Beyond the digital nomad cliché- Is there an opportunity here?

The first time I became aware of the term "Digital Nomad" was about 5 years ago, via a glitzy New York Times article explaining how this trend (originally coined in 1997) was growing rapidly due to cheaper air travel, advances in communication technology, and lifestyle blogging.

Via NYTimes

Starting in 2020, I noticed more of these longer-stay tourists visiting Barbados, which had just announced its own Digital Nomad Visa, coined The Welcome Stamp. Many were the clichéd early 30-something-year-old single white male developer- or marketing-types who would spend a few weeks in Barbados before jetting off to Mexico City, Bali, or Buenos Aires. But among them, there were also other travelers who were distinctly different from the Digital Nomad group.

This other group of travelers who were also "globally mobile" were older (40s or 50s), and more often than not were traveling with not just a long term partner or spouse, but also with young kids in tow. They stayed for longer periods of time, sometimes rotating between just 2-3 countries in one year. But because of the longer stays, coupled with repeat visits over time, they established friendships and volunteered in causes in each country. They were more thought of as part of the community, as opposed to just being a long-stay tourist. Their kids made friends at schools, parks and beaches within local communities and seemed to thrive as a result of it. Notably as well, their careers seemed more diverse, and "traditional.” I was meeting lawyers and writers who were enjoying successful tech-facilitated globally mobile careers, as opposed to developers and social media managers who had a tech-centered existence.

So I dug deeper. The more I investigated, the more I found a large group of travelers that’s still growing—but they don’t necessarily consider themselves digital nomads. So they aren't being captured in most online “digital nomad” surveys and studies, and as a result, it's very likely that all of their needs aren't being met as a demographic, due to lack of media attention. 

Below, I’ll look at how large this demographic is, and whether it’s big enough to be a market. I’ll also examine what unmet needs they may have as a group, which could be great opportunities to provide them with products and services.

Overview of globally mobile workers

More people than ever are working remotely in some capacity—but not just cliché digital nomads. NomadList counts 35M members (and that already isn’t tiny). But NomadList members are only a segment of the larger group of people who are now doing more remote work than ever.

In NomadList’s recent survey of self-identified digital nomads, over 35 million people globally considered themselves a part of this trend.

However, we must consider that other people who are globally mobile (“Anywhere Workers”) may not identify themselves with this term, and tend not to complete surveys like this. Actually, when I asked several friends of mine—who I thought fell into the Anywhere Worker classification—whether they considered themselves digital nomads, they all consistently responded negatively to the term. This leads me to believe that the actual number of Anywhere Workers is likely to be much larger.

Indeed, this trend should persist over time, as increasing numbers of companies make remote work a permanent part of the company policy (from Buffer “State of Remote Work” Survey).

In addition, this growth primarily consists of formerly “traditional workers” with a normal corporate job, suddenly finding themselves with the option of working remotely. (See the graphic above from MBO Partners 2022 State of Independence Digital Nomads study).

But is this group big enough to be a separate and distinct market for new products and services? It does seem like it, and it does seem like there are many more people in the potentially addressable group beyond just the ones who self-identify as nomads.

problems to be solved

When it comes to seeing Anywhere Workers as a market, the question is: what differentiated problems do they have that a company might be able to help them solve?

When you ask remote workers about their problems, they name some problems—like “not being able to unplug” and “working across time zones.”

But interestingly, some companies have already sprung up to serve this group in ways that they don’t automatically describe for themselves. 

For example, Wise is a financial services company that helps individuals and small businesses move money across borders. It offers significantly faster and cheaper international transfers than traditional banking methods because of its innovative closed-loop system. 

Now, while Anywhere Workers and digital nomads aren’t necessarily mentioning these financial problems as “struggles that are related to working remotely”—they’re using these products and services heavily. 12 years after its founding, Wise services over 6 million active customers and earned close to GBP 1 billion in income last year. 

Remote workers wouldn’t necessarily place financial services in their Top 5 problems, but the growth of Wise indicates that it’s a problem worth solving. 

Based on this concept of “companies solving problems for digital nomads and Anywhere Workers,” I came up with the tables below. I’ve highlighted in red the areas where it seems like the need isn’t fully met by existing solutions.

