switching from Zoom & Teams: the three problems (02:39) Losing the studio's identity (03:28) Five-minute chats booked as hour meetings (04:43) How the team feels about Cosmos (06:01) Describing Cosmos & the client "surprise factor" (08:04) A day in Maya's virtual studio (09:43) Clients dropping in & breakout rooms (11:40) Cancelling the lease (12:57) Flexibility, culture & still meeting in real life
Jul 21

How a Singapore EdTech Studio Runs a Team Across 4 Countries — Codomo

How does a 15-person edtech studio — half in a Singapore office, half remote across Indonesia, India and Cambodia — stop its remote teammates from feeling cut off from everything happening in the room? Codomo co-founders Jia and Aditya join Karan (Founder of Cosmos) to talk through the honest middle of hybrid work. They run two products under one roof — Potato Pirates (a board game) and Rojak (a SaaS product) — and after lockdowns scattered the team, "engagement" kept showing up as the lowest score on every employee survey, especially from the remote half. They'd run the standard playbook first: more Zoom socials, Jackbox games, a Discord channel for casual voice. It helped a little — but as Aditya puts it, "when you hear engagement is low, the knee-jerk reaction is to organise more Zoom socials… the learning was that's not it." The real step up was a virtual office with an avatar you can actually control — walk across a room, tap someone on the shoulder, ask a question. Hear how Codomo rebuilt the little things: morning stand-ups both teams drop into, a "focusing" status that replaces "let's meet at the end of the day" with a quick walk-over, all-day sprint-planning sessions — and the snowball fights Aditya literally requested, including the one that broke a creative block and cracked a stuck project in hours. What you'll hear: - Why "more Zoom socials" doesn't fix a remote engagement gap - How to bridge in-house and remote staff when half your team is abroad - Why an avatar you control changes remote interaction - Running two product teams (Potato Pirates + Rojak) in one virtual office - The "focusing" status as a lightweight, always-on workflow - Why keeping a physical office still makes sense (playtesting board games needs bodies in a room) About Codomo: Singapore-based EdTech studio building Potato Pirates (educational board games) and Rojak (SaaS). ~15-person team across Singapore, Indonesia, India and Cambodia. Working with Cosmos since late 2021. Read the full case study → https://cosmos.video/case-studies/codomo Visit Codomo → https://codomo.com.sg Try Cosmos free → https://cosmos.video (00:00) How Codomo found Cosmos (01:55) Meet the team: 15 people across 4 countries (03:36) The problem: remote teammates felt disengaged (05:08) Beyond Zoom games — why engagement stayed low (06:33) The step up: avatars, walking over, no links (08:02) How Codomo actually uses Cosmos (stand-ups & "focusing") (10:04) What the team feels about it (11:58) Driving adoption across two teams (14:42) Back in the office — but still on Cosmos (17:36) So why keep the office at all? (19:16) Is fully-remote the future of work?
Jul 21

How a WordPress Team Across 6 Continents Built a Real Office Online — Divi Engine

How does a WordPress plugin team spread across China, South Africa, Mexico, Canada, India and the UK stop forgetting meeting links and start feeling like a real team? Peter Wilkinson, Founder of Divi Engine, walks Karan (Founder of Cosmos) through how his 7-person globally-distributed team built genuine connection in Cosmos — daily scrums, snowball fights mid-meeting, Pong championships, Battleship tournaments, and the kind of casual moments that make people on opposite sides of the planet feel like colleagues, not contractors. What you'll hear: - Why a team across 6 continents needed something beyond Appear.in, Jitsi and Zoom - How proximity chat replaces "where's the meeting link?" with "just walk over" - Why team games matter when you can't meet in person - How Divi Engine runs daily scrums (Marketing, Dev, Documentation) in meeting room B - The honest test — would you explain Cosmos to a friend over a pint? (Peter calls it "a virtual office that looks like Pokemon") - How a team under 10 people uses every corner of their virtual office About Divi Engine: Essex-founded (2018), 7-person global WordPress plugin studio. Team spans China, South Africa, Mexico, Canada, India and the UK. 10,000+ customers across 7 premium Divi plugins. Working with Cosmos since September 2021. Read the full case study → https://cosmos.video/case-studies/divi Visit Divi Engine → https://diviengine.com Try Cosmos free → https://cosmos.video (00:00) Divi Engine in Cosmos (00:30) A global team, no office (04:52) The team unity problem (08:15) From meeting links to walking over (10:09) Snowballs, Battleship and Pong championships (12:51) Daily scrums in meeting room B (14:05) Like Pokemon, but for work (16:48) What we'd improve (17:46) Performance & the "Forest of Silence" (19:35) A day in the virtual office
Jul 20

