Mr Pei’s email mentioned that the new mandate would come into force in two months.

Nothing, a British smartphone startup seeking to challenge Apple’s dominance of the industry, is bringing its employees back to the office full-time in a bid for growth. Nothing CEO Carl Pei defended the need for his 450 employees to show up to work five days a week in a lengthy email, reversing a workplace policy that has supported remote work since the company was founded four years ago.

“We have achieved a lot in a short period of time. We are the only company that has built a smartphone business over the last 10 years. At 567% YoY, we are the fastest growing smartphone brand in India. Yet we are at 0.1% of our potential. With our solid start, we truly have an opportunity to create a generational technology company that can change the world. This is an incredibly exciting opportunity that we have built together and now it is time to take it up a notch,” he said in the email to employees.

Last Friday we made an important decision: to work five days a week in the London office.

This is the email I sent to everyone on the @Nothing Team.

—————

We have achieved a lot in a short period of time. We are the only company that has built a smartphone business in recent years.

— Carl Pei (@getpeid) 19 August 2024

Mr. Pei explained that while remote or hybrid work environments have proven successful for certain companies, they do not meet the high standards of ambition and speed that Nothing needs to achieve its goals. He cited three main reasons for the change: the company’s goal of becoming a generation-defining technology company; the need for close collaboration in producing physical goods; and the importance of creativity and innovation to outperform more established competitors.

“First of all, we make physical products where design, engineering, manufacturing and quality have to work closely together to deliver products to our users. That doesn’t work well remotely,” he said.

The CEO added: “We don’t want to build a good company that gets acquired by a big company. We want to reach our full potential and become a generation-defining company. And we are really serious about moving fast. Remote work is not compatible with high ambition and high speed.”

Mr Pei’s email also mentioned that the new mandate would take effect in two months and that he planned to convene a town hall meeting in London to address any concerns raised by staff.

The CEO also advised employees who could not work five days a week to look for another job. “We know that this is not the right work environment for everyone, and that’s OK. We should look for a mutual fit. They should find an environment where they can thrive, and we need to find people who want to stick with us to the end in the decades to come,” he concluded.