Michael,

That's definitely a struggle and after working remotely for 4 years, I'll say that it's hard. Prior to the Red Gate sale, I spoke 3-4 times a week with Andy, usually about business, but lots about just life, his issues at work, things I'd seen in the news, etc. We debated and argued about lots of things. We still do that, but probably once a week. We also got together probably twice a year, making sure we had at least a day before or after a conference, to talk about business.

With Red Gate, it's slightly more complex because of distance and time zones. We have a weekly meeting on the phone, which is good for keeping in touch, and the call usually includes some joking, social chat. We do have email, which is good, but it's not as good as the face to face. We met last summer in the UK and recently in Denver for 3 days. We'll also spend some time at TechEd and PASS, and potentially one other date.