How an Online University Rebuilt Campus Life in a Virtual Space — Tomorrow University

How does an online university recreate the social campus experience — the moments before class, the visibility of office hours, the spontaneous conversations after — when students learn from anywhere in the world? Christian Rebernik, Co-CEO of Tomorrow University and former CTO of N26, walks through how Tomorrow rebuilt their entire campus inside Cosmos: classrooms, academic offices, library, gardens, and the buzz that makes a university feel like a real community. What you'll hear: - Why traditional video conferencing felt "transactional" for live, challenge-based learning - How office-hours visibility works when students can see who's actually waiting - What changes when a platform supports clapping, whispering, and drop-in rooms - How students who study from anywhere meet in person and already know each other - Why partnerships with established universities trusted a Cosmos-based learning experience About Tomorrow University: German government-accredited online university for Global Impact. Master and Bachelor programs in sustainability, entrepreneurship and technology. Partnerships with WU Vienna Executive Academy and RWTH Aachen. Working with Cosmos since 2021. Read the full case study → https://cosmos.video/case-studies/tomorrow-university Visit Tomorrow University → https://tomorrow.university Try Cosmos free → https://cosmos.video (00:00) Tomorrow University in Cosmos (03:40) When video calls felt transactional (06:48) A social learning platform, finally (08:51) A leap forward for conversations (12:53) The impact on students (14:55) From sceptics to advocates (17:40) Wrap-up
Jul 17

How a Remote VFX Studio Rebuilt Team Culture with a Virtual Office — Frontier VFX

When Frontier VFX grew from 10 people to 75 as a fully remote, Montreal-based visual effects studio, the "community feel" that made early days special started to slip. In this episode, Oliver "Oli" Nacey, Production Operations & Culture Coordinator at Frontier VFX, joins host Karan (Founder of Cosmos) to share exactly how they rebuilt it. Oli breaks down the real problem behind remote culture — that it's about people, not industries — and why a virtual office turned out to fit a VFX studio surprisingly well. He gets candid about the messy parts: the "big brother" fears when the team first saw avatars and always-on presence, the friction of getting artists to treat a passive tool differently from a video app, and how a small focus-group rollout eventually became company-wide habit. You'll hear how Frontier evaluated the space (they tried Gather, found Cosmos on Product Hunt), why the "middle ground" between too-simple and too-gamified won, how they measured something as soft as culture with surveys and lived experience, and how Cosmos quietly improved their onboarding process too. Plus the practical stuff: running 60+ person town halls, screen-share quality, and annotations. A must-listen for anyone leading a remote team, heads of people, or studios rethinking how virtual work actually feels. (00:00) Meet Oli & Frontier VFX (a fully remote Montreal studio) (01:42) Scaling fast: from 10 to 75 people (and heading to 150) (03:32) Why remote culture became top of mind (04:50) The problem: losing the "community feel" as they grew (05:25) Discovering virtual offices & choosing Cosmos (06:47) How a virtual office actually ties into culture (11:07) How Frontier uses Cosmos day-to-day (statuses & flexibility) (13:43) Onboarding a "passive" tool (and why that's hard) (17:46) Addressing the "big brother" fear head-on (19:18) Two personas: production (meetings) vs artists (focus) (22:07) What the virtual office gives artists (24:54) Getting leadership buy-in (27:52) A surprise win: better new-hire onboarding (28:29) Measuring something as soft as culture (31:35) Evaluating tools & building confidence in a new product (36:37) Call stability at scale: 60+ person town halls, screen share (38:40) Wrap-up Try Cosmos for your team → https://cosmos.video

9 Episodes

Escape Velocity is a show about breaking away from how work has always been done. Unscripted conversations with founders, operators, people leaders, and the teams building products — covering remote work and culture, the tools they tried, the rollouts that stalled, and what actually moved the needle. No theory, no playbooks: just the people doing it, telling it straight. Hosted by the team at Cosmos (https://cosmos.video).

Creator

Karan Baweja
Years Active

2026
Episodes

9
Rating

Clean
Copyright

© Karan Baweja
Show Website

Escape Velocity by Cosmos Video