This is how we are at Pathwright. Two of the co-founders are up in Greenville, SC, and I'm down near Atlanta, GA. Still close enough for me to be in the office periodically, but too far to commute.
Interesting to see that he mentions Hipchat, Google Hangouts and Skype. Isn't that 3 tools for doing the same thing? Even though Hipchat is just text communication.
Hard for team members to know what tool to send a message with.
In my team I use the same tools: Hipchat for text communication - among teams (chat rooms) and 1-1; Skype for 1-1 video calls but I use Hangouts for video conferences. 3 tools but each has own application.
