You sprinkle your comments throughout, so I'll just shoot my general perspective over to you rather than reply piece by piece.
In my opinion, you have a serious problem on your hands. The first issue is that you don't know if the problem is you, your team, or one that you created with your team.
I think you need to get that sorted first -- the suggestions for a mentor to come in and spend a day or two with you are spot on. Do this first, because if you choose the wrong option above, you're going to be in for some horrible pain, much worse than you are now.
You reference telecommuting and said you thought telecommuting was the 'way to go.' Here's my experience: I managed a technology startup in an office for nine years with no telecommuters, and have since done three years of management of remote teams, working out of an office and at home, so I've been on both sides of this.
Whatever 37Signals seems to imply on their blog posts, remote management of knowledge workers is more challenging than in-office management. (And, I'm sure that they would agree with this statement, by the way). There is one exception to this rule: it is if the team is self-motivated, self-organizing and has good chemistry and an excellent remote decision making process.
Something many entrepreneurs miss (or at least that I missed for many years) is that not everyone wants to be an entrpreneur. Whatever else may be true about your company, I know from your descriptions that your employees don't want to be entrepreneurs. They want to be salaried employees, I'm sure with bonuses and stock if possible.
When you read about how telecommuting rocks, and the team just works really hard and talks all the time using skype or iChat, etc. etc., and there is no management overhead and no wasted time, and people are naturally agile, and everything is awesome, you are reading about a group of people who all wanted to be entrepreneurs and found each other online.
You're not in that situation; instead you're in a more-challenging-than-usual management situation where you can't evaluate body language, team dynamics, emotional affect, work groupings (as in who works well with whom). All that has to be inferred or discovered or just left as a mystery. In all likelihood, you have a seriously toxic work environment on your hands, one that is negatively impacting your 'good' employees as well as the 'problem ones.'
Now, to solutions:
If the problem is mostly you, and you actually generally have good people, you're lucky! You can work extra hard at becoming a better manager. There are lots of great suggestions here, including more frequent short one-on-one meetings, providing better work structure for employees and getting some management coaching. Do all of these. Also, start reading some business books about management, rather than just HN, as great as it is. There are many, many excellent management books (and, sadly a whole load of total crap) at the bookstore; go browse and buy four or five. Read them. Talk about them with your coach or mentor. Implement. You'll probably find you need to sort some things out with some of your employees. Do that. You'll probably find you can't live with some of your employees, even with your new management skills. Have them leave, but do so in a respectful way. Things will improve.
Now, if (as seems likely to me), you've participated in creating a problematic culture, you have some more work ahead of you: you're going to have to manage your company back around to a better culture, without losing half your team.
Consider: could the half you want to get rid of re-implement your technology? Since they work in different countries, would you have a legal solution to that? If the answers are: 'yes' and 'hmm....', tread carefully!
If instead you have a lock on the technology and you know you need a reset, you should process this, first with your most trusted senior employee. Tell them you're considering a reset because you're convinced the culture is not solvable. (Note that you definitely owe it to your employees to work on your own management needs before you go down this path.) Get their feedback, it will be instructive. Work together to get a transition plan in place.
I have more thoughts in this vein, but perhaps you get the thrust of my opinions. Best of luck.
In my opinion, you have a serious problem on your hands. The first issue is that you don't know if the problem is you, your team, or one that you created with your team.
I think you need to get that sorted first -- the suggestions for a mentor to come in and spend a day or two with you are spot on. Do this first, because if you choose the wrong option above, you're going to be in for some horrible pain, much worse than you are now.
You reference telecommuting and said you thought telecommuting was the 'way to go.' Here's my experience: I managed a technology startup in an office for nine years with no telecommuters, and have since done three years of management of remote teams, working out of an office and at home, so I've been on both sides of this.
Whatever 37Signals seems to imply on their blog posts, remote management of knowledge workers is more challenging than in-office management. (And, I'm sure that they would agree with this statement, by the way). There is one exception to this rule: it is if the team is self-motivated, self-organizing and has good chemistry and an excellent remote decision making process.
Something many entrepreneurs miss (or at least that I missed for many years) is that not everyone wants to be an entrpreneur. Whatever else may be true about your company, I know from your descriptions that your employees don't want to be entrepreneurs. They want to be salaried employees, I'm sure with bonuses and stock if possible.
When you read about how telecommuting rocks, and the team just works really hard and talks all the time using skype or iChat, etc. etc., and there is no management overhead and no wasted time, and people are naturally agile, and everything is awesome, you are reading about a group of people who all wanted to be entrepreneurs and found each other online.
You're not in that situation; instead you're in a more-challenging-than-usual management situation where you can't evaluate body language, team dynamics, emotional affect, work groupings (as in who works well with whom). All that has to be inferred or discovered or just left as a mystery. In all likelihood, you have a seriously toxic work environment on your hands, one that is negatively impacting your 'good' employees as well as the 'problem ones.'
Now, to solutions:
If the problem is mostly you, and you actually generally have good people, you're lucky! You can work extra hard at becoming a better manager. There are lots of great suggestions here, including more frequent short one-on-one meetings, providing better work structure for employees and getting some management coaching. Do all of these. Also, start reading some business books about management, rather than just HN, as great as it is. There are many, many excellent management books (and, sadly a whole load of total crap) at the bookstore; go browse and buy four or five. Read them. Talk about them with your coach or mentor. Implement. You'll probably find you need to sort some things out with some of your employees. Do that. You'll probably find you can't live with some of your employees, even with your new management skills. Have them leave, but do so in a respectful way. Things will improve.
Now, if (as seems likely to me), you've participated in creating a problematic culture, you have some more work ahead of you: you're going to have to manage your company back around to a better culture, without losing half your team.
Consider: could the half you want to get rid of re-implement your technology? Since they work in different countries, would you have a legal solution to that? If the answers are: 'yes' and 'hmm....', tread carefully!
If instead you have a lock on the technology and you know you need a reset, you should process this, first with your most trusted senior employee. Tell them you're considering a reset because you're convinced the culture is not solvable. (Note that you definitely owe it to your employees to work on your own management needs before you go down this path.) Get their feedback, it will be instructive. Work together to get a transition plan in place.
I have more thoughts in this vein, but perhaps you get the thrust of my opinions. Best of luck.