Financial services

Anywhere Worker (with Family)	Cliche Digital Nomad	Companies
Easy foreign transactions (not getting locked out by fraud prevention)	Easy foreign transactions (not getting locked out by fraud prevention)	Wise, Payoneer, Revolut, N26
Lower FX fees	Lower FX fees	Wise, Payoneer, Revolut, N26
Convenient hours of operation (ideally 24x7)	Convenient hours of operation (ideally 24x7)	Wise, Payoneer, Revolut, N26
Investment Products - ways to protect and grow wealth	Investment Products - ways to protect and grow wealth
Growing the retirement nest egg	Growing the retirement nest egg

travel and lodging

Anywhere Worker (with Family)	Cliche Digital Nomad	Companies
Space needed for family of 3-5 (assuming kids)	Home away from home	AirBnB, VRBO, Booking.com, Homelike
Access to play areas (near to parks / beaches)	Office away from the office	AirBnB, VRBO, Booking.com, Homelike
Safety is a big concern for parents	Modestly priced food and restaurants
Proximity to other kids	Consistent source of healthy food

co-working

Anywhere Worker (with Family)	Cliche Digital Nomad	Companies
Fast reliable WiFi	Fast reliable WiFi	Regus, GetCroissant, WeWork, Industrious Office
Meeting spaces / boardrooms	Meeting spaces / boardrooms	Regus, GetCroissant, WeWork, Industrious Office
In-person networking / socialization	In-person networking / socialization	Regus, GetCroissant, WeWork, Industrious Office

community & peer support

Anywhere Worker (with Family)	Cliche Digital Nomad	Companies
Opportunity to network	Opportunity to network	NomadList, NomadBase, WifiTribe, Nomad Soulmates, Digital Nomad Girls
City guides, job listings, lifestyle tips	City guides, job listings, lifestyle tips	NomadList, NomadBase, WifiTribe, Nomad Soulmates, Digital Nomad Girls
In-person meetups (adults)	In-person meetups (singles)	NomadList, NomadBase, WifiTribe, Nomad Soulmates, Digital Nomad Girls
Family / kid based communities and meetups
Long-term peer friendships for kids

travel logistics support

Anywhere Worker (with Family)	Cliche Digital Nomad	Companies
Need information on visas, allowable stay length, permissible work situations	Need information on visas, allowable stay length, permissible work situations	CapRelo, Expat Empire Consulting
Depending on price point, may have greater  need for concierge service to coordinate multiple travel legs, short term stays	Depending on price point, may have greater  need for concierge service to coordinate multiple travel legs, short term stays

insurance

Anywhere Worker (with Family)	Cliche Digital Nomad	Companies
Need for travel based insurance, accidents, dental, medical evacuation in some cases, and coverage during adventurous activities	Need for travel based insurance, accidents, dental, medical evacuation in some cases, and coverage during adventurous activities	InsuredNomads, SafetyWing, WorldNomads
Need complete coverage for the whole family

healthcare

Anywhere Worker (with Family)	Cliche Digital Nomad	Companies
Access to consistent high-quality care wherever the location	Access to consistent high-quality care wherever the location
Access to high- quality pediatric care

Admittedly, some of these issues may never be truly “solved” by technology or a new company. For example, imagine you’re moving to a new country with your family and kids for a while. Rather than downloading yet another app to plan your children’s meetups, you might prefer to be a bit more deliberately extroverted in order to find friends who have kids in the same age range as yours. In other cases, new business models (e.g. telehealth as access to high quality medical care) might provide legitimate solutions where none existed before.

But I think that the greater takeaway is that globally mobile workers aren’t one large monolithic block. There are some subsets of people within the larger group who identify with the digital nomad cliché, and there are others who don’t fit into that category at all. Additionally, the same solution, provided to differing groups, is valued differently—according to their respective pain points. For instance, during the pandemic, I noticed that single, younger travelers were on the lookout for the nicest Airbnb they could find between USD $1,500 and $2,500 per month. Meanwhile, families of 3 or 4 would routinely pay $3,000 or more for the same listing, if it was a good fit—because it was so much harder to find a place that everyone would enjoy.

If your business is building a new product or service for this demographic, I would recommend deeply researching their unmet needs. For example, it looks like this group needs access to high-quality healthcare wherever they are, but companies don’t seem to have explored this opportunity much yet. I struggled to find examples of telehealth companies that were servicing a globally mobile addressable market. Directly observing potential customer behavior goes a long way here because frequently, they don’t verbalize their unmet needs as issues to be solved when surveyed.

If you already have a business that makes a great product or service, I don’t think you should prematurely rush to pivot your offering to target this group. However, it also doesn’t make sense to dismiss the whole group as a fad. Take some time and see if your value proposition appeals to families vs singles, or anywhere workers vs digital nomads, and whether you can reinforce your differentiation somehow.

Remote work and Anywhere Workers are here to stay, and the group is more diverse than we realize. We can welcome them, serve them, and sell useful things to them without having to compromise our usual way of working with people and relating to people.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments, or feel free to email me at mark@hassell.tech to discuss. By the way, this is the first in a series I intend to write about “overlooked trends,” so let me know if you want to read the next one. :)

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Thank you to Iyinoluwa Aboyeji, Kevin Simmons, Robert Chen, Jeremy Nurse, Paul Williams and Khalil Bryan who all contributed to this post via wide-ranging conversations which inspired the topic. And special thanks to Ellen Fishbein for her tireless enthusiastic guidance on writing form and her patience during the editing